William T Vollmann Central discussion
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Interviews, links, websources
So as that FIVE BookWorms with Vollmann :: F&C, The Royal Family, RURD, The Ice-Shirt, Riding Toward Everywhere.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search...
Nathan, though this is EXTREMELY and RADICALLY and (vociferously) appreciated, I have already listened to all of them! [not that I can't revisit them, we don't listen to beautiful songs only once, do we? not if we can help it] see, I'm a good little Vollmanniac!
Geoff wrote: "already listened to all of them!"Check. I've corrected for that.
Nathan "No Reviews" wrote: "So as that Geoff Aloha might have something for the work=day ::FIVE BookWorms with Vollmann :: F&C, The Royal Family, RURD, The Ice-Shirt, Riding Toward Everywhere.
http://www.youtube.com/resu..."
Ha! Thanks, Nathan! I just listened to the 2004 one on RURD. I wished I did it before my review. Great for when you're waiting for all these computer updates to be done. Great, anyway.
A while ago, when I had the living situation blues real bad, I had to stay at my girlfriend's apartment for a week. I remember waking up and getting ready for work every day to Vollmann on BookWorm - I listened to them chronologically while making breakfast/showering, so sucked up into Vollmannspeak that I was cured of those blues. Fondest of Vollmann memories.
I'm doing a presentation next week on Vollmann's craft (almost done with Rainbow Stories; making headway into Expelled and Rifles). I've explored/bookmarked most links from this group, but are there any last-minute suggestions that ya'll think illuminate, in particular, Vollmann's process on the page?
I'm doing a presentation next week on Vollmann's craft (almost done with Rainbow Stories; making headway into Expelled and Rifles). I've explored/bookmarked most links from this group, but are there any last-minute suggestions that ya'll think illuminate, in particular, Vollmann's process on the page?
Josh, have you seen this article in The Paris Review? Vollmann discussed the history of his working method. Great article.http://www.theparisreview.org/intervi...
For those into the Dream series here is the link to all 73 volumes of The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents 1610 to 1791 that Vollmann used in his research.http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/re...
Bill gets a Newsweek treatment ::"The Lush Life of William T. Vollmann" by Alexander Nazaryan, November 06 2013
http://www.newsweek.com/lush-life-wil...
"If William T. Vollmann ever wins the Nobel Prize in Literature - as many speculate he will - he knows exactly what he will do with the $1.1 million pot the Swedes attach to the award. "It will be fun to give some to prostitutes," he says, sitting on his futon, chuckling, a half-empty bottle of pretty good bourbon between us."
thnks to biblioklept for the tip.
Good literary journalism? In Newsweek?? About Bill‽‽‽ Color me impressed.Edit: Add me to Team Bill for the Nobel any day. I will wave pennants and shout hooligans' slogans for him.
Definitely deserves the Nobel more than Munro (or P. Roth), and this from a canadian.
Yes yes yes yes yes. Yes. Did I mention yes? Because yes.2014 is WTV Nobel year for sure. I must spread the word through as much reading as possible.
That article was just so kind and nice!
Loved the Newsweek article - thanks for posting! It never even occurred to me that he could win a Nobel - it seemed so far beyond the realm of possibility. The Nobel seems not so shiny to me these days, but if it leads more people to consider WTV's thoughtful, rigorous, and beautifully written work, hey, I'm all for it.
Thanks for the article, Nathan. In the land of Power Points and Texting, longer prose is a relief.
I may be off base (it wouldn't be anywhere near the first time), but having read all of "The Lush Life of William T. Vollmann," the references to drinking (eight, by my count) seem numerous. Mostly they have to do with Vollmann drinking. Is there a subtext here, and behind the title?
Nope, you were right on, Jeff. That's my take, too. Vollmann is a man who likes what he likes and doesn't apologize for it. He likes women, too. A lot. :o)
So long as he keeps up the levelheaded respect for that which he likes, he has nothing to apologize for.
