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

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

Review Round Up

NPR trashes ::

"In certain writers, the sense of profound moral inquiry is like a bell tower in a country church: You can see it from a long way off, and even when it's not making a sound, you can hear its reverberation. William T. Vollmann's work is like that: Regardless of his subject, he writes from a place of grave moral seriousness. In his masterpiece, the 2005 novel Europe Central, he wrestled the 20th century into one huge, luminous tome that bristled with insight and dread.
"Which is why Vollmann's new book, a 32-piece assortment titled Last Stories and Other Stories, is such an enormous disappointment. The book is reputed to be a collection of ghost stories, and indeed there are talking skulls, rising vampires, scurrying witches, and statues that come to life. But except for two of the stories, these tales are pretentious and flabby and self-indulgent."
http://www.npr.org/2014/07/17/3323320...


A little video with Interview To Come ::
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/07/17/6563...


LA Times seems to always like Bill, even when it's not William the Blind doing the reviewing ::
"Every story leaves someone behind, and so loss in itself, whether violent or beautiful, becomes an unrelenting thematic constant. In another writer's hands this would seem like a gloomy trudge, but Vollmann invigorates the subject with folkloric swashbuckling bluster. He brings a sense of wanderlust even when meditating on fatality."
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketco...


And, if someone can keep their eye out for "....or a great one in our next issue by Tom Bissell, about William Vollmann." http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article... Which I think means that The New Republic has a review forthcoming.

This is an essay published in The Atlantic 16 July 2014.

'Writers Can Do Anything : William T. Vollmann, author of Last Stories and Other Stories, explains why he works by an assassin's credo: "Nothing is true; all is permissible." '

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainm...

Re: The Dying Grass ::

"This Assassin’s maxim was especially useful to me as I wrote the latest of my Seven Dreams series, called The Dying Grass, about the Nez Perce War of 1877. It was a very challenging project because I decided to invent what’s essentially a new form. You don’t read this book like other books: instead, as you read from left to right, the page works like a stage. The left-hand part of the page works like the forefront of the stage, and the right edge of the paper is the backdrop. And so, there might be conversations on the left hand on the page—and what people are actually thinking might occur in the center, and perhaps landscape descriptions appear in the back, or occasionally when they really strike somebody, they appear in the front. This approach gives the page a kind of dimensionality, multiple layers of foreground and background.
"An example: In one scene, my protagonist, General Howard, and his aide-de-camp walk through a battlefield—and there are all kinds of wounded, lying there, calling for help. There’s a cacophony of voices, spread across the page. One wounded confederate solider in particular is crying for help, way on the right hand side of the page, lost among all these other voices. But gradually, this voice moves farther and father to the left—and suddenly, it’s in the same column as the main characters’ dialogue. So the reader can see right away they’re engaging with this guy."

[more relevant comments in the essay]

This is an essay published in The Atlantic 16 July 2014.

'Writers Can Do Anything : William T. Vollmann, author of Last Stories and Other Stories, explains why he works by an assassin's credo: "Nothing is true; all is permissible." '

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainm...

"The last couple books I’ve written have had maximum-length provisions in the contracts. This had never happened before, but I couldn’t get them stricken from the contracts. So did the only thing I could: I just ignored them. This could mean that my book will be rejected, and I’ll have to pay my advance back, and a very unfortunate situation might develop. But I can’t let that outcome dictate what I want to do."

Lots of stuff here that might develop into a conversation. So, talk away. I'm cross=posting this also in The Dying Grass thread because he's got some Reveal about that forthcoming novel ; so comments about the novel can take place over there. Very intriguing!

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Bumping the Vollmann Summer 2014 Tour. See comments above in this thread for time/date/place."

Another bump. Bill is on a reading tour this week. Don't miss him. You'll wanna tell your grandkids about that time you met William T. Vollmann.

Jeff wrote: "the Washington Post reviewer is Scott Esposito of The Quarterly Conversation."

His name wasn't quite familiar. But mostly I was riffing on Bill's comment that his books are often not well received by the east coast organs ; but it's part of publishing politics I'm only familiar with obliquely.

Jeff wrote: "To where, Nathan?"

Um well, that's a bit awkward... ; )
But, um, fingers crossed?

Greg wrote: "Is anybody else going to a signing?"

I'll be flying stand=by! Wish me luck.

Bumping the Vollmann Summer 2014 Tour. See comments above in this thread for time/date/place.

Ashley wrote: "That is likely the case, but Imperial is DELIRIOUSLY good."

Yep. I'm expecting a systematic level of treatment like that found in RURD. The same kind of calculus could have been done for Poor People, but I think Bill found an adequate manner of excusing himself from imposing such a calculus upon poverty. Justifying poverty is certainly a greater mine field than the justification of violence.

Geoff wrote: "Imperial>Poor People."

That's my suspicion. And, you'll be happy to know :: RURD>Imperial. I suspect. : )

So Geoff just wrote a very excellent review for Poor People. And it occurred to me that, after RURD, this is perhaps my favorite non-fic from Vollmann (Imperial I've not read yet ; likewise the Copernicus book). So, the general question, how do you rate Poor People in comparison to Bill's other non-fic?

Much better ::

"William T. Vollmann's Words to Howl at Death"
By John L. Murphy

http://www.popmatters.com/review/1827...

