Interviews, links, websources

[Nathan "N.R."]

Please post links here for general articles regarding and interviews with Bill. For book-specific items, please post them in the relevant thread, but leave them here as well if you desire. Be sure to give us some kind of description of your link, perhaps a representative paragraph excerpt; bibliographic info; that kind of stuff--it's very Vollmann-esque to do so.

[Geoff]

An interesting article/profile in the NY Times from 1994:

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/06/mag...

[[deleted user]]

Cool audio-interview (on-tour for Europe Central):

http://www.drinkswithtony.com/william...

The "Drinks with Tony" links seem to have been removed; but the Segments (1-4) can still be downloaded.

[[deleted user]]

These are always important, and not to be missed. Bill's Paris Review interview:

http://www.theparisreview.org/intervi...

[Geoff]

Thanks for the links, Eric! About to read the Paris Review interview.

[Pete]

Thanks man, great stuff.

[Nathan "N.R."]

From the Max bio of DFW.

DFW & WTV at dinner:

"In person, though, Vollmann was too odd for the fundamentally bourgeois Wallace. The two had had dinner that spring in New York with Brad Morrow, and afterward Wallace reported to Moore that his counterpart was 'more than a bubble off plumb--prefers bloody venison and chocolate cake washed down with Stout for supper, speaks easily of blow-jobs and cooze while we're eating.' Franzen, the more conventional of the two and a midwesterner, was the better match for Wallace." (p130)

[Nathan "N.R."]

A Recipe from Our Man in the Arctic

William T. Vollmann’s Caribou, Arctic Canada style

1. Kill a caribou, butcher it, and cut the meat into handy 5- or 10-pound chunks.
2. Freeze until needed.
3. Take a hunk of the raw frozen meat and put it on a piece of cardboard on the kitchen floor.
4. Kneel down and chop off a handful of flakes and splinters, using a nice sharp hatchet.
5. Dip in inukpo (seal fat, frozen to the consistency of jelly).
6. Eat.

http://www.flavorwire.com/312606/how-...
[good gods--franzen's recipe is for "pasta with kale." i hate this man. his recipe is now my declared reason for notevernever reading his books.]

[Pete]

It's pretty strange to even think of, but apparently Vollmann and Franzen have been good friends for years.

[[deleted user]]

Vollmann's gone soft. That's what happens when you marry (x) and rear a daughter (y).

[Nathan "N.R."]

Pete wrote: "It's pretty strange to even think of, but apparently Vollmann and Franzen have been good friends for years."

I hadn't heard about that. I make no apologies for my interest in author-celebrity gossip. ; )

[Nathan "N.R."]

Eric wrote: "Vollmann's gone soft. That's what happens when you marry (x) and rear a daughter (y)."

You mean this, right?

"'They Just Want to Look in the Mirror'; William T. Vollmann Becomes a Woman"
http://www.vice.com/read/they-just-wa...

[[deleted user]]

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Eric wrote: "Vollmann's gone soft. That's what happens when you marry (x) and rear a daughter (y)."

You mean this, right?

"'They Just Want to Look in the Mirror'; William T. Vollmann Becomes a W..."

Yes, I suppose that's what I meant.

[Pete]

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Pete wrote: "It's pretty strange to even think of, but apparently Vollmann and Franzen have been good friends for years."

I hadn't heard about that. I make no apologies for my interest in author-..."

Oh yeah, I'm a total hypocrite when it comes to gossip. I will sneer at anyone who cares about the Lohans, and then will totally dig into any tales I can find on Franzen, DeLillo, Wallace, etc.

[Pete]

Eric wrote: "Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Eric wrote: "Vollmann's gone soft. That's what happens when you marry (x) and rear a daughter (y)."

You mean this, right?

"'They Just Want to Look in the Mirror'; William T..."

I actually just finished "Kissing the Mask", the book for which he trannied up. It wasn't all that great of a read.

[Nathan "N.R."]

Pete wrote: "Oh yeah, I'm a total hypocrite when it comes to gossip. I will sneer at anyone who cares about the Lohans, and then will totally dig into any tales I can find on Franzen, DeLillo, Wallace, etc. "

We are on the same hypocritical page. "But it's about literature!" I say, self-justifyingly.

[Geoff]

That picture of Vollmann as a woman did nothing good for me today.

[Nathan "N.R."]

Geoff wrote: "That picture of Vollmann as a woman did nothing good for me today."

hardcore.

[Luke]

The fact that he's crossdressed just made him a lot cooler in my mind.

[Hadrian]

That is very Vollmann. Write about something by experiencing it.

[Pete]

Aubrey wrote: "The fact that he's crossdressed just made him a lot cooler in my mind."


It is kind of impressive. Many writers (Hemingway, HST) have done extreme things in the name of their writing, but I like how Vollmann doesn't restrict himself to the hardcore/masculine stuff.

[Jimmy]

Just discovered this group. Many of you have probably already seen this, but I interviewed Vollmann a few years ago after he published Kissing the Mask. One of my fondest memories of that job was of one of the new book buyers placing an AR of that book in my hand months before its release.

http://www.powells.com/blog/interview...

