RISING UP AND RISING DOWN: Vol. I by William T. Vollmann

Buy me a coffee: ko-fi.com/leaf...
Hardcover, 3298 pages
Published 2003 by McSweeney's
ISBN: 1932416021
/ 393078.rising_up_and_r...
My RURD playlist:
• Rising Up and Rising D...
An Oral History of this book’s coming to be:
www.mcsweeneys...
#leafbyleaf #williamtvollmann #risingupandrisingdown #mcsweeneys #bookreview

[@xgryphenx]

As to his home library, he told me when I met him after a reading and we went to the bar that the majority of his research is done at public libraries and that though he takes good notes he doesn't actually own that many of the books he cites so extensively.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks for sharing that anecdote. It makes him *slightly* more human in my eyes.

[@clarkp22]

The unabridged! You absolute madman! I love it. Very excited to experience this vicariously through your videos.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I've been wanting to take this journey for a long time, and I never imagined I'd get to share it with you all!

[@april_ludgate]

Yes, new vlog! You deserve more subscribers, one of the best booktubes I've encountered.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Wow, thanks so much--I really appreciate that!

[@april_ludgate]

@@LeafbyLeaf You're welcome! You have amazing taste in books and it transcends in your videos. Looking forward for more of it. 😊

[@Space-nb7dr]

@@april_ludgate he makes non Mainsteream content 😍

[@april_ludgate]

@@Space-nb7dr Yes! I actually discovered amazing books and authors because of him, including Vollmann.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

🙏😁

[@BookShore]

Videos like this is why your such an important figurehead for literary crit

[@LeafbyLeaf]

🙏

[@joseramirez-hh2sw]

Honestly I've recently subbed and I've been binging your videos! Love the intonation in your voice as you peak into passion for reading. Its a great time, just listening to someone be as passionate for the read, and I can't help but keep turning to the next video after the end of each one -I love the compiled videos in your playlists. Thanks for the great content!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Hey there! I really, really appreciate your kind words. It is a privilege to share my passion for reading--and an even greater thrill when it connects with someone. All my best to you!

[@alexjohnson9798]

These 7 volumes are worth about as much as my entire library, financially at least. Damn.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

😂 love your avatar (The Tunnel!)

[@alexjohnson9798]

Thanks!

[@gravitysrandom5612]

Oh my lord, I've been waiting for this. Thank you!!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

You’re welcome! My video on volume 2 will be up in a couple weeks.

[@gravitysrandom5612]

@@LeafbyLeaf Really love the insights you bring into such a grand masterpiece

[@LeafbyLeaf]

That word gets thrown around liberally-but it really is a masterpiece!

[@TLQWERTY]

Thank you for introducing me to Vollmann! I recently picked up The Ice Shirt. Looking forward to diving in soon.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

You’re quite welcome! I love the Seven Dreams books. Enjoy!

[@syater]

I testify, he is an actual human being. He's definitely not an average human being. In 1990, I believe only "You Bright and Risen Angels" and "Rainbow Stories" had been published so far. I had read them both and so went to a reading he gave in San Francisco. The opening reader ended his thoughts on musician Jackie McLean. Apparently, just in case anyone was feeling a little sleepy, Vollmann walked to the front and fired a handgun. What a way to get everyone's full attention.

[@bigfat4172]

I heard DFW had tried to become a friend to Vollman but Vollman would do weird shit like that and so DFW figured he was too strange for him lol.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Haha, yes!-that is recounted in the biography Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story. I bring that up in my IJ video.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

@syater Ahhhh, so you were a witness to that notorious reading! How cool!

[@syater]

@@LeafbyLeafYes indeed. It was a fairly small crowd and as it turned out, he had been sitting next to me throughout the first reading. I wasn't aware until now it was an event of legend. But I'm not surprised.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Wow! What an experience!

[@adobe4578]

I always look forward to your review of anything Vollmann. A couple years ago, I had to buy an unabridged copy a couple years ago (it wasn't getting any cheaper). Eventually i'll get to it. He never has a shortage of works to catch up on (reading Poor People at the moment)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks, Patrick! Glad you were able to snag a set before the prices went astronomical! And you're right--there will always be Vollmann TBR.

