Betram is planning to get married for the second time, quite quietly. In the bookbound alcove off the bare room where he writes when at home, william gass gave this interview in july of 1976. In fact, kohler can no longer bear his own life because he has experienced a myriad of frustrations and disappointments by middle age and has fallen into a deep sense of disillusionment and despair. William gass in the tunnel t jlhe jlhe subject is the shoah, the catastrophe, and how to account for it a subject in history, to say the least, to which gass as novelist and as theorist of fiction brings a presumption of the uncertainty of. Gass s theory of fiction for centuries of literary criticism, critics have noted that writers, both poets and fictionists, are artists using words the way musicians use notes and painters use watercolors or oils. Gass july 30, 1924 december 6, 2017 was an american novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, and former philosophy professor quotes.
The height of this form of protest was his longinprocess book the tunnel a. William gass teaching at washington university, 1974. The close friendship between william gass and fellow novelist william gaddis began in the early 1980s and lasted until gaddiss death in 1998. William gass writes about literary language, about history, about the avantgarde, about minimalisms brief vogue, about the use of the present tense in fiction is it due to the lack of both a sense of history and a belief in the future. Willie masters lonesome wife american literature dalkey. Gass from the author of the tunnel comes a new collection of essays, his first in eight years, on art, writing, nature and culture. From a simple narrative idea gass creates a complicated internal odyssey. Language as an escape from the discrete1 5 10 15 20 25 i came upon two wasps with intricate legs all occupied. Now, the best and most important of his work is collected in one volume.
Throughout his career, william gass relentlessly pushed at the boundaries of language, celebrating the music of the sentence and the aesthetics of the written word. One has to respect such care in crafting the tunnel. The tunnel is a novel by the american author william h. If you want to go down into the self, youd better go armed to the teeth. His 1995 novel the tunnel received the american book award. Thirty years in the making william gass s second novel first appeared on the literary scene in 1995 at which time it was promptly hailed as an indisputable. Middle c is your first novellength fiction in thirdperson narration. His 20 novel middle c won the 2015 william dean howells med. Click to share on twitter opens in new window click to share on tumblr opens in new window. His numerous accolades include the american book award for the tunnel 1996. Verdelle, the good negress 1995 david guterson, snow falling on cedars frederich busch, the children in the woods ursula hegi, stones from the river joyce carol oates, what i lived for joanna scott, various antidotes 1994 philip roth, operation shylock. Jun 22, 2005 tunneling below the decorous surface of language the way william kohler literally tunnels below his bourgeois home, the principal action that takes place in the present tense of the tunnel, gass tries to nurture unease about accepted versions of german history at the same time as he destroys comfortable interpretations of family life. The novel took 26 years to write and earned him the american book award of.
Debra di blasis gass pain says the tunnel suffocates in its similes and does not make its narrator wicked enough. The autonomous work of art thcrc is no outofdoors in thc world wherc janguage is the land. Hix provides a topical overview as an introduction to the novel. Gass is not quite as well known as many of his literary contemporaries, but he shouldnt be ignored. Louis, where he is the director of the international writers center. Pdf modernisms last gasp and the architecture of william h. It has been intended to become his masterpiece, as the almost thirty ycars dcvoted to its composition demonstrate. Yet william gass has said that the subject of the tunnel is not political fascism but that it uses adolf hitlers grand demonic plan for germany and the world as a metaphoric backdrop for. Gass from the author of the tunnel comes a new collection of essays, his first in eight years, on art, writing.
Youd expects to complete the 650page novel in 31 days, ending on may 31, his longest retyping performance to date. William gass in the tunnel t jlhe jlhe subject is the shoah, the catastrophe, and how to account for it a subject in history, to say the least, to which gass as novelist and as theorist of fiction brings a presumption of the uncertainty of narrative and of the autonomy of language. William gass, the tunnel 1995 rambru doc her have iihes sherbet. He wrote three novels, three collections of short stories, a collection of novellas, and seven volumes of essays, three of which have won national book critics circle award prizes and one of which, a temple of texts 2006, won the truman capote. Along with early typescript and manuscript drafts of willie masters lonesome wife, the william h. William gass on 12 of the most important books in his life.
