William T Vollmann Central discussion
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The Dying Grass
Seven Dreams
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2015 The Dying Grass (Seven Dreams #5)
My comment seems especially wrong when I think that I just recently read an section of like 8 pages describing a Nez Perce retreat that was pretty much one sentence!
I think the formatting is an attempt by Vollmann to help readers unpack those long sentences, which would otherwise be almost incomprehensible at times. People aren't going to read an 8-page one-sentence paragraph. The Dying Grass is more straightforward in ways than the previous Dreams, despite its length. I think it's all the better for the approach he's taken to a complicated subject, trying to make a loooong book for digestible.
I've finished the Dream and am into the Dinosaurs and Cycads coda. This is Vollmann's masterpiece -- if he ever wins the Nobel, it will be primarily because of this book, which would seem to be everything the Nobel committee has been wanting from an American author but supposedly not finding.
I don't think it's fair to call what Vollmann does "sentences" in the traditional sense. Word rivers of word streams seem like a better descriptions. Words that take the reader on a journey freed from the schoolmarm rules of grammar.
I don't think it's fair to call what Vollmann does "sentences" in the traditional sense. Word rivers or word streams seem like a better descriptions. Words that take the reader on a journey freed from the schoolmarm rules of grammar.
Tom wrote: "I think the formatting is an attempt by Vollmann to help readers unpack those long sentences, which would otherwise be almost incomprehensible at times. People aren't going to read an 8-page one-se..."I don't see Vollmann ever winning a Nobel. That prize won't be going to an American white male any time soon based on recent trends. I'm not saying that others aren't as or more worthy, just that he isn't what they're looking for. Here's an interesting article from 2012 on the subject.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisf...
Trying to link the 2015 odds
https://m.ladbrokes.com/en-gb/#!event...
I finally read those two reviews in LARB. Both excellent! In general, I'm really a bit surprised at the seemingly unanimously positive reception The Dying Grass has received ; especially after the flop of Last Stories.Holdstock's review ::
https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/th...
Coffman's review ::
https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/ma...
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "I finally read those two reviews in LARB. Both excellent! In general, I'm really a bit surprised at the seemingly unanimously positive reception The Dying Grass has received ; especially after th..."yes - as I said before, hopefully such a positive response will translate into sales and the publication of more books from WTV
Yes, with the exception of NYT, the reviews have been very good. But how this will translate to book sales is unknown. I was at Powell's Books in Portland over the weekend and they had copies on the shelves, but it's an unfortunate fact that more readers will prefer books with the guiding Hollywood faces to the The Dying Grass. I have this feeling the book will be much admired but not often read. Reading the book is a literary equivalent of an Iron Man Triathlon.
Greg wrote: "Yes, with the exception of NYT, the reviews have been very good. But how this will translate to book sales is unknown. I was at Powell's Books in Portland over the weekend and they had copies on t..."I'm surprised the book hasn't been reviewed even more widely -- the daily NYT did not review the book (they have reviewed a lot of trivial works instead over the past month, like a bottom-of-the-barrel miscellany of Charles Bukowski writings on writing. The NY Review of Books and The New Yorker haven't reviewed it. Perhaps this is all for the best, since I can't see Kakutani or Garner giving it an endorsement and I don't even want to think about what James Woods would say in The New Yorker -- "hysterical realism blah blah blah."
And it IS quite a task to read -- it took me three weeks and I probably read it faster than I should have.
Hey all,The Brain Pain group will start discussing The Dying Grass next Monday, August 31st. I won't be joining the discussion because I haven't got the book, but you are all welcome to join in with Zad and the others. I'll post the discussion threads next Monday morning.
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Because you are reading The Dying Grass, you may also enjoy:A Moment in the Sun
Die Dämonen
The Brunist Day of Wrath
Cannonball
LETTERS
The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears: The Penguin Library of American Indian History series
The Hour of Lead
Animalinside
Plus anything that is long, or that Nathan has read or considered reading, or that has cowboys or injuns in it.