[@tony9684]

Thank you for sharing that. Well-presented and articulated. Congratulations on your work!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks, Antonio!

[@wesleyallen2593]

It's dangerous for me to watch these: I need to stay committed to my current books... Maybe 2022 will be the year of RURD for me. Until then, looks classy on the ol' bookshelf. Looking forward to hearing more of your experience, my friend.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I totally get that, of course! I’ve had to shun all the posts about people reading Women and Men so I can stayed focused. But I can’t wait to get to that book!

[@wesleyallen2593]

@@LeafbyLeaf Once you do, I bet your video review will be quite popular. That book has really come into the limelight the past couple years.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

There is a group of readers who are reading digging into it right now. They’re paving the way! I will be reading his first novel this year.

[@wesleyallen2593]

@@LeafbyLeaf I've only ever read Women and Men, and that was 4-5 years back. Probably need to broaden my McElroy reading... Maybe I'll take on one of his shorter/cheaper books.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I started with his story collection Night Souls.

[@lucaseravalli4924]

Impressive, Chris! I’ve read an article by an Italian author that it was actually Dave Eggers to decide to publish it... It would love to find this masterpiece at some stage (although the price for the existing copies is way too high for me at the moment)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Yes, correct, McSweeney’s is Eggers’s operation.

[@estebanmejia3473]

Amazing video 👌🏻, I'm happy that you were able to find these books :)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

It is a dream come true to finally own them!

[@MegaElpunto]

Glad you brought up IBM towards the end there

[@LeafbyLeaf]

More and more, I am convinced WTV is lab-sourced prototype that evaded scrapping. Government + IBM just seems most likely.

[@jdamsel8212]

A moment of silence for leafs wallet.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

😂😂😂🙏🙏🙏

[@thegrimmreader3649]

Absolutely amazing presentation! You made me want to read this. I wandered over to his stuff on goodreads and I am with you: I'm not sure if he is human!!! :-)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Danke schon, Frau(line?) Grimm! And the more I read him, the more I'm convinced he's an advance AI that escaped the labratory.

[@levitybooks3952]

This feels like the final boss of postmodern literature. Although it's a very different topic, I wonder if in its magnanimity your experience of it feel as vast as Proust. You're doing a great contribution dissecting it for us who are either too intimidated by its size or unable to find or afford it!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Haha--unabridged RURD as final boss is certainly apt! Though in terms of "postmodern lit" and "Proust," etc., RURD is something totally other. It is very much a non-fiction essay (albeit an incredibly long one) that encompasses philosophy, ethics, history, sociology, politics, anthropology, and more. If I tried to draw connections between Proust and RURD they would be extremely tenuous.

[@bjwnashe5589]

Nice presentation on this profound work.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much! 🙏

[@electricsquidxd3254]

2022, I can't find this set anywhere in a library or find the volumes being sold individually, the best I could find were full sets for $1,200->$2,000

[@LeafbyLeaf]

It's exorbitant, usurious, and sad, for sure. Even with my set, I had to spend months bartering with a library that had discarded the set to get them from $1,000 down to $450. It's truly a shame such a rich and important work, coming out of decades of research, traveling, and thinking, is so unobtainable.

[@bjwnashe5589]

I would like to recommend Olga Tokarczuk, a Polish writer who recently won the Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. I am currently reading her book Flights, which strikes me as a masterpiece. She is a bold, humorous, non-compromising intellectual writer. Her stuff is still in the process of being translated into English. But we have a handful to get started on.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks-she is definitely on my radar!

[@thegrimmreader3649]

Thanks for reminding me about Flights! Loved „Drive Your Plow“

[@harbin88]

I am trying to figure out if the it is the same person now in short hair and the person who made the Prust 27 videos with long hair, same?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Haha-they’re both me!

[@harbin88]

@@LeafbyLeaf Admire your work!👍🏻

[@LeafbyLeaf]

🙏

[@pmaher63]

will you ever review Argall? Great channel. thanks!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Two big books I plan to read before the year is over: Argall and A Smuggler's Bible.