We'll see how that goes with the booze. :o)
Aloha wrote: "Nope, you were right on, Jeff. That's my take, too. Vollmann is a man who likes what he likes and doesn't apologize for it. He likes women, too. A lot. :o)"Not that I thought he needed to apologize, I just wondered if it was a special comment by the author of the piece.
Aloha wrote: "We'll see how that goes with the booze. :o)"Funny.
Jeff wrote: "I may be off base (it wouldn't be anywhere near the first time), but having read all of "The Lush Life of William T. Vollmann," the references to drinking (eight, by my count) seem numerous. Mostl..."Only so much one can expect from Newsweek which writes for folks mostly who read only newspeak. For the title, yes, there may be a little resentment regarding the fact that Vollmann has supported himself with his writing/art/journalism -- without needing to teach or win jackpot-sized awards -- and still no one reads him. Or else it was a teenage crack at irony.
The booze, well, eight mentions is overdoing it. Sure, he likes his bourbon. I like my scotch. But is it necessary to work so hard to put Vollmann in that Poe-through-Barthelme tradition? But at least there weren't eight mentions of prostitutes. Or were there?
Or, for the less suspicious, Bill's just kicking back on a little publicity tour, maybe not working quite so much for a week or two. Here's my Bill tracker -- book release in NYC ; talk given at UCSB ; now the Newsweek thing.
I can add one interesting anecdote about William. I was speaking to him about writing historical fiction and asking him for tips. He shared his technique with me, which is to procure photographs of the era or event and stare at them for about half an hour; try to spatially understand it and put yourself in that photo so you can attemtpt to experientially understand it. I never tried it it though, losing my appetite for history and drifting back toward metafictional postmodernism.
Tom wrote: "to procure photographs of the era or event and stare at them for about half an hour;"There are a couple of fantastic examples of him doing this in RURD. Usually, photos in books get a mere quick glance from me. But reading his writing about what I was looking at caused me to see a hell of a lot more in those photos.
Tom wrote: "to procure photographs of the era or event and stare at them for about half an hour"There are so many instances of this in Imperial, which of course is not historical fiction, but it is full of lovely long drawn out descriptions of photographs.
A 'Vollmann' search @ 3quarksdaily turns up a number of new-to-me items. If you find something--review, whatever--please highlight in its relevant thread ; items of a general nature you can highlight in this thread. I'll link an item or two in the near future.http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksda... [I can't link to the search results, so you'll have to type in "Vollmann into the search box yourself (!)]
Jonathan wrote: "Lovely long interview from Dec 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FihP5..."
Sweet!
Jonathan wrote: "Lovely long interview from Dec 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FihP5..."
Yeah, this made my morning a bit sunshinier! Thanks!
A short interview ::"The Renegade : William T. Vollmann on love, violence and why the FBI thought he might be the Unabomber" by E.J. Iannelli
http://www.inlander.com/spokane/the-r...
Bill will be in Spokane WA Friday April 11 ::
In Conversation with Anthony Doerr and William T. Vollmann • Fri, April 11, 7 pm • $15, students free with ID • Bing Crosby Theater • 901 W. Sprague Avenue
Anyone collecting Bill's book reviews? Here's one of several John O'Hara books, from The Baffler, (brand new!) :: "Decently Downward"
William T. Vollmann
[from The Baffler No. 24, 2014]
Books Discussed
Appointment in Samarra
Butterfield 8
Ten North Frederick
The New York Stories
http://thebaffler.com/past/decently_d...
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Anyone collecting Bill's book reviews? Here's one of several John O'Hara books, from The Baffler, (brand new!) :: "Decently Downward"
William T. Vollmann
[from The Baffler No. 24, 2014]
Books D..."
Thanks for this, Nathan. Just what I needed when I needed it.
Jeff wrote: "Thanks for this, Nathan. Just what I needed when I needed it. "You have something in the works? Let us know when the time comes that we need to know.
