"He believed because an artist must believe as easily and deeply as a child cries. What's creation but self-enacted belief? - Now for a cautionary note from E. Mravinsky: Shostakovich's music is self-ironic, which to me implies insincerity. This masquerade imparts the spurious impression that Shostakovich is being emotional. In reality, his music conceals extremely deep lyric feelings which are carefully protected from the outside world. In other words, is Shostakovich emotional or not? Feelings conceal - feelings. Could it be that this languishing longing I hear in Opus 40 actually masks something else? But didn't he promise Elena that she was the one for him? And how can love be self-ironic? All right, I do remember the rocking-horse sequence, but isn't that self mockery simply self-abnegation, the old lover's trick? Elena believes in me, I know she does! How ticklishly wonderful! Even Glikman can see it, although perhaps I shouldn't have told Glikman, because...What can love be if not faith? We look into each other's faces and believe: Here's the one for me!"
- William Vollmann, "Europe Central" (92)
-his latest: "Kissing the Mask," a 528 page meditation on Noh Theater
- "The David Blaine of Literature?" A somewhat shortsighted but widely read and generally interesting critique at Lit Kicks
- non-fiction piece on Afghanistan
- If you want to know what he thinks about prostitutes (among other things)
ps. hi everyone! back in the us - back posting on this thing.
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