r/vollmann • u/Giles_Fully_GOATed • 1d ago
Athens Event/Meeting Bill
I'm going to try to stick to the stuff the readership may be curious about. Unless quoted, assume I'm paraphrasing anything he said, and that my quoting is also fallible:
I went to the Athens, Ohio event (I'm the Oklahoman, if you saw my other post). I would say the theater was pretty full, but there were safely under 100 people there. He briefly introduced ATFF as a the story of DAVE, a CIA analyst, who is a very smart, middle-of-the-road conservative, and his son Matthew, who is very, very stupid. He emphasized Matthew being stupid multiple times. He said the book is largely about the events that led to 9/11, and said "We did not deserve 9/11," describing it as a combination of major failures that led to a catastrophe. Then he did some readings from ATFF and went straight to questions.
I asked what his plans had been for the final two volumes of the Seven Dreams series, and what his plan had been for the cumulative intention of all seven when he first outlined the series: He told me volume four had never really been started, and he had not gotten past choosing between Puritans in Rhode Island or the settling of Hawaii; with the former he said he saw a fruitful opportunity for a story based on their Christian snobbery, and with the latter he said he had always been extremely interested in Hawaii's history. He said he had gotten a good chunk of the seventh volume done, which was about the American government fueling the conflict between the Navajo and the Hopi in the mid 20th century. He emphasized Ronald Reagan's role. He brought up that losing the deal with Viking was a big factor, because like ATFF, those books also use lots of fonts, but also explained that each of those books takes years to write, and he doesn't have enough time left to give them, and then he apologized to me.
I was unfortunately a little too far back to hear the questions that were posed without a microphone. If you were there, feel free to elaborate on them.
My pre-order for ATFF had gotten messed up, so I wasn't able to bring a copy to get signed. So, I bought a copy of Last Stories and Other Stories, got it signed, and mentioned that I would have gotten ATFF signed had it come in. He said to ask event personnel for a book plate, and he would sign it for me to take back. I bashfully told him he was my favorite author, thanked him for his work, and told him it had had a big impact on my life, and he waved his hands saying "Yeah yeah, yeah yeah," but not at all sardonic like you might imagine. After reentering the line and adding stress to the event personnel's evening as they tried to find a book plate, someone from the line gave me a sheet of paper and I set it in front of him. A big grin came over him as he doodled on it.
I found the bar he had mentioned at the event, and met several fellow readers who were all quite splendid people. He arrived with a few people, and everyone seemed equally conscious of wanting to talk to him but not wanting to crowd him. So, a fella from Buffalo and I approached him at what seemed a convenient time, said hello and thanks, and he said "There's a couple of chairs here if you'd like to sit down." Most of the people he had arrived with had split off, but one female friend about his age accompanied him the whole night. He introduced her, but the bar was quite loud with jazz music and talking, so I was not able to make out whether their friendship was professional or personal. Throughout the conversation, she clearly struggled to hear much of what was said, but was very kind and patient.
To keep my post focused on readership relevance, I will spare all the details of the conversation, except that I asked about the books about abortion and rape cases that are also unfinished. He said the abortion book just never really came together, but said he is staunchly pro-abortion (I mentioned him saying that he was pro-death, and he said "Absolutely."). He said his primary source for the book about rape cases was a lawyer, and that he more or less just grew too disgusted with the justice system to proceed. He was specifically hung up on the lawyer informing him that the judge and the prosecution generally go in knowing what the punishment is going to be for the accused, and that the policy is to keep the jury from knowing what it will be so that they won't go easy on anyone because of a punishment they might deem excessive. He said, "That's our justice system."
All in all, I was reminded of when Salman Rushdie said Thomas Pynchon "looks exactly like Thomas Pynchon should look." Vollmann is exactly the Bill you would hope to meet.