Louis-Jean wrote: "032c focuses on William T. Vollmann’s photography:http://www.powerhousebooks.com/?p=1961"
Two of these pieces are now html'd ::
"WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN: Conflict, Compassion and the Process of Understanding", an essay by Alexander Provan & "WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN: She Who Is So Lovely Is Drinking In That Loveliness I’ve Drunk", an interview. The issue of this periodical is 2010, and aligns with the release of Imperial.
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Jeff wrote: "Thanks for this, Nathan. Just what I needed when I needed it. "You have something in the works? Let us know when the time comes that we need to know."
Nathan, hi. Sorry, I missed this note when it first came up. At the time I was working on a Henry Miller paper (done; fate unknown) and something in Vollmann's review proved useful. If anything good comes of this I'll let you know.
Bill reviews :: All the Light We Cannot See."Darkness Visible: ‘All the Light We Cannot See,’ by Anthony Doerr"
'All the Light We Cannot See is more than a thriller and less than great literature. As such, it is what the English would call “a good read.” Maybe Doerr could write great literature if he really tried. I would be happy if he did.'
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/boo...
New book review from Bill ::"Twists of Hate: Two fictional takes on the war in Iraq"
http://bookforum.com/inprint/021_02/1...
"'WE HAD REACHED THE CROSS ROADS before noon and had shot a French civilian by mistake. . . . Red shot him. It was the first man he had killed that day and he was very pleased.' So far, this incident, and the style in which it is told, would be appropriate for either Redeployment or The Corpse Exhibition, two new works of fiction about the Iraq war, the first by Phil Klay, a former marine who served in Iraq during the surge, and the second by Hassan Blasim, an Iraqi filmmaker and writer who moved to Finland as a refugee in 2004. In fact it comes from a late Hemingway story called 'Black Ass at the Cross Roads.' The setting is France, sometime after D-day, when the Nazis are fleeing. The narrator’s business is to kill them as they go by."
A French interview from 2004"William T. Vollmann : L’Américain tranquille"
publié le 8 septembre 2004, par David Boratav
http://www.chronicart.com/digital/wil...
An interview/article"Between the Lines: William T. Vollmann on ‘Last Stories’" By Allen Pierleoni
Jul. 21, 2014
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/07/21/6572...
“Thoreau always said that it’s important not to let our knowledge get in the way of what’s more important, which is our ignorance. I want to always keep my ignorance so I can be open to what people are saying.”
“I was very relieved by the order of (the reviews’ appearances),” he said. “After the starred reviews, Viking had the illusion of hope that maybe they would make their money back. Hopefully they’ll have to live by their word (while) facing another dreary prospect of publishing a long book that no one reads.”Heh. Good article, merci.
Nice interview. Wish I could be in San Francisco to attend the reading at the “undisclosed historic San Francisco location” on Thursday!
I don't believe I've seen this one yet. From his 2006 visit to Norway. "Destination: Norway ;; The Eddas -- epic sagas that form the core of Norse religion -- are best read under the ash trees in this Land of the Midnight Sun." Salon 11sept2006
http://www.salon.com/2006/09/11/norwa...
Has anyone linked to this one from 2010 yet? (If so, sorry for the duplicate link.) I just found it by chance, and still have not had a chance to read it, but it looks like it has potential:William T. Vollmann: Conflict, Compassion, and the Process of Understanding
http://032c.com/2011/william-t-vollma...
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...
http://electricliterature.com/tom-bis...A video interview with a Mr. Tom Bissell, who was a failed editor for RURD.
Hadrian wrote: "A video interview with a Mr. Tom Bissell, who was a failed editor for RURD."Nice!
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.
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "A short interview ::"The Renegade : William T. Vollmann on love, violence and why the FBI thought he might be the Unabomber" by E.J. Iannelli"
A longer version of this interview ::
http://www.iannelli.us/diderot/?p=203
William T Vollmann Central
Books mentioned in this topic
Imperial (other topics)Imperial (other topics)
William T. Vollmann: A Critical Study and Seven Interviews (other topics)
All the Light We Cannot See (other topics)
The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents 1610 to 1791 (other topics)
More...
My Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means review is at 3,438 words and I'm barely covering the second half. I'm in perfect misery.