[@stolenflowers4775]

When in doubt, go to a library! I have access to the full unabridged set at my community college library... When in doubt, go to a library!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Hear, hear! Life-saving wisdom, indeed!

[@AbstruseVideoCollections1988]

I was wondering how much of the Moral Calculus is in the abridged edition?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

The abridged version contains the complete moral calculus-it is distributed throughout the volume to complement the case studies.

[@tsvetelinmonchev624]

Hi Chris, have you ever read Donald Barthelme? It would be amazing to have a video on him, he’s too unknown and under appreciated if you ask me.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Yes, I have and you’re right-he needs a video and more recognition. By the way, Library of America is publishing an omnibus of his work in May!

[@helpyourcattodrive]

Interesting.

[@questioneverything55]

Where did you get the 7 volumes? I can't find them without them being sold for extortion prices.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I negotiated with a seller on eBay for two months until they finally came to an agreeable (though still exorbitant) price.

[@questioneverything55]

@@LeafbyLeaf They must not have printed many of those volumes?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Very few. And a single print run from McSweeney’s. Ecco published an abridgment that is worth a read.

[@cojojojo1222]

The bible on the violence conversation. Great video! Would you consider scanning it or ask someone to scan it for a better distribution of this tome?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Unfortunately, such activity conflicts with my moral calculus--but I do know that the treasure you seek is available. :)

[@marcelhidalgo1076]

How should I start my path down Vollmann's works?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

My go-to recommendation for beginning Vollmann is The Atlas. And I’ve got a video on it out here too. Enjoy!

[@marcelhidalgo1076]

@@LeafbyLeaf thanks again!

[@foothillelement]

Well, reading Simon Winchester's 'The Professor and the Madman' led two different editions of the 'Oxford English Dictionary, so perhaps the abridged editon of "Rising Up and Rising Down' will result in a complete set of Mr. Vollmann's work, if ever reprinted. I shudder at what you must have layed out for your set.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Haha! I could definitely see myself snatching up copies of the OED after reading that book (I haven't read it yet, but I know about it). After months and months of bartering, I got my set for $450.

[@foothillelement]

@@LeafbyLeaf The film with Sean Penn about William Minor, 'the Madman', was better than anticipated, and if you're diligent in your search there are OED values out there.

[@vals4207]

Looks like today i have a pleasure to be the first one to comment on your video, and great video as usual. :-)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

CONGRATULATIONS! FIRST COMMENTER! :) Thanks so much!

[@feanor7080]

Ordered the Rifles last week. It will be my first Vollmann and I hope it’s a good place to start with him? If not, which fiction work would you suggest?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

It’s a fine place to start, but my recommendation is The Atlas (I’ve a video on it).

[@TheLastSisyphus]

Do you happen to know if the seven-volume set is sold separately?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

As in: can you buy the individual volumes? In short--I don't think so. At least, I've not come across anyone selling them that way. Alas, alas.

[@electricsquidxd3254]

Where can I get this set at a decent price?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I think the best source is eBay. For my set, I spent a month negotiating with a seller. And someone else recently told me they were able to get a set via eBay for a decent price. Best of luck!

[@zackrida5452]

I'm very interested in his non fiction where should i start ?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Hmmmm, for hard-line non-fiction maybe Carbon Ideologies or Poor People. For a blend of non-fiction and WTV’s powerful imagination-I always recommend The Atlas, which is also a great primer for WTV in general.

[@zackrida5452]

@@LeafbyLeaf Will check them out thanks man

[@LeafbyLeaf]

🤟

[@rickharsch8797]

It will be interesting to see if you find the divisiveness of today to be of special note as you read on.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Oh, certainly. These topics are perennial and all-encompassing.

[@desperateswabianhousewife8317]

Like a couple of months ago, you bully me again into another Vollmann binge? Fine. Ok. Alright, I read it. Thanks. *sigh* Just kidding. I'm sure I will love it and get plenty of nourishment out of it like from the first two volumes of his Seven Dreams series or his Poor People. Already ordered the first two volumes through my library. Btw. do you have any thoughts on Russell Banks?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

😂

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I’ve never read Banks.

