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

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

Optimism about The Dying Grass appearing within our life times would seem to have found itself shot in the frequently-proverbed foot. From The Millions:

"The Dying Grass by William T. Vollmann: The fifth of Vollmann’s Seven Dreams books to appear, The Dying Grass will most likely not see print until summer of 2015, according to his editor. First up is Last Stories, a collection of ghost stories slated to hit bookstores next year. Assuming there still are bookstores next year. (Garth)" http://www.themillions.com/2013/01/mo...

Which is fine to have Last Stories next year, but is it true that for a second year in a row we'll have no new Vollmann? (but too since Forbidden Zone can't count as an honest man's book, this'll be year three in which no Book of Life has come down unto us. But, lo.) But that fact would award us with many months in which to make some tracks in his other books. To the bookery!

Jonfaith wrote: "I can swear I read a compact survey of such from you lately. "

Oh, right. Was it this: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...? Eden, even without having read it, I'd much more highly recommend.

Jonfaith wrote: "I may seek professional assistance. "

A book, any book, but especially a Vollmann book, will suffice as a more affordable recourse than professionals. I think once one has had a Vollmann conversion experience, Eden becomes a necessity. But I've not even flicked through it yet.

Brian--take a look at Hadrian's review and status updates on his reading of the whole unabridged RURD. Also, next time yer at your village bookshop, check in about Vollmann doing a reading when The Dying Grass gets released later this year. I've got my fingers crossed about a book tour. [and totally cool that you've got book shop people who know about Bill's books and react appropriately!]

Jonfaith wrote: "I'm going back to the well. It will be soon. Nathan's quips about the Eden WTV Reader sound exciting. Tht may prompt an examination of Atlas, the Train book or perhpas imperial. I was actually thin..."

Did I quip on the Reader? Probably. I've finally got it making its way into my dirty hands. Essential reading for me I've put off too long. I think The Atlas has some of his Serbia material in it. Not sure. Imperial to Serbia? Don't airlines have weight restrictions these days?

I collected a bunch of interview links in my review of William T. Vollmann: A Critical Study and Seven Interviews. For ease of reference, here they are again.

Part II:Seven Conversations
1. Moth to the Flame, with Larry McCaffery, 1991. Collected also in McCaffery’s Some Other Frequency: Interviews with Innovative American Authors, portions of which are available at google books (as are those of our present volume).

[not included] RCF #13.2, interview with Lary MCaffery, 1993.
http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/book/?fa...

2. The Write Stuff 7 ALT-X Interview with AL, 1994.
http://www.altx.com/int2/william.t.vo...

3. Vollmann Shares Vision, with Michelle Goldberg, 2000.
http://www.alternet.org/story/9977/au...

[not included] the Paris Review #163, interview with Madison Smartt Bell, 2000.
http://www.theparisreview.org/intervi...

4. Pattern Recognitions, with Larry McCaffery, 2001.

[not included] Interview with Alexander Laurence, 2001.
http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/may_2...

5. Drinks With Tony, interview with Tony Dushane, 2005.
http://www.bookslut.com/features/2005...

6. The Subversive Dialogues, with Kate Braverman, 2006.

7. A Day At William T. Vollmann’s Studio, interview with Terri Saul regarding Vollmann’s book-objects and visual art works, 2007.
http://quarterlyconversation.com/will...

Also included in this Hemmingson volume are a Vollmann bibliography complete through 2008/9, and an important Appendix, “CoTangent Press Book Arts” in which Vollmann’s limited edition book-object productions are described.

_______________
Extra from yers truly: Larry McCarffery discussing Vollmann at MLA 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iNpUF...

And the Vollmann Club has a few more links:
http://www.edrants.com/wtv/

Here’s the Vollmann Archive at Ohio State University:
http://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/r...



____________
The Rain Taxi review of our present volume:
http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2010sp...


[Please let me know if any links are busted]

Stephen wrote: "If he crossed dressed as a stunt to provide myth and legend, sell books, not so o.k. If it was a personal expression of a part of himself I have nothing but respect for the man. I don't know much..."

