09-18-15 :
William T. Vollman Amidst 'The Dying Grass'
An Epic Exploration of Simultaneity
Our experience of the world is a lot more complicated than we are able to grasp. For all the talk about multitasking, we rarely address the reality of the many things we are doing at once. Our consciousness works on a lot of levels. Capturing the simultaneity of human experience is a tough task. Using that to explore a huge historical canvas seems almost unimaginable.
But that is precisely what William T. Vollman has managed with 'The Dying Grass,' the latest entry in his Seven Dreams series. Written in a prose style developed over years, Vollman explores the consciousnesses of a huge cast of characters as they head towards and fight the Nez Perce Indian war of 1877. If the book t first looks and reads daunting, give it time. It's worth the investment. Vollman will patiently teach the willing reader how to surf his waves of superlative prose. Soon enough, you'll experience a sort of mind transplant. What at first seems impenetrable will become unstoppable.
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What is The Agony Column?
"He took down the great book in which, day by day, he filed the agony columns of the various London journals. "Dear me!" said he, turning over the pages, "what a chorus of groans, cries, and bleatings! What a rag-bag of singular happenings! But surely the most valuable hunting-ground that ever was given to a student of the unusual!"
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Red Circle
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