Vollmann's Daunting Doorstoppers - anyone read all those?

[Otto]

... just came in, the one-volume abridgement, but it starts promising:

"In its original form, Rising Up and Rising Down occupies seven
volumes. The single justification which I can offer is that I believe
it needed to be that long. This abridgement likewise has only one
justification: I did it for the money. In other words, I can't pretend
(although you may disagree) that a one-volume reduction is any
improvement  upon the full version. All the same, it's not necessarily
worse. For one thing, the possibility now exists that someone might
read it."
(...)
"The ultimate position of Rising Up and Rising Down is that moral
values can be treated as absolutes in some respects, as relative
quantities in others, I believe that every violent act refers itself
back to some more or less rational explanation. To the extent that
they are irrational, they can be quickly disposed of. To the extent
that they are rational, they do enjoy the possibility of absolute
status, provided that ends, means and the intellectual-moral logic in
between have all been correctly assembled."
(...)
"Rising Up and Rising Down comprises a series of almost self-contained
essays. When is violence defense of gender acceptable? When is violent
deterrence of violence permissible? We need not address either one of
these questions in order to consider the other. This simplifies an
abridger's task. The long version of Rising Up and Rising Down took me
twenty-three years, counting editorial errands. The abridgment took me
half an hour.
Shostakovich once said that a toothpick is an edited Christmas tree."
(...)
"Thank you for reading this book. My sincere intention in writing it
was to be helpful."

-- Preface to the Abridgment

I like that!

Otto


2008/11/16 tbeshear <tbeshear at insightbb.com>:
>
> And there's Vollmann, the nonfiction writer -- the works of political
> journalism and philosophical speculation: Rising Up and Rising Down (his
> 3000-plus page investigation of violence in society -- when is it justified?
> One volume of the work "Moral Calculus" attempts to codify the answers to
> that question. If you can find the full set -- not the one-volume
> abridgement, read it);
>
>