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Argall The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith William T Vollmann 9780142001509 Books

Download As PDF : Argall The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith William T Vollmann 9780142001509 Books

Argall The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith William T Vollmann 9780142001509 Books

William Vollmann’s novel Argall is about John Smith and the early colonization of Virginia. It is written in very stylistic prose which is meant to mimic - to some degree at least - the prose of the 17th century. It is not a fast-paced novel, it can be slow going and repetitive in places, but it is not as dense or impenetrable as I feared it might be and it is an aesthetic masterpiece and thematically very rich. The prose is really beautiful and Vollmann manages to elevate the characters and events portrayed in his novel to mythic significance. The characters are not just explorers searching for a new place to live. They are spiritual seekers who are trying to escape the decay and sin of Gravesend - which is both a real and symbolic place - and imagine there is a Paradise to be found in the New World. This belief, and the desire for immortality, is so powerful, that they are willing to commit horrendous violence and suffer terrible hardships in pursuit of these dreams. But, ultimately, the dreams prove to be illusory since they find that “life e’en here on this far-flung Continent continued subject to the same baleful influences of sin & decay” (407).

The prose in the novel is really beautiful. Rather than trying to describe it I will just highlight some quotes that I personally found beautiful: “Moonlight’s his only match to strike vision’s spark. Can he see? The clouds gape open; the round marsh-face called Luna peers down through the wound” (61). “though we know not which thought-flowers bloomed in the bone-room beneath her lustrous scalp” (265). “His fears swim slow and silent like an alligator submerged unto the eyes” (379). “All the grass bowed before the wind as if some invisible Prince were running his carelessly caressing hand down the furry neck of that dog called Terra” (510). “Twilight o’rran the oozy rushes behind James Towne, and he knew now GOD would never bless his life, that life would go on & on, that he would struggle in this swamp. The crickets began for to scream” (267). “Behind Argoll’s smoldering eyes burns a veritable Holocaust of starres, energy beyond any human limit” (347). “And thus flows humanity through this Dream, cloaking fear & murther deep within its own soft-grown flesh” (636). If you find this kind of prose moving you will love this book because it is full of it.

John Smith as a character is sort of the Ishmael of the novel. The landlubber who longs for the open sea and adventure. He represents the person who is not satisfied with their humble station in life: everyone who lives in a small town and wants to move to the big city, everyone who is stuck in a dead end job and imagines moving to another country for adventure, everyone who feels trapped in a hum drum life and imagines a life totally free of boredom and tedium on the other side of some metaphorical ocean. He has a reverend warning him that his desire is “pride…that most revolting revulsion of the soul, when, contrary to GOD, we struggle to vomit our afflictions out…How can we seek to change our state, which GOD assigned each of us before birth?” (65). But the desire is too deep to be uprooted with pious sermons so John Smith does everything he can to escape his boring life in England and trade it for a life of adventure. Unlike some of the characters in the book John Smith is not striving for real gold but an “Ideal Gold which glisters thrice remov’d from the kind that Captaines Ratcliffe & Newport had sought at Cape Henrico” (405).

The novel can be read at a purely historical level and there is no doubt that it presents a fascinating story. We follow John Smith through his entire life, his slavery to the Turks, his trips to the New World, the politics and the Indian raids. But, ultimately, I think the novel is about the human condition. We all struggle with the human condition which involves us in “harbor-foulnesses: the rotting, stinking hopes, the visions gutted & fried in Tavern-houses” and “most of us accomodate ourselves to such impurities by learning to deny our sense of smell” (406). We project some Ideal that we believe will allow us to escape our condition because “When eyesight stands at variance from dreamsight, ’tis natural to go Adventuring in misty places” (261). This “dream” is what the novel is about. The colonists dream of making the whole world new but because “eyesight stands at variance from dreamsight” their dream just produces violence and holocaust. What I found most interesting about Vollmann’s book is precisely that the explorers are not motivated by purely material gain or, to put it another way, we see that even the desire for material gain is really a misguided spiritual striving and ultimately leads to destruction.