Thirty years in the making, william gasss second novel first appeared. A classic david foster wallace double bind if you will. Reading rilke reflections on the problems of translations 9780465026227. In 1976 gass was on the panel that gave the national book award to gaddis for his second novel, j. Gass, one of the nations most esteemed writers of literature and criticism, died of congestive heart failure on wednesday dec. From his first major novel, omensetters luck 1966, to his numerous collections of essays and philosophical inquiries, to his controversial novel the tunnel. Writing a novel about his own life instead of the introduction to his magnum opus the tunnel meditates on. Dec 14, 2017 last week, one of my favorite authors, william h.
The tunnel is the work of william frederick kohler, a professor of history at an unnamed university in the american midwest. William howard gass was an american novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, and philosophy professor. At the lannan foundation in 1998, william gass reads from his second novel, the tunnel knopf, 1995, which took twentysix years to write and earned him the 1996 american book award. Gass s the tunnel, whatever its virtues, is not an inviting book. This book is by one of the most important and briliant thinkers at work today. The autonomous work of art thcrc is no outofdoors in thc world wherc janguage is the landl the tun11el is william gass s latcst work. The fictional life of william kohler, the narrator of the tunnel, shares several features with the real life of william gass. His prose is difficult, brooding, and deeply lyrical, and his stories are told almost exclusively through the point of view of obsessive, angry protagonists railing against their circumstances. William gass, the tunnel claire messud, when the world was steady a. William gass s the tunnel yoshihiro nagano william gass s the tunnel tells of the excruciatingly difficult life of william frederick kohler.
Gass papers contain a reading version typescript that gass used at readings. Mar 15, 2014 in his 1976 classic, william gass indulges his obsession with lists blue jeans, blue stockings, blue movies. Displaying words in narrative configurations, reimagining print. He wrote three novels, three collections of short stories, a collection of novellas, and seven volumes of essays. He is the author of seven works of fiction and nine books of essays, including life sentences, a temple of texts, and tests of time, and was a professor of philosophy at washington university. Gass captures the imagination and philosophical acumen of one of americas most important aestheticians, critical theorists, fiction writers, and essayists. Even a reader willing to endure its length and its narrators unrelenting bitterness must overcome. Download reading rilke reflections on the problems of. Its a delicious book about melancholia and sex, argues brian dillon.
The text was typed in multiple colors, providing clues into the different speakers or concepts gass was conveying. The first comprehensive study of the works of william gass addresses the extensive correlation between the theoretical and fictional works and places gass at the forefront of contemporary postrealism. His novels include the lauded omensetters luck, the tunnel, and middle c, and he also wrote a number of insightful essays on the craft of writing. Gass essayist, novelist, literary criticwas born in fargo, north dakota. In gass s next works, willie masters lonesome wife 1968 and after an interval of over twentyfive years the tunnel, language is treated even more obviously as the primary object of interest, although in these books language isnt merely style in the conventional sense, the usual sequence of sentences and paragraphs. He was an elder statesman of postwar american fiction.
Mimo pokaznego dorobku literackiego i filozoficznego pozostaje w szerszym odbiorze tworca trudnym i na swiecie slabo znanym. William howard gass july 30, 1924 december 6, 2017 was an american novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, and philosophy professor. Click through for all the details and to read some fine new essays on the book. Click through for all the details and to read some fine. The novel took 26 years to write and earned him the american book award of 1996, and was also a finalist for the penfaulkner award.
Consider that william gass created this masterpiece over roughly the same time frame it takes to pay off the average mortgage 652 pages in 30 years. The greatly esteemed essayist, novelist, and philosopher reflects on the art of translation and on rainer maria rilkes duino elegiesand gives us his own translation of rilkes masterw. Gass died on december 6, 2017 at the age of ninetythree. There are essays on plato, hobbes, james, joyce, beckett, stein, gaddis, sterne, ford madox ford, thomas mann.
1781 58 369 1559 1456 635 1747 1588 1359 772 116 771 221 375 172 986 98 328 1090 1070 1695 390