[@jwichmann1306]

Where on earth did you find this collection?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

If you mean, how did I come to find out about it, it's simply because I'm a big Vollmann fan and this is his magnum opus. If, however, you already knew that and you're asking how on Earth I managed to actually obtain a copy: it is the fruit of months' worth of negotiation with a library down in Florida. Cheers!

[@jwichmann1306]

@@LeafbyLeaf oh i see, impressive. I was interested how you obtained it.

[@destine1547]

Looks up unabridged version and sees it’s like 1500 dollars 💀

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I know, man-it’s insane! There’s a community of us lobbying for a reissue or an ebook.

[@thegeniusofthecrowd354]

I don't know if you can ever justify violence but harsh Darwinian selection pressure sometimes necessitates it.

[@bloobfew3499]

I want to write like him 😭

[@LeafbyLeaf]

You and me both! Coincidentally I’m posting my video of volume II of this tomorrow.

[@Space-nb7dr]

Philosphy book ?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

It is an essay (albeit a 4,000-page one!) that encompasses philosophy, history, sociology, anthropology, ethics, and more.

[@mattjmjmjm4731]

I like your reviews of his books but I can't convince myself to read any one of his huge fiction or non-fiction books.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

How about the smaller ones?

[@mattjmjmjm4731]

@@LeafbyLeaf Haven't look into them as much as his bigger stuff.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Right on. I would suggest The Rifles (historical fiction), Poor People (non-fiction), or even Whores for Gloria (fiction) though it’s not one of my favorites of his.

[@mattjmjmjm4731]

@@LeafbyLeaf I might try The Rifles but what would say is the main appeal of his fiction?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I would say his amount of research (especially his intrepid first-hand research) and his aesthetic. His style is very much his own. For what it’s worth my favorite WTV fiction is definitely his Seven Dreams books. But The Atlas (a mix of non-fiction and his fictional style) is still his best starting point.

[@bigfat4172]

Bruv wtf do you do for a living so you can afford this. I was already blown away you had a copy of Bottom's Dream and now this.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Hahaha! I’m in software development. I’ve been in full-time IT since I was 15 (I’m 36).

[@soundtrack795]

@@LeafbyLeaf That's interesting. In my experience, people who are into IT are almost never into literature, or history, or philosophy, or reading of any kind really. hah :) I love to see that it's not completely the case.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Most people tilt their heads when they learn I have a bachelor’s in computer science and a master’s in literature and writing. With rare exceptions, it is the typical case that IT people aren’t into literature at this level-save for sci-fi and comics! This is part of why I started the channel; I don’t really have anyone with whom to share my love of literature. Oh, actually, paperbird (here on KZbin) is in IT and deep into serious literature!

[@ToriKo_]

@@LeafbyLeaf how on earth do u find the time to finish these books? Don’t you sleep? Have a social life. Do all the life things? I’m struggling to retain my identity (and a will to live) after I started 40+ hr a week work. Don’t you feel exhausted after you finish work?

[@marioknoll469]

@@ToriKo_ same question here. i often feel so sleepy and stressed that i can't concentrate anymore. how he can manage this?

[@Space-nb7dr]

Do you learn theology ?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I do study theology, yes-and I am a lifelong Bible reader.

[@Space-nb7dr]

@@LeafbyLeaf Mhmm, favorite theology book ?

[@Space-nb7dr]

@@LeafbyLeaf Well, God Bless you for confessing that you are christian 🙂

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Hard to pick one but here are some favorites: The Unseen Realm (Michael S. Heiser), Warranted Christian Belief (Alvin Plantinga), The Christian in Complete Armour (Gurnall), The Attributes of God (Charnock), Israelology (Fruchtenbaum).

[@wesleyallen2593]

@@LeafbyLeaf Some folks consider Barth something of a radical, but I'd love to hear your take on the complete Church Dogmatics. Massive!