Hello all! I discovered Vollmann with the afterword he wrote to Journey to the End of the Night, and since have read Carbon Ideologies (best non-fiction books I have ever read), Poor People, and four of the Seven Dreams books. Bill has become my favorite active author, and I realized I've yet to read his pure fiction. What's your favorite of his short story collections and/or non-historical works? Specifically, I'm interested in starting The Lucky Star or the Prostitution trilogy, but I'd love recommendations from fellow readers.

***Thanks in advance for ignoring the typo

Just wondering if anyone else on this sub is familiar with this documentary. I found the subject matter really apt for the things Vollmann explores in his work. Is there anyone else who agrees? Do we think Vollmann has seen this?

(Here’s the full doc if anyone was curious: https://youtu.be/M4oxipESPtk?si=zDta_AwAU6-nzu-5)

https://preview.redd.it/ewbvi83rvr0e1.jpg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5bfb1bd4dca9ae03cde57b2c23f105c617587fac

Been debating whether to get this or not. Does anybody have any experience/opinions on whether it's worth getting? I've got a copy of Imperial coming and am trying to decide if I should go for the photos as well. Thanks!

The German publishing house Freunde & Friends published a new photo book. The photos are all part of the Carbon Ideologies era and are part of the new German translation of said books to be released early next year. As a third book, so to speak. I picked up my copy today, and the quality of the pages seems nice. Hope int. shipping will not be too painful (looking at you, Shadows of Love, Shadows of Loneliness...)

https://freundeundfriends.de/buecher/ideologien-des-brennstoffzeitalters-die-fotos?

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-friends-who-vote-for-trump/

This is what I needed today.

This is a good one. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oE5cTJ1T58A As I type this, Bill is in Ukraine. He's changed as a writer since the 1990s, but I'd love to see pieces from Ukraine in the style of his Spin work, or the stories from The Atlas.

I suppose the time for it, a 20th anniversary edition, has kind of passed, but it's nice to think about.

New to Vollman and just got Ice Shirt. At the beginning Ice Text section, some words are cut off on the right margin, was this an artistic choice or a bad printing? Thanks in advance!

Latest info on A Table for Fortune is that New Directions is interested in publishing it in the US, with hope that European publishers pick it up after. No press or info about length/editing quite yet, but progress is being made.

Vollmann also stated that longer versions of his pieces in Harper's (including his visit to the DMZ and upcoming trip to Ukraine) will be included in a non-fiction work tentatively titled 'Home' revolving around the concept of patriotism. Interesting tidbit is that the DMZ piece was originally edited down from about 250 pages for Harper's.

Source: his conversation with True Anon at Grand Star Theatre in San Francisco on 9/23/24.

https://www.ndbooks.com/author/william-vollmann/

I absolutely love the aesthetic of these SPIN magazine article title pages which later became sections of Rising Up and Rising Down - a few of these title pages are included here.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/spin-dna-william-t-vollmann-113000270.html

I bet ya'll haven't read this one. It seems to have fallen off the radar completely.

https://orionmagazine.org/article/a-reflection-of-the-public/

Feels a bit like the end of Royal Family plus the testimonial sections of Carbon Ideologies.

This is a favorite of mine. It's a war journalist's look at Afghanistan, 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, and the insurgency that followed. It shares a lot of what Vollmann does best: mordant humor, on-the-ground accounts of terrible violence (Ground Zero on the day of the attacks, the shelling of Kabul, battle of Baghdad), shocking images that stick to you, and fascinations with how violence in the Middle East has made the region's women invisible. (See: Their Hands on Their Hearts.) It's also just a well-sequenced and entertaining book. Anyone else read this?

Where to find a copy (that isn’t $50USD)? EDIT: Would anyone on this forum be willing to part ways with their copy for a “reasonable” price?

I am almost finished with you bright and risen angels and I've noticed that my copy lists more sections of the book than are actually included- did I somehow end up with an abridged version or is this intentional? My copy is 635 pages and ends with "revolutionaries forever" but there are 7 more sections listed in the table of contents.

Relatively new Vollman fan and just ordered about 3 books, casting a pretty wide net. All of them arrived pretty quickly, but all are clearly print on demand from Ingram. Not great quality at all. Ultimately it doesn't matter, but it's a little frustrating to become so enamored with a writer and then have to make do with subpar printings.

New article by Vollmann in the current Harper‘s magazine.

https://harpers.org/archive/2024/08/korean-hearts-william-t-vollmann-dmz/

Any Vollmann fan ( even those who haven't read Rising up and Rising Down) knows that Bill is very well read, and references very interesting books that you wouldn't think someone outside of that profession would even be aware of. For example, The Pathology of Homicide by Lester Adelson is for forensic pathologists, not novelists. So anyway, has Vollmann inspired you to read anything that he has read?

Hi, a novice here. I'm looking for online resources that collect or itemize allusions/characters, real and fictional, and their historical significance/factoids, etc. Europe Central is the book I'm starting with because it's the only Vollmann I could find in my local bookstore (I live in Southeast Asia). I'm not particularly looking for in-depth explanatory notes or a comprehensive guide or anything like that. I'm sure they are much more difficult to locate. Pynchonites have their websites, but do we?

Thanks.

Harper's essay on the death of Vollmann's father. Anyone got a PDF?

Hey everyone.

As you may know, documentaries and works of fiction like Fincher's Zodiac have engrained the Zodiac Killer in the pop-cultural public view of San Francisco. Vollmann's (by my metric) really fantastic works (W.F.G., The Lucky Star, The Rainbow Stories, portions of You Bright And Risen Angels) are San Fran focused. Has Vollmann written anything on the callous mythologization of the Zodiac Killer?

!I know there are references to the Night Stalker in Lucky Star, and possibly the Blue Yonder may qualify, !<but I'm talking more direct references. I also just haven't read all he has on offer, including Royal Family.

If anyone has any thoughts, you know the drill.

I'm a novice in regards to Vollmann, and have quite recently gotten intrigued by this man. At first thinking he's some hyper-intellectual nerd, and I do regret that superficial prejudice, as later on as I dig in more about this guy I just got flabbergasted at every turn. Indeed a very interesting man. I'm reading his RURD, and planning to read more. I just read about Francis Tomasic and Bill (or will?) Brinton, a rather heartbreaking tale. I researched and couldn't find much, but as far as my findings go they were killed by a mine, while in a car. I was quite surprised and amazed to later know that Vollmann was actually with them and he somehow fortunately survived. I actually don't know much, it's been about 2 weeks I've known Vollmann, and I don't think I have engaged in his works and researched for more than 2 hours probably. So If someone would elaborate and explain to me in regards to, what was he writing about? Is there a book about that incident? What was going on? Why was he there? His relationship with these 2 martyrs? I would really appreciate it, as I believe it is imperative to acquire that knowledge before I head on to reading RURD.