Discussion - Week Seven - Fathers and Crows - Part VI, p. 705 - 837

[Jim]

This discussion covers Part VI, Glory, p. 705 – 837

[Larou]

That'll teach me to read too far ahead of the reading schedule - it's not even a month since I finished reading this, and aleady Part VI is running into a single, undifferentiated text-pond. Possibly it is the fault of the current heat-wave that melted my impressions of this part into an indistinguishable mass and I find myself without anything to say - just like last week, but wanted to at least signal that I'm still around and hopefully will be able to come up with a sentence or two about the novel as a whole next week.

[Jim]

Larou wrote: "That'll teach me to read too far ahead of the reading schedule - it's not even a month since I finished reading this, and aleady Part VI is running into a single, undifferentiated text-pond. Possib..."

I'm melting here in the Sud-ouest as well. I'm sure we can rally our thoughts for the finale next week...

[James]

Glad to see I wasn't the only one who felt this way. The last few segments to discuss don't feel very different. I finally started to see some of the complexity on the relationship between Born Underwater and Brebeuf mentioned earlier. After some time off I'm hoping to finish this week.

[James]

So... I made my last comment before getting to the end of the section. What did you guys think of the end where Brebeuf gets his martyrdom and Born Underwriter's reaction to it? I thought that was a powerful part of the book.

[Larou]

I agree - even though the book is not quite finished at this point, this is the confrontation things have been running up towards (or, in the somewhat weird and twisted river-imagery-logic of the novel, where they have sprung from), and I remember it as very intense.

I suspect that with being martyred Brebeuf is finally getting here what he has been wanting along. Born Underwater is somewhat harder to read (as she should be, of course) but she seems to have become completely assimilated back into her native culture again. In that sense we'd have a clear seperation here, Europeans and natives both falling back on their own cultures, without being affected by the other. But that is not the case of course, as the final part of the novel shows us, and I for my part think the most interesting part is what happens (or doesn't happen) between Brebeouf and Born Underwater because I remain convinced that there is some kind of love story (some kind of love, some kind of story) going on.

I'm hoping to get started on Argall next week which apparently tackles the story of Pocahontas - should be interesting to compare that to what has been happening here.

[James]

Agreed regarding Brebeuf. I almost wrote his longed for martyrdom, but the smart phone isn't the ideal platform for posting on Goodreads. Vollmann very much teased with the Born Underwater/Brebeuf relationship.

If you are moving right along to Argall, you must have liked Fathers and Crows.

[Larou]

I liked it a lot, I have considered Vollmann a major writer after reading The Ice-Shirt, and Fathers and Crows emphatically confirmed that assessment.

[James]

Definitely check out Europe Central. I listened to that one on audio this year, but it deserves an actual reading. Europe Central is my favorite Vollmann so far. I enjoyed Fathers and Crows a little more than the Ice-shirt. I also have a lot of pages of Vollmann to read in my future, but I won't tackle Argall until Brain Pain does.

[Larou]

Europe Central is very much on my list, but I want to read the rest of Seven Dreams first, well, what he has published so far. Then there's the next Brain Pain read, and I also really want to read some of his non-fiction... but I'll get there. Eventually. ;)