Vollmann

[chris sweet]

Murthy Yenamandra wrote:
> 
> Richard Nance writes, among other things:
> > And William Vollmann's name hasn't popped up in all this comparative
> > rambling.  Has he just been resolutely dismissed at some prior time? (like I
> > said, I'm new around here) Because (to keep with the biological metaphor)
> > the guy is a veritable rainforest -- to my mind, at least.  Some people may
> > just not be too fond of undergrowth...
> 
> Impressed by the raves of Vollmann that I'd seen on pynchon-l, I went to
> his reading from The Atlas at the Hungry Mind bookstore here in St. Paul
> when he dropped by recently. He was sort of entertaining, but I was
> thoroughly unimpressed by the selections I heard and browsed. It's more
> fun listening to the rain. He also got into a prolonged and unresolved
> (natch!) argument with a woman from the audience about the ethics of his
> hanging out with and getting most of his information from the prostitutes
> of the world (especially the third).
> 
> His series on North America (I don't remember the title) looked more
> interesting and I intend to give it a try one of these days (after I
> renew Infinite Jest a few more times at the library). Vollmann also said
> that he's working on a big non-fiction thing on Violence and its
> justifications - that sounds interesting too.
> 
> Murthy

Big is an understatement. The manuscript stands at about 1500 pages at this
point and he's not done yet. Its been turned down by 2 publishers already
so it looks like he'll have to go through an academic publisher. He has, at last
count, at least 8 works in progress going on. After the violence book he's
got 2 others he wants to finish. One is called Argall. Its about Pocahontas and
is in the 7 dreams series. The other is also in the series and is called "The
Dying Grass". Both are about half done but neither is under contract so don't
expect them anytime soon. I understand he has also been writing poetry. He is
slowing down though. Its not some dangerous situation or some venereal disease
that has gotten to him but rather carpel tunnel syndrome he got while writing
Fathers & Crows.

There is a Vollmann home page at http://ftphome1.gte.net/csweet/vollmann.htm
There is also info there on the recently started vollmann mailing list, a digest
only list that goes out, on average, of twice a week.

chris