why are people talking about DF Wallace so much without peep 1 re: William Vollman?

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particularly when WV just put out that 10,000 word McSweeney's thing about cruelty and someone on another thread contends DFW writes about THE CONDITIONS THAT CREATED DAVE EGGERS?

― sparkle bombeck, Thursday, 24 March 2005 04:43 (twenty years ago)

Probably because no one reads his books.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:04 (twenty years ago)

popist

― sparkle bombeck, Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:52 (twenty years ago)

I bought this one randomly. I would read a few chapters at a time (it's a series of vignettes from his travels, who knows how much is real and how much is fiction), but I stopped over a year ago, around half way through. I wasn't really finding it worth the effort of disentangling his prose. There were probably three or more chapters I didn't like for every one I did. The Publisher's Weekly review on the Amazon page is also mostly OTM.

― W i l l (common_person), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:56 (twenty years ago)

Sorry, I know that was snarky, but all the excerpts I read from that Rising Up, Rising Down book made him sound like a pompous retard.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 25 March 2005 01:15 (twenty years ago)

That's the general impression I always got. I'm waiting for someone to prove me wrong.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 25 March 2005 03:02 (twenty years ago)

I know people who like him, and one of them even read RU,RD, and liked it. But I don't think I've read anything by him.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 25 March 2005 08:37 (twenty years ago)

Oh c'mon, WV is definitely worth reading. Who else has read The Royal Family? I'm not sure what I remember most about it: the story itself, or buying it new at $40 and then seeing it discounted a week later to $8.

― David Joyner (David Joyner), Saturday, 2 April 2005 00:28 (twenty years ago)

i know someone who read rising up, rising down. he is an ILXor of wit and taste:

http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0350,clover,49284,10.html

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:43 (twenty years ago)

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