[Nathan "N.R."]

Jimmy wrote: "Just discovered this group. Many of you have probably already seen this, but I interviewed Vollmann a few years ago after he published Kissing the Mask. One of my fondest memories of that job was..."

Thanks for posting that link, Jimmy. Apologies I'd not gotten it done yet. I'm gunna cross post it also on the Mask thread.

[Nathan "N.R."]

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

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

[Geoff]

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

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

Good lunch hour read. Many thanks.

[Stephen]

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 about him yet. Hopefully, I will get responses from those who do.

[Stephen]

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

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

N.R.: For someone like me, being introduced to Vollmann, trying to get to know him , this is like pure gleaming gold. Thanks N.R.

[Nathan "N.R."]

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.

[Stephen]

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "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..."

The more that I get to know about the man the more fascinated I am, and the more I wish I was like him when I was younger.

[Nathan "N.R."]

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]

[Nathan "N.R."]

Geoff wrote: "An interesting article/profile in the NY Times from 1994:

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/06/mag..."

Highlighting this article again. It's got a good bit of the early biographical info. Thanks for Aubrey for reminding us again.

[Geoff]

Would I be repeating something already posted if I posted the 1992 Bookworm interview for Fathers and Crows? Probably, but here it is anyways:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWDkA...

[Geoff]

or The Ice-Shirt? repetitions make for familiarity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWIPj...

[Geoff]

...by the way, each of those interviews has 16 views each. 16. jaysus.

[Nick]

Geoff wrote: "1992 Bookworm interview for Fathers and Crows "

Brilliant. Thanks.

[Louis-Jean]

032c focuses on William T. Vollmann’s photography:
http://www.powerhousebooks.com/?p=1961

[Nathan "N.R."]

Louis-Jean wrote: "032c focuses on William T. Vollmann’s photography:
http://www.powerhousebooks.com/?p=1961"

That's pretty good. Looks like some excerpts from Imperial and Atlas. And some other stuff. thanks.

[Nick]

In the Father and Crows Bookworm interview Vollmann mentions Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman - looks like a compelling read. Anyone else read it?

[Nathan "N.R."]

Nick wrote: "In the Father and Crows Bookworm interview Vollmann mentions Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman - looks like a compelling read. Anyone else read it?"

I've got four Friends who have reviewed it -- Howl, Chris, David, and Jonfaith. I haven't scanned their reviews yet, but they are all reliable.

[Nick]

Thanks Nathan.

[Nathan "N.R."]

Here's the youtube search page for Vollmann:

https://www.youtube.com/results?searc...

Of note are several Bookworm interviews (audio), Vollmann reading from Imperial and Riding Toward Everywhere (video), and Larry McCaffery discussing Vollmann at the MLA 2011 conference (low quality video).

[Nathan "N.R."]

Novelist Jeff Bursey has three review pieces of Vollmann's work.

'"A realm forever beyond reach": William Vollmann's Expelled from Eden and Poor People' which also discusses RURD and Riding Toward Everywhere ::
http://www.electronicbookreview.com/t...

A review of Michael Hemmingson's book William T. Vollmann: A Critical Study and Seven Interviews
http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2010sp...

Review of Riding Toward Everywhere (pdf) ::
http://www.jeffbursey.com/downloads/R...

[Geoff]

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Novelist Jeff Bursey has three review pieces of Vollmann's work.

'"A realm forever beyond reach": William Vollmann's Expelled from Eden and Poor People' which also discusses RURD and Riding Toward..."

Thanks for these, especially "A realm forever beyond reach..."- that was fantastic.

[Aloha]

Jimmy wrote: "Just discovered this group. Many of you have probably already seen this, but I interviewed Vollmann a few years ago after he published Kissing the Mask. One of my fondest memories of that job was..."

I have some Vollmann books but never got around to reading him until
Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement, and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater. It was a most absorbing read since the topics are of interest to me, Noh theatre and gender studies. One of my close friends is a hetero cross-dresser so I was introduced to that culture. I love Asian culture and aesthetics, in particular Japanese, so I was able to understand the book very well. This book started me on my Vollmannn voyage. Love his stuff!

[Aloha]

BTW, I came here to find that article on his encounter with the FBI. I found it a few weeks ago and read it but would like to read it again. I didn't notice where I was when I found it. Just noticed the article right away. Can somebody post the link or tell me what thread it's in? Thanks!

[Nathan "N.R."]

Aloha wrote: "BTW, I came here to find that article on his encounter with the FBI. "

The links are ::
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

But the article itself is behind a pay-wall at Harper's.

[Aloha]

Thanks, Nathan.

[Nathan "N.R."]

An ocean of streams of rivers of stuff about Sir Vollmann at the LA Times ::

http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/w...

[Geoff]

Oh thank you kindly dear sir! Thus is ruined my Thursday afternoon workflow. And gladly.

[Aloha]

Here is a French article on Vollmann for our French readers.

http://www.cafardcosmique.com/William...