Front & Center on the NYT main page right now: a big profile about WTV on the occasion of his new book Imperial, a 1300 page study of California’s Imperial Valley.
Mr. Vollmann’s editors urged him to cut, he said, and he resisted: “We always go round and round. They want me to cut, and I argue, so they cut my royalties, and I agree never to write a long book again.” He acknowledged that the length of “Imperial” might cost him readers but said: “I don’t care. It seems like the important thing in life is pleasing ourselves. The world doesn’t owe me a living, and if the world doesn’t want to buy my books, that’s my problem.”
“It seems like the important thing in life is pleasing ourselves.”
I will choose to take this quote out of context…or in context. Anyway, I’m doing it right now.
“It seems like the important thing in life is pleasing ourselves.”
I will choose to take this quote out of context…or in context. Anyway, I’m doing it right now.
thats some good onehanded typing
thats some good onehanded typing
like you’ve never done the one-handed type?
like you’ve never done the one-handed type?
vollmann is a hero
vollmann is a hero
i’ve got imperial sitting on my shelf but i’m scared to start it.
it’s a fucking gorilla. last tuesday i robbed a drug store with it, then i hollowed out a bathtub in its center to cook some meth in. but i did it wrong and the book exploded. and it took four fire trucks to put out the book.
i’ve got imperial sitting on my shelf but i’m scared to start it.
it’s a fucking gorilla. last tuesday i robbed a drug store with it, then i hollowed out a bathtub in its center to cook some meth in. but i did it wrong and the book exploded. and it took four fire trucks to put out the book.
and GAWKER linked/mentioned
and GAWKER linked/mentioned
ha
ha
That’s a funny one Ryan.
That’s a funny one Ryan.
gud pnt
gud pnt
damn. posts re vollmann and burroughs both on the same day. htmlgiant is ruling.
i like vollmann’s face. i like burroughs’ body.
damn. posts re vollmann and burroughs both on the same day. htmlgiant is ruling.
i like vollmann’s face. i like burroughs’ body.
my favorite part of the article: “To research ‘The Rifles,’ a novel partly about the 1845 Franklin expedition to the Arctic, Mr. Vollmann spent two weeks alone at the magnetic North Pole, where he suffered frostbite and permanently burned off his eyebrows when he accidentally set his sleeping bag on fire.”
my favorite part of the article: “To research ‘The Rifles,’ a novel partly about the 1845 Franklin expedition to the Arctic, Mr. Vollmann spent two weeks alone at the magnetic North Pole, where he suffered frostbite and permanently burned off his eyebrows when he accidentally set his sleeping bag on fire.”
vollman is a cognitive giant. the imperial valley is a fascinating, bizzaro world of desert, agriculture, migrant culture and waste that warrants a big ass book like this. cool that vollman just went with it, royalties/readership be damned.
vollman is a cognitive giant. the imperial valley is a fascinating, bizzaro world of desert, agriculture, migrant culture and waste that warrants a big ass book like this. cool that vollman just went with it, royalties/readership be damned.
The photographic supplement from Powerhouse has a lot going for it as well including a very perceptive, compact essay where V. addresses László Moholy-Nagy and kineticism (V. says he prefers stillness, although one wonders if that is a preference exactly, or a default faculty). His pictures are as unpretentious as his method for taking them, and strangely harken back to certain arguments about the “eviction” of literary speech.
The photographic supplement from Powerhouse has a lot going for it as well including a very perceptive, compact essay where V. addresses László Moholy-Nagy and kineticism (V. says he prefers stillness, although one wonders if that is a preference exactly, or a default faculty). His pictures are as unpretentious as his method for taking them, and strangely harken back to certain arguments about the “eviction” of literary speech.
this exchange in gawker’s comments was excellent/weird:
MissVolare
10:09 AM
Nice to see you give some love to Bill. Today is his birthday and we are going to Sandra Dees–best bar-be-que in Sac’to. I was his ass’t for a few years–the best part was making platinum prints in the huge darkroom and making bullets.
skahammer
10:24 AM
@MissVolare: Um, any more non-privacy-invading details worth sharing, MV? Some of us think that guy’s a mad occult genius whose relics can cure intractable maladies, you know.
this exchange in gawker’s comments was excellent/weird:
MissVolare
10:09 AM
Nice to see you give some love to Bill. Today is his birthday and we are going to Sandra Dees–best bar-be-que in Sac’to. I was his ass’t for a few years–the best part was making platinum prints in the huge darkroom and making bullets.
skahammer
10:24 AM
@MissVolare: Um, any more non-privacy-invading details worth sharing, MV? Some of us think that guy’s a mad occult genius whose relics can cure intractable maladies, you know.