Jeebez. Contrast those two WP & NYT reviews with the short blurb provided in PW's Pic of the Week ::

"Last Stories and Other Stories by William T. Vollmann (Viking) - In the note to the reader that opens this huge collection, Vollmann (Europe Central) states, “This is my final book. Any subsequent productions bearing my name will have been composed by a ghost.” Vollmann’s fiction has always defied easy categorization. Here, he straddles, twists, and morphs action-adventure, horror, political thriller, fantasy, and literary fiction. What gives the book coherence is his singular style: elaborate and picaresque, with a rich vocabulary, an abundance of long and loopy sentences, and an irresistible energy. He’s a yarn spinner, in the tradition of Lovecraft and Dinesin, and his subplots and digressions are woven elegantly into the main narratives. The 32 stories are grouped geographically for the most part. The three set in Bosnia and Herzegovina depict the horrors and insanity of war. The novella, “The Treasure of Jovo Cirtovich,” set in Trieste, combines religion, myth, and romance into an 18th-century high seas adventure. Mainstays of horror and the supernatural figure prominently, and it’s especially exciting to read these pop-fiction conventions treated with Vollmann’s narrative richness."
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by...

Gods! It's so simple people. (or is it just that I'm more prone to positive descriptions than petulant complaints?)

Geoff wrote: "Not a positive review from the Washington Post, either. But also not an insulting or unethical review.."

a) habits of amateur reviewing have leaked into paid=reviewing, replacing what had been to be their critical/interpretive function.

b) do any of the complaints (criticisms?) not have the "he should've written a different book and I'd rather not talk about the one he did write" vibe? --"what light it sheds on the ghost he describes are unclear" ; "arcane details feel like the ramblings of a storyteller overly pleased with himself" ; 'such writing is symptomatic of a self-indulgence on display throughout “Last Stories"' ; "is infamous for despising the editor’s red pen, and it seems that he was given much prerogative with this book" ; "no clear purpose and tedious digressions" ; " do we really need to know that...or be lectured on how..." ; "These excesses slow down the tales and kill their tension" ; "opens with 12 pages of mostly irrelevant throat-clearing before its main character is even mentioned" ; "full of uninteresting stock characters. Virtually every male is a charming, ne’er-do-well rogue, every woman either a raven-haired seductress or a chaste beauty ripe for sexual education" ; "the bulk of this long book lacks the drive of historical imperative or an absorbing subject". This reviewer has never read Tom Jones.

c) this is not Bill's last book ; do these reviewers not know how to read the following :: “This is my final book. Any subsequent productions bearing my name will have been composed by a ghost.”


Is it just me or is this another lazy, cookie-cutter review? We'll have to await a review from a not=Eastcoaster.

Joshua wrote: "Reading Fathers and Crows reminded me a great deal of the Memories of Fire trilogy by Eduardo Galeano."

Oh I think we do might have a candidate. And it's no small thing that this is the same guy made famous by a certain gift by a certain Hugo Chavez to a certain World Leader.

Mark wrote: "A good start to his fiction, which I'm just starting to plunge into. "

Nice! What's your next destination? My unsolicited rec today would be to wear The Ice-Shirt.

Richard wrote: "Man, that NYTimes review was awful! Agreed on the sexual hangups complaint"

It may be just me, but I'm developing the impression that NYT does not give books to reviewers who are already familiar with a given author's work ; (or, in this case, even competent to understand what is in front of them). And for proper critical interpretation one pretty much needs to know the whole body of work. The practice of NYT seems to be to give books to reviewers who have digested nothing but third and fourth hand rumors about an author their work. It's a pretty clear case here of what might be called unethical reviewing.

Ashley wrote: "I was reminded of why I cannot trust the New York Times this morning. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/boo..."

Wish they wouldn't give Bill's books to reviewers who are obsessed with sex sex sex.

Friend and Vollmanniac David has three very nice Vollmann reviews post'd which are recieving not=much enough attention.

The Royal Family
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

You Bright and Risen Angels
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Rainbow Stories
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The PW blurb=sized review ::

"In the note to the reader that opens this huge collection, Vollmann (Europe Central) states, “This is my final book. Any subsequent productions bearing my name will have been composed by a ghost.” Vollmann’s fiction has always defied easy categorization. Here, he straddles, twists, and morphs action-adventure, horror, political thriller, fantasy, and literary fiction. What gives the book coherence is his singular style: elaborate and picaresque, with a rich vocabulary, an abundance of long and loopy sentences, and an irresistible energy. He’s a yarn spinner, in the tradition of Lovecraft and Dinesin, and his subplots and digressions are woven elegantly into the main narratives. The 32 stories are grouped geographically for the most part. The three set in Bosnia and Herzegovina depict the horrors and insanity of war. The novella, “The Treasure of Jovo Cirtovich,” set in Trieste, combines religion, myth, and romance into an 18th-century high seas adventure. Mainstays of horror and the supernatural figure prominently, and it’s especially exciting to read these pop-fiction conventions treated with Vollmann’s narrative richness. Related stories “The Faithful Wife” and “Doroteja,” both set in Bohemia, feature a ghost and a vampire, respectively. The longest piece in the book, “When We Were Seventeen,” is set in the U.S.; it’s a sweeping and sensuous tale of lust and longing, featuring a witch. Here’s hoping that Vollmann changes his mind about this being the end. "
http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0...