Word: imperialã
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Dates: during 2009-2009
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...first and more likely but less immediately detrimental one was that we might get poisoned by the New River... The second peril, which seriously concerned me, was dehydration.” In spite of such ubiquitous danger, Vollmann’s devotion is unflagging; “Imperial?? is a work that leaves little to the imagination, and Vollmann literally leaves no stone unturned. His obsession both drives the book and sidetracks it. One chapter includes listings from the county directory of names and their corresponding occupations. In another, he describes a lingerie store and muses...
...Despite the initial semblance of journalistic reportage, the investigation that gives “Imperial?? its structure is far from objective. Vollmann indicates he had first visited Imperial with a lover. “Until a week ago this place had been hers and mine, our place,” he writes, “in those days Imperial was as beautiful as a double rainbow over the desert, rain falling and evaporating as it fell when we came down Highway 78 into Ocotillo.” He characterizes his quest as one to understand Imperial...
...Vollmann also fully indulges an impulse to make himself the frame for his book. Just as much as “Imperial is America,” as he writes, “Imperial?? is William Vollmann. He devotes large parts of the book to his favorite prostitutes and strippers, and one particularly memorable but puzzling chapter to the break up with his girlfriend. Other chapters are written from the perspective of a Mexican farmer, and others still are collections of quotes from previous pages...
...seems the best way to approach “Imperial?? is precisely the way Vollmann approached Imperial. Its disjointed structure is a service to the sheer volume of time it takes to finish the book. After a decade of research, in a 1,300-page book, Vollmann is still doubtful that he has really covered the entirety of Imperial. He often defends himself by claiming that Imperial is ultimately “unknowable.” And “Imperial,” too, teems with such limitless detail that no reader could possibly absorb...
...Vollmann goes further: “books are whatever we want them to be.” It seems to be an open invitation to take what you will and leave the rest for another time. It is this freedom that renders “Imperial?? at once a deeply personal and deeply resonant labor. “I am where I want to be, in Paradise. Let me now commence the history of Paradise...