NP: RIP William Gass

[Allan Balliett]

Oh, yes, it was  Omensetters where I first became aware of Gass as someone
to always follow.

Gass has that rare 'luminosity' in his writing. Just a few sentences of his
can open an internal light that makes you feel permanently altered for the
better after digesting them. Meaning beyond words, even if coming from the
simplest detail. Goosebumps! It's a rare gift. A true literary experience,
one  that sticks with you and keeps you wondering "What is this thing we
call "writing""

I've got to dig out Omensetter's !

-Allan in WV, on the bright side of the street

On Fri, Dec 8, 2017 at 3:38 PM, Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:

> Omensetter’s Luck is a beautiful novel
>
> On Dec 7, 2017, at 6:55 PM, Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Aw, man.
>
> I tried reading The Tunnel when it first came out (really I tried). It was
> back during the roughly 10 year period when I was trying to read ALL the
> new Really Big Books coming out (Mason & Dixon, Infinite Jest, Underworld,
> Sewer Gas and Electric, Snow Crash/Cryptonomicon, A Frolic of His Own,
> Europe Central, etc).
>
> It was one of those that fell by the wayside pretty early on.
>
> Maybe I'll give some of his other writing a chance.
>
> Jerky
>
> On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 12:09 PM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> "Why should you love every woman that walks by?"
>>
>> Why not, theoretically speaking?
>>
>> 2017-12-07 16:16 GMT+01:00 Atticus Pinecone <atticuspinecone at gmail.com>:
>>
>>> RIP
>>>
>>> On Dec 7, 2017, at 10:07 AM, Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> https://bigother.com/2012/07/30/the-gass-sentences-a-top-50-
>>> by-stephen-schenkenberg/
>>>
>>> On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 9:07 AM, Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Gerke: Any thoughts on Sebald?
>>>>
>>>> Gass: Didn’t read him. I read about 10 pages. That wasn’t just to him.
>>>> But I could see the rush of this wave of popularity that is almost a death
>>>> now. So I’m going to have to go back sometime when it’s calmed down and
>>>> see, because sometimes they’re actually very good. And I’m very arrogant
>>>> about my judgment. I don’t make mistakes.
>>>>
>>>> Gerke: Is that the case with David Foster Wallace too?
>>>>
>>>> Gass: He had great abilities. And I think he needed to tame them. I
>>>> think he was so good that he should’ve wanted to be better. And he wrote
>>>> some things that are going to stay around. And I wish he had stayed around
>>>> and done that. He had lots of smarts too. He was unlike a lot of writers
>>>> who are sort of dumb, theoretically speaking. Stanley was street-smart but
>>>> intellectually? Awful. But he didn’t need to be. Pynchon’s a case. I have
>>>> tried to read Pynchon with no success so far, but then I can’t read
>>>> Whitman—I try. So we just have blank spots. We can’t like everything, and I
>>>> don’t see any rule for it. Why should you love every woman that walks by?
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
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