Nathan "N.R."’s Comments (group member since Oct 28, 2012)

Nathan "N.R."’s comments from the William T Vollmann Central group.

Geoff wrote: "Oh wow- thanks for the info!"

Was about to finally pester the Editor about a release date ;; and low, thaar she blar!!

The price is a bitch. It'd be a good idea to immediately get this under the nose of your Local Librarian, Purchaser ;; likely they'd appreciate the head's up.

William T. Vollmann: A Critical Companion will be pub'd on October the First.

_____________________
The editor says ::
Daniel Lukes, of New York University, and I assembled a collection of essays on the work of William T. Vollmann. I also penned the volume's Introduction, and the book has been accepted for publication by The University of Delaware Press. It is due to appear later this year.
Because Vollmann's reputation is as complex and provocative as his works, we decided to include not only the usual sorts of scholarly chapters, but also short "interchapters" by non-scholars who, because they are either also artists (creative writers, actors, filmmakers, and so forth) or figures with some professional or personal connection to Vollmann (his book designers, friends, translators, and so forth), could offer us some particularly helpful insights regarding the man and his writing and art.
https://bu.digication.com/ccoffman/Vo...

___________________
The ToC ::

Contents

Foreword: The Chrysanthemum and the Flame Thrower
Larry McCaffery

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Lonely Atoms
Christopher K. Coffman

I. Engaging People, Space and Place

Chapter 1: Egalitarian Longings: The Problem with Pity and the Search for Equality in Poor People
Aaron D. Chandler

Interchapter: The World According to William T. Vollmann
Heather Corcoran

Chapter 2: The Poetics and Politics of Zoning, Mythography, and Mestizo Space in Imperial Michael K. Walonen

Interchapter: Vollmann in Russia: On Poor People
Mariya Gusev

Chapter 3: William T. Vollmann’s Search for Truth and Community in Participative Research
Georg Bauer

Intechapter: Palm Trees
Michael Glawogger

II. Engaging Narratives: History, Historiography, Ethics

Chapter 4: Vollmann’s Argall-Text: Neo-Elizabethan Form and the Literalist Past in Seven Dreams
Buell Wisner

Interchapter: Vollmann between the Covers
Carla Bolte

Chapter 5: Writing Europe: Death, History, and the Intersecting Intellectual Worlds of William T. Vollmann and Danilo Kiš
John K. Cox

Chapter 6: Kurt Gerstein and the Tragic Parable of ‘Clean Hands’: The Imaginative Role of Fiction in the Moral Calculus of William T. VollmannBryan M. Santin

Interchapter: Reading Rising Up and Rising Down
James Franco

Chapter 7: The New Universalism and William T. Vollmann’s Rising Up and Rising Down
Okla Elliott

III. Power, Sex, Politics

Chapter 8: Our Oriental Heritage: Seeking the Postcolonial Postmodern in William T. Vollmann’s You Bright and Risen Angels
Miles Liebtag

Interchapter : Piss Lime Vitriol
Jordan A. Rothacker

Chapter 9: William T. Vollmann’s Paradigms of Power
Joshua C. Jensen

Interchapter: The Shattered Object: On Representation versus Self-Representation and Becoming Whole
Melissa Petro

Chapter 10: ‘Strange Hungers’: William T. Vollmann’s Literary Performances of Abject Masculinity
Daniel Lukes

Interchapter: A Friendship
Jonathan Franzen

IV. Methods and Mores: Texts, Paratexts, Aesthetics

Interchapter: William T. Vollmann: Artist’s Books
Priscilla Juvelis

Chapter 11: Imperial Photography
Françoise Palleau-Papin

Interchapter: Against All Loss: On Kissing the Mask
Mary Austin Speaker

Chapter 12: The Ethics of the Archive and the William T. Vollmann Collection
Geoffrey D. Smith

Afterword: Beyond the Book: William T. Vollmann’s End Matter (Appendices, Glossaries and Extra Texts)
Michael Hemmingson

Bibliography
Index
About the Contributors
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781611495102


___________________
The publisher says ::
The essays in this collection make a case for regarding William T. Vollmann as the most ambitious, productive, and important living author in the US. His oeuvre not only includes outstanding work in numerous literary genres, but also global reportage, ethical treatises, paintings, photographs, and many other productions. His reputation as a daring traveler and his fascination with life on the margins have earned him an extra-literary renown unequaled in our time. Perhaps most importantly, his work is exceptional in relation to the literary moment. Vollmann is a member of a group of authors who are responding to the skeptical ironies of postmodernism with a reinvigoration of fiction's affective possibilities and moral sensibilities, but he stands out even among this cohort for his prioritization of moral engagement, historical awareness, and geopolitical scope. Included in this book in addition to twelve scholarly critical essays are reflections on Vollmann by many of his peers, confidantes, and collaborators, including Jonathan Franzen, James Franco, and Michael Glawogger. With a preface by Larry McCaffery and an afterword by Michael Hemmingson, this book offers readings of most of Vollmann's works, includes the first critical engagements with several key titles, and introduces the work of several foreign Vollmann scholars to American audiences.
October 2014 ISBN: 978-1611495102 $90.00
http://www2.lib.udel.edu/udpress/titl...

Vollmann appearance at Singapore Writers Festival ::

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/lifes...

&

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/lifes...

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "A collection of Steven Moore's Vollmann reviews, from Rainbow to Expelled from Eden:

http://www.stevenmoore.info/vollmannr..."

Bumping this Moore=link just for the atch eee double toothpick of it.