Zadignose wrote: "Because you are reading The Dying Grass, you may also enjoy:"And if you've read too much Vollmann already, he's created a few fantastic lists of his own reading. The most recent ::
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/boo...
His list of favorite "contemporary" books (from 1990), from Expelled from Eden, which I've done up for your convenience (but if you're already this deep into Vollmann you already have Eden) ::
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And there's a recent interview in which he rambles off a few sci-fi/fantasy titles he's enjoyed lately.
Just occurred to me.... "Very Beautiful and Almost Automatic" is the piece of technology I was asking about above ; in so far as there's a thing about technology running through these Dreams. Today we might speak of a 'military machine'.
Good observation; or even - the notion of ProgressOn another note, today I flipped through my Fagle translation of the Odyssey randomly, and the language is so similar to the Nez Perce sections of this...
http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/show...The man himself talking with Michael Silverblatt on KCRW's Bookworm. Haven't listened to it yet, but their interviews are normally interesting. (Apologies if this isn't new here).
Russell wrote: "http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/show...The man himself talking with Michael Silverblatt on KCRW's Bookworm. Haven't listened to it yet, but their..."
Russels's the man! I usually have to wait a year until I get the book read to listen to these. They're pretty great.
The Dying Grass long=listed for the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction ::http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/carne...
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "The Dying Grass long=listed for the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction ::http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/carne..."
Cool!
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "The Dying Grass long=listed for the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction ::http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/carne..."
That's great news!
It's especially thrilling to see this since it was snubbed by the National Book Awards. I expect it will be nominated for several other awards.
this is really really weird to be heard and not read. What a disconnect.
Hmmm... I never looked into this before, but do voice actors develop specialties, or do they get typecast? I just browsed through titles narrated by that voice actor, and while he's done what looks like heaps of action-crap, he's also done several books with themes related to Indians, Indian Wars, and Settling the West, including Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond, The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675, Custer, Little Big Man, and Warrior's Blood.
Griffin wrote: "this is really really weird to be heard and not read. What a disconnect."My thoughts too ; but unfair for me to have them since I think audiobooks are weird to begin with. But the novel is very oral, so the idea at least makes sense to me.
@Zadignose -- yes, I thought his voice had that wild west timbre to it ; which, my humble opinion, is the wrong way to go with this novel.
A new review by Casey Sanchez of the Santa Fe-New Mexican ::http://www.santafenewmexican.com/pasa...
Just checking in . . . still chugging along, crossing 800 page "medicine line" last night. Busy with work, etc but loving this book immensely! Such an amazing addition to 7 dreams stylistically. Each one so different. Dare I say I'll one day re-read this one because I'm enjoying it so much, but piecemeal. I am astounded that a man can discipline himself to write not only this book (a book of a lifetime) but Rising Up, Rising Down series, Royal Family, Europe Central, Fathers & Crows, Argall, etc etc. Unbelievable (his wife must be very, very understanding). The energy and commitment to put this together is just mind-blowing. Spending lots of time reading endnotes and finding interesting things there to look into along the way. Never mind, onwards to the end, however sad and depressing. (Oh God, I still have Imperial to read one day!!!)
Chris wrote: "Just checking in . . . still chugging along, crossing 800 page "medicine line" last night. Busy with work, etc but loving this book immensely! Such an amazing addition to 7 dreams stylistically. Ea..."I'm happy you're enjoying it. The Dying Grass is one of the most remarkable books I've ever read. I'm sad it has received little attention in the larger literary community -- most of the newspaper reviews were strong, but it has been ignored in places like the NY Review of Books. It should also be showing up on awards ballots. I know that what V's doing is terribly unfashionable right now -- it's certainly not MFA-approved fiction.
