“Bleak But Gorgeous, Like Light Through Ice”

December 7, 2017 12:21 PM

Prize-winning author-critic William Gass dead at 93 [AP]

William H. Gass, Acclaimed Postmodern Author, Dies at 93 [NYT]
Why you should read: William H Gass [Grauniad, 2015]
Reading William Gass [Website dedicated to Gass]
William Gass, The Art of Fiction No. 65 [The Paris Review, 1977 - Paywalled]

posted by chavenet (14 comments total)

I've always struggled with and been fascinated by his writing. He wrote prose that was fluid and captivating and I could only dream of being able to craft. A few years ago I posted this conversation with him that still leaves me floored.

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posted by holmesian at 12:33 PM on December 7, 2017 [1 favorite]

I had the great pleasure of meeting him while I was in grad school. His work had a profound effect on my understanding of aesthetics, the importance of art and the artist, and how to write effectively about complex ideas.

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posted by ga$money at 12:51 PM on December 7, 2017 [3 favorites]

Ahh, damn. I reread "In the Heart of the Heart of the Country" every holiday season. This year's reading will have more than the usual quantity of sadness laid over it. I found the endlessly deferred "The Tunnel" to be a meanspirited slog, but the early stories and novellas, plus "On Being Blue", "Omensetter's Luck", and his many glittering and incisive essays, will shine forever.
posted by informavore at 12:53 PM on December 7, 2017 [2 favorites]

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posted by Fizz at 12:55 PM on December 7, 2017 [1 favorite]

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posted by lalochezia at 1:10 PM on December 7, 2017

In The Heart of the Heart of the Country annotated at Genius.com
posted by chavenet at 1:19 PM on December 7, 2017 [3 favorites]

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posted by Iridic at 2:01 PM on December 7, 2017

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posted by eclectist at 2:13 PM on December 7, 2017

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posted by penduluum at 2:50 PM on December 7, 2017

Just realized I recognized the name from "Reading Rilke". Damn. .
posted by grimjeer at 6:31 PM on December 7, 2017

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posted by coolxcool=rad at 7:27 PM on December 7, 2017

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posted by thivaia at 6:55 AM on December 8, 2017

I think his review/foreword for Gertrude Stein's The Making of Americans is one of the best things he's written. It does so much to illuminate a very abstruse text, which then shows that dismissing Stein as simply fashionably inscrutable is wildly incorrect. I really recommend it.
posted by OmieWise at 10:29 AM on December 8, 2017

I just happened to start reading The Tunnel this week (I had "endlessly deferred" it just like informavore) and I later heard he had passed away. Gass was the master of the mad monologue, pathologically dedicated to the social and personal role of literature.
posted by Fritz Langwedge at 6:19 AM on December 9, 2017