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A review by h2oetry
Fathers and Crows by William T. Vollmann
5.0
“This book is dedicated against all dogmatists and their armies. Whoever they are, I cordially wish them a warm stay in Hell.” -- from the author’s dedicatory page.
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William the Blind, dictating through William T. Vollmann’s pen, writes as if Dostoevksy’s & Hemingway’s writing were having a ménage à trois with an atlas near the chilly mouth of a constantly-birthed-by-glacial-melt river.
The Second Dream of William The Blind flies Crow-Like(but certainly not in the attenuated vector path in which the phrase ‘as the crow flies’ would allude) over inlets of emergence and convergence as if the First Dream, The Ice-Shirt, is melting.
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We’re flung as salmon upstream toward Canada’s non-Canadaness circa the first half of the 17th century. The Huron tribe along with its warring opposition Iroquois tribes -- all waiting in the We Were Here First way -- are greeted by everyone’s favorite motive-wielding intruders: Christian missionaries. Hailing from France, these clergy are highly-trained Jesuits(called Black Robes by the natives) and arrive to share and trade their knowledge of eternity and salvation, which -- as all dogmatists know and portend -- comes at a price(but what of value?).
Emigrate and gentrify according to Our Team cultural determinants seems to be the modus operandi of a great number of European explorers, especially those driven by THE LORD. Having settled, what invariably comes next? The rapid fluctuations of: price, value, trade, currency. Currents, see?
What better way to encourage the free flow of the curren[ts;cy] than to prevent the Dam[nation]s raised by busy-bodied beavers? Simply give them -- the beavers -- a price, a value, a CONVERSION. Catch, skin, and tan THEM. Pelts for all! Cloak the rich with the coats, fill with pelts the boats.
Exchange is necessary. Pelts for Iron. Death for DEATH. The ultimate zero-sum game of DEATH whose backing lacks assets yet boasts ASSETS ASSETS ASSETS.
But the greed -- try as you surely may to pick a team -- runs both ways. Too many Yeses and not enough Nos or Knows. As the cultures gristle at assimilation, the tensions mount and bubble and wash over the rocks until, as blind as a riverbend, the valences of RAPIDS and WATERFALLS disturb the tranquil and offer obfuscating foam during the turbulent acceleration toward the UNKNOWN. Which among the boulders is to blame for the TURBULENCE?
Ascension offered as covert condescension; a promised DEATH sans resurrection. Why Dream of a Floating Island when HEAVEN awaits those baptized?
Until all requisite pronouns KNOW, all manner of means will be deployed. A means to THE END of which Our FATHERS have spoken.
Is Canada Canada, or is Canada New France, or is Canada of New France, and just what in THE WORLD was it before? Who can lay claim? Is claim lain?
All these questions posed because what do ANSWERS expose?
Thy will be done.
Thy will, be done.
No? Know.
Know? No.
*******
*******
William the Blind, dictating through William T. Vollmann’s pen, writes as if Dostoevksy’s & Hemingway’s writing were having a ménage à trois with an atlas near the chilly mouth of a constantly-birthed-by-glacial-melt river.
The Second Dream of William The Blind flies Crow-Like(but certainly not in the attenuated vector path in which the phrase ‘as the crow flies’ would allude) over inlets of emergence and convergence as if the First Dream, The Ice-Shirt, is melting.
*******
We’re flung as salmon upstream toward Canada’s non-Canadaness circa the first half of the 17th century. The Huron tribe along with its warring opposition Iroquois tribes -- all waiting in the We Were Here First way -- are greeted by everyone’s favorite motive-wielding intruders: Christian missionaries. Hailing from France, these clergy are highly-trained Jesuits(called Black Robes by the natives) and arrive to share and trade their knowledge of eternity and salvation, which -- as all dogmatists know and portend -- comes at a price(but what of value?).
Emigrate and gentrify according to Our Team cultural determinants seems to be the modus operandi of a great number of European explorers, especially those driven by THE LORD. Having settled, what invariably comes next? The rapid fluctuations of: price, value, trade, currency. Currents, see?
What better way to encourage the free flow of the curren[ts;cy] than to prevent the Dam[nation]s raised by busy-bodied beavers? Simply give them -- the beavers -- a price, a value, a CONVERSION. Catch, skin, and tan THEM. Pelts for all! Cloak the rich with the coats, fill with pelts the boats.
Exchange is necessary. Pelts for Iron. Death for DEATH. The ultimate zero-sum game of DEATH whose backing lacks assets yet boasts ASSETS ASSETS ASSETS.
But the greed -- try as you surely may to pick a team -- runs both ways. Too many Yeses and not enough Nos or Knows. As the cultures gristle at assimilation, the tensions mount and bubble and wash over the rocks until, as blind as a riverbend, the valences of RAPIDS and WATERFALLS disturb the tranquil and offer obfuscating foam during the turbulent acceleration toward the UNKNOWN. Which among the boulders is to blame for the TURBULENCE?
Ascension offered as covert condescension; a promised DEATH sans resurrection. Why Dream of a Floating Island when HEAVEN awaits those baptized?
Until all requisite pronouns KNOW, all manner of means will be deployed. A means to THE END of which Our FATHERS have spoken.
Is Canada Canada, or is Canada New France, or is Canada of New France, and just what in THE WORLD was it before? Who can lay claim? Is claim lain?
“He flew now the way a river bends without reason. He flew for the same reason (I suppose) that snow is darker than clouds; for hunger is no reason; hunger simply is. He flew until he could not fly anymore. Then he landed upon a snowy branch and died. History devours what happens, without any reason. History devoured the crow.” -- A Bird in Winter(215)
All these questions posed because what do ANSWERS expose?
Thy will be done.
Thy will, be done.
No? Know.
Know? No.
*******