I'm currently slogging through Royal Family. First book of his I've been rather bored with. I'm past the half-way mark and for some reason it has shifted stylistically and now I'm enjoying it again. After that though I do hope to tackle The Dying Grass.And Imperial.
Alexander wrote: "And Imperial."Now that's the slog. I mean, I absolutely adored my slog through it. But it's a slog. The Dying Grass is decidedly not a slog...
Alexander wrote: "I'm currently slogging through Royal Family. First book of his I've been rather bored with. I'm past the half-way mark and for some reason it has shifted stylistically and now I'm enjoying it again..."Royal Family's pretty dark and gritty, not always enjoyable, I agree. But in a way, it might be the one book of his that I've read anyway, that most encapsulates his favorite themes and writing style. I heard him say that this book, and The Rifles were his favorites to write.
Chris wrote: "Alexander wrote: "I'm currently slogging through Royal Family. First book of his I've been rather bored with. I'm past the half-way mark and for some reason it has shifted stylistically and now I'm..."The Rifles is by far my favourite by him. Uncategorizable, that book.
just fyi -- the pb of The Dying Grass is slated for July 26, '16. For US$35 ; which is the current amazon price for the hd.
I'm not sure I've ever seen a $35 paperback, except for maybe a university press item or textbook. Still, with discounting, Amazon will probably sell it for about $20.
I am sure that like most of Bill's big ones, the hardcover will become a $10 grab on abebooks in no time.
Tom wrote: "I'm not sure I've ever seen a $35 paperback, except for maybe a university press item or textbook. Still, with discounting, Amazon will probably sell it for about $20."Like the hd's price reflecting the publisher's lack of confidence, I think the pb's price reflects how poorly it sold. And not due to page=count/difficulty.
A nice write up on The Dying Grass. Includes an alternate reading order and recording of Bill reading in Seattle ::"The writer we deserve"
http://seattlereviewofbooks.com/revie...
New project I've been assigned here for work at the National Archives? The Court of Claims records for Joseph's Band of the Nez Perce Indians. Hell yes. Get to go through the entire record of his claims against the US gov. Pretty cool.
Geoff wrote: "New project I've been assigned here for work at the National Archives? The Court of Claims records for Joseph's Band of the Nez Perce Indians. Hell yes. Get to go through the entire record of his c..."Indeed pretty cool.
A recent nicely done blog=review of The Dying Grass ::"Blind Vision – The Dying Grass"
https://yswriting.wordpress.com/2016/...
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "A recent nicely done blog=review of The Dying Grass ::"Blind Vision – The Dying Grass"
https://yswriting.wordpress.com/2016/..."
That was well done
Definitely. Great review.
The Dying Grass is $4.99 on Kindle at the moment.
Chris wrote: "The Dying Grass is $4.99 on Kindle at the moment."Support your local independent bookstore by buying from them when you can.
Chris wrote: "Chris wrote: "The Dying Grass is $4.99 on Kindle at the moment."Support your local independent bookstore by buying from them when you can."
Like Vollmann, my vision isn't good enough to drive, otherwise, I'd be at an indie bookstore everyday. Outside of the one I work at that is.
I interviewed Mr. Vollmann about The Dying Grass on Portland's KBOO Community Radio. He provides some great background on the writing of the book and how to read it given the unique page layout. It's archived on our website if you'd like to download/stream online:https://kboo.fm/media/41840-dying-gra...
Also talked with him the previous year on his book of "short" fiction Last Stories & Other Stories:
https://kboo.fm/media/35338-interview...
William T Vollmann Central
Books mentioned in this topic
Custer (other topics)Little Big Man (other topics)
The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675 (other topics)
Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond (other topics)
Warrior's Blood (other topics)
More...
All the same, I know what you mean when you say what you say. There are several typical Dream elements which have taken second chair to other (I want more of William the Blind!), newer stuff. But remember, his conception of these Dreams has changed over the past 25 years, especially with no new Dream since 2001.