He's not really very interested in selling books. Just keeping editors from slashing them to ribbons. But the cross dressing I assume you refer to would have been part of his research for Kissing the Mask. I don't think it's personal expression, either. Vollmann has a tendency to put himself within the location of what he's writing, like getting frost bite at the north pole while researching The Rifles to understand what the crew of that first Northern passage must have experienced. His visiting of whores is also largely research. The man will die for his books.

I love this book, but my preferred book critic and full-time Vollmann promoter, Steven Moore, would seem to have preferred not to have read it. Reminds me a bit of Knig's experience.
http://www.stevenmoore.info/vollmannr... (scroll down)

A collection of Steven Moore's Vollmann reviews, from Rainbow to Expelled from Eden:

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

Stephen wrote: "Any thoughts on my first Vollmann being, The Royal Family?"

I say "yep." But that's no surprise. It's far and away my favorite of his whore novels. And incredibly sad. But I also think its very readable and has less difficulty about it compared perhaps to his other books.

Friend Louis-Jean has a concise, precisely stated thesis about The Royal Family in his review which I think fully locates the core of "what it's about."
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Eric wrote: "From Expelled From Eden:
http://biblioklept.org/2011/09/24/wil...
Prodded by Mr. McCaffery, producing thus."

Thanks for the reminder, Eric. I just made a mess of my feed by adding all those damn books. I wonder how many of them are good.

Traveller wrote: "Why does Vollman look so different in every photo i see of him."

I think it varies with his then disease-of-the-month.

Traveller wrote: "Is The Ice-shirt in a similar style?"

Argall is the only one written in Elizabethian English. The Ice-Shirt is written in the style of the Icelandic Sagas. EC was his big seller, but I've not read it yet. My impression is that it is well received. Friend Jimmy interviewed Bill at the time of release of Kissing the Mask: http://www.powells.com/blog/interview...

Keep us up to date with your impressions.

Aloha wrote: " I like gritty or more of a serious tone in my novels"

Then Vollmann would suit your cup of fiction. [but Imperial is non-; although written with a novelist's pen] Closest thing to HoL might be You Bright and Risen Angels.

Aloha wrote: "Imperial looks interesting to me since I used to live in California."

I have it on my shelf, but I'm not sure how soon I'll be picking through another fat non-fiction work. It should be rather fantastic.

Eric wrote: "and do you really think it's coming out in 2013?"

The Poison Shirt, not. But The Dying Grass is slated for 2013. His collection of ghost stories for 2014. I don't have any knowledge of the status of the final two Dream volumes.

From wikipedia via William T. Vollmann: A Critical Study and Seven Interviews:

Volume 4: The Poison Shirt (unpublished), either "concerning the Puritans vs. King Philip of Rhode Island," or Captain Cook's voyage to Hawaii. [17th or 18th cent.]

From wikipedia via Expelled From Eden:

"Volume 7: The Cloud-Shirt (unpublished), "Navajo vs. Hopi (or possibly Navajo vs. oil company) in Arizona." [20th cent.]"

Also, Grand Street has published an excerpt:
http://www.grandstreet.com/gsissues/g...

WTV says, introductorily:
"The following is excerpted from the final volume of my Seven Dreams series. This book deals with a very complicated dispute between a number of parties. In the interests of fairness I want to state the obvious: namely, that what appears here in Grand Street is most in sympathy with the Navajo point of view. In my book, the Hopi Nation, the U. S. government, and Peabody Coal will also have their day. This being said, however, I affirm the accuracy of what follows. Much of what you are about to read is taken almost word for word from public records."

I've posted my Butterfly review:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I hope that it will be read as notes toward the question of what it means to read Vollmann as a moral fictioneer. Any thoughts or take-downs are welcome.

Two bits of Bill's literary orientation that I know about but have still not read:

The surrealism:
Maldoror & the Complete Works of the Comte de Lautréamont

The Nordic sagas:
The Sagas of Icelanders

These two literary sources combined with a journalistic objectivity (obviously schooled somehow in the New Journalism) I submit accounts for Bill having been able to sidestep the hand-wringing about irony which we see DFW doing so much of the time; that Vollmann successfully made it over the abyss to post-postmodernism.