Hadrian wrote: "A video interview with a Mr. Tom Bissell, who was a failed editor for RURD."

Nice!

So I had heard rumors but no one (!) posted links. A recent two part interview on Bookworm with Silverblatt ::
http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/show...

Direct'er links ::
Part I :: http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/show...
Part II :: http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/show...

Russell wrote: "Finished this one not long ago; firmly placed itself on my favourites list. I loved it."

Not that I can rank Bill's books much, but if you love this one, you've got a whole lot of good stuff to look forward to! But, yeah, this one in particular.

Larissa wrote: "This may not be the BEST place for this review, as it discusses a great deal of Vollmann's life and work, not just The Book of Dolores. Very pleasant, expansive piece."

Finally read it. Very nice. Nothing really new, but very nice.

Greg wrote: "The York Times Book Review has a very favorable review by Kate Bernheimer this week. I have the Kindle edition (thus no link) but it is out there on the web, probably."

Oh yes I finally read it. A loving review which is such a freshness of air. Very nice.

Eric wrote: "Ah, knickers. Missed that L.A. one....!!!"

Yeah I only announced it like six times!!

I've got my fingers crossed for a serious series of appearances next summer for The Dying Grass.

Greg wrote: "The York Times Book Review has a very favorable review by Kate Bernheimer this week. I have the Kindle edition (thus no link) but it is out there on the web, probably."

Yes thanks. Link'd ::
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/boo...

Larissa wrote: "This may not be the BEST place for this review, as it discusses a great deal of Vollmann's life and work, not just The Book of Dolores. Very pleasant, expansive piece."

Oh yes many thanks don't think I've seen this one!

Larissa wrote: "Yep. It goes on and on."

Dreary dross=drips of this sort is exactly what the internet is for!!(!) [and i think maybe that guy needs an editor. a paper shredder.] tl;dr

Hadrian wrote: "The Public Burning?

Definitely a clash of cultures - Uncle Sam versus the Phantom (of Communism - and the role of technology - radio/television/advertising."

Nope! We need something more like Conqueror and Conquered ; The clash of Cap & Com is more like the equal but opposite clashing of irresistibles and immovables. Also perhaps we would require a longer time scheme.

So, Lee Siegel apparently wrote a "takedown" of The Royal Family back in 2001, for The New Republic. It appears to be unavailable on the webs. Here is Scott Esposito's response to Siegel ::

"Picking on Vollmann"
"Again, Siegel is erecting straw men, but this time there is an added twist. In The Royal Family, Vollmann is attempting to make his whores human, to make them comprehensible to the rest of us and let us see the humanity that exists in them. Siegel has taken Vollmann’s sincere (and successful) attempt to reveal the humanity of San Francisco’s whores and caricatured it, saying that he is being insanely honest and propping up a cliched stereotype: The whore with the heart of gold. He is doing nothing of the sort."
http://conversationalreading.com/pick...

Back in 2005 Vollmann reviewed a biography Friedrich Nietzsche by Curtis Cate. Fluff erupted.

We'll start with two posts by Scott Esposito (cf also his recent review of Last Stories) ::
"Vollmann on Nietzsche"
http://conversationalreading.com/voll...
[the Gass review, I'm almost certain, has been collected in book=form]
And a follow=up ::
"Vollmann Controversy"
http://conversationalreading.com/voll...

And back to rough chronology ::

The Review by Vollmann ::
"'Friedrich Nietzsche': The Constructive Nihilist"
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/boo...

Brian Leiter's objection ::
"Who is William T. Vollmann and Why Did the NY Times Invite Him to Write about Nietzsche?"
http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog...

Response to Leiter by Edward Champion ::
"Who is Brian Leiter (And Who Really Cares) and Why Did He Invite Himself to Write a Bitter Blog Post?"
http://www.edrants.com/who-is-brian-l...

Scott McLemee thing. (He might still be resenting spend six weeks in RURD for a review) ::
"Will to Power"
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/m...

I've not read through it all yet. But you might because it's Monday! Also, there are perhaps a few more links floating around relevant to this convo ;; freely provide them below if you they strike your fancy!

A not altogether enthusiastic review by Scott McLemee in the NYT from 2004 ::

"While his convoluted philosophizing suggests a deep ambivalence about the legitimacy of violence, the prose itself suggests that Vollmann's effort to create a moral system is actually a pretext for exploring his fascination with the aesthetic dimensions of carnage and its instruments. Either form of contemplation (moral or aesthetic) renders weapons and corpses into emblems of ultimate truth. ''The real aim of violence,'' he writes, ''is to conquer, direct, instruct, mark, warn, punish, injure, suppress, reduce, destroy or obliterate the consciousness within the body.'' He describes the uncanny fascination of gazing upon a corpse -- ''something with my form and shape'' but with ''no volition to give it buoyancy.''"
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/07/boo...

Another fresh review. This one from a gr'er, Joe ::
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

"With this big collection of ghost stories, Vollmann haunts the literary territory Henry James explored in "The Turn of the Screw," Charles Dickens in "A Christmas Carol" and, more recently, the prolific Joyce Carol Oates in "More Tales Than I Care to Count." Don't let my mention of James, Dickens or Oates fool you - Vollmann is Franz Kafka. He's William Burroughs and Thomas Pynchon skinny-dipping in a post-postmodern Vollmannesque ectoplasm."
http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/L...

James wrote: "Thanks. That led me down a windy road of some other biblioklept Vollmann material, which I enjoyed. "

Oh yes nice stuff there. Here's a direct link to his Vollmann=tag ::

http://biblioklept.org/tag/william-t-...