Even after a succesful plunder the colonists find “Their plunder wearied ‘em now. They trampled it, or threw it into the river, or half-heartedly essayed to give it away. They complain’d that it stank” (429). Who does not recognize themselves in such a description? We project a desire for something into the future: a new car, a new job, a new life, and then as soon as we get it we are already weary of it. The novel is about disillusionment. The dream of Virginia was the dream of a final beatitude but, in the end, instead of apotheosis we get a parade of road signs for discount cigarettes and fireworks and we are still captives in the same rotting flesh. I mentioned this in another review but the writer Henry David Thoreau lamented that the writers of his time were still writing about the Greeks (Achilles, Hercules, etc.) rather than turning their own history into something of mythic significance. William Vollmann is one of the few writers that I think really is turning our own history into myth. The characters in Argall are giants that represent universal human traits. This is probably the main reason I value this novel so much. If this kind of thing excites you I recommend giving it a try.


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Argall The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith William T Vollmann 9780142001509 Books Reviews

I was very patient ,and I read nearly half the book.

It is neither a historical book of any sort nor a novel of any sort.

If it were a historical book it should absolutely prove every detail. It is not the case, most details are fictionally reconstructed, hence have no historical value whatsoever.

If it were a novel it should be 300 pages at the most and have a dynamic plot. It is 750 pages long and there is no plot really, except the general framework we all know by heart since it is the one we learned at school or can read in all serious presentations no more than 25 pages long. But he gets lost in details, reconstructed details that have no dramatic value. Who cares if there were three geese taking off page 275, or any other page as for that, and not four or five? Is that three indicating anything? Of course not. It is chosen haphazardly because detail makes the story sound true but it does not at all.

Constantly referring to Machiavelli, and never quoting him really, is irritating because it assumes John Smith knew Machiavelli, was constantly inspired by him, and that it has any historical or dramatic value, though it has none. It is nothing but ornament, fioritura in the baroque meaning, the style of castrati, but that brings nothing to the story itself.

In other words this book is over-praised. It is not historically sound and it is absolutely boring at the fictional level.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
This novel is a commentary on events in the reign of Elizabeth I that makes it clear, by frequent addresses to the reader, that the author is aware of his subjectivity. It is a technique that knows no distinction between commentary and participation.

The tale beings in with John Smith from Lincolnshire as he waits in Gravesend for a ship, and follows his indirect course to Pocohontas in Virginia.

The text presents a succession of visual idiosyncrasies, I cannot reproduce them, but if the reader is to have any idea of the linguistic style I must reproduce a text rendered to more conventional appearances.

See John Smith ... well, let's see John Smith. How does he appear? Arctic-whiskered, large of forehead, with twinkling eyes. He puts his hand on hip, t'other hand on the pommel of his sword, preferring not to scrape ungracious bows. Such is his portrait. And even though his eyes do not twinkle now, and his hands are chained, and he has no sword, Tragabigzanda, Greekish-blooded, smiles and covers not her face. Her mother reproves her.

Sweet John bows low & murmurs Your most humble servaunt.

See Tragabigzanda as doth the Turkishe sun, in a hat as tall & narrow-tapered as the spire of a church. She will guard her whiteness. She wears silver bangles on her arms, and a necklace of silver at her throat.

Semi-impeachable sources in the British Museum report that the harshly tuneless clamour of bells which issued from that crowded ruined tower in France at the exact moment that Cursell fell to the ground, striking like unto the very clapper of a bell - that all the rusty tones and warped echoes were scattered somehow by the breathing of those who watched. I long to say that quick soft respirations likewise softened the rattle of Sweet John's chains! But did they? (Argall, p 99)

I think this excerpt shows how the style is not unlike the comments a blind man might receive from a friend as they watch a silent movie. It is a style that may irritate some, but for me the intermingling of old film and contemporary friend is more than adequate recompense for blindness.

I don't know who, or what, Cursell was, but if you want to feel the breath of another age then Vollmann has given it the kiss of life in this book.
a great book -ranks in my top 10 over my lifetime.
William Vollmann’s novel Argall is about John Smith and the early colonization of Virginia. It is written in very stylistic prose which is meant to mimic - to some degree at least - the prose of the 17th century. It is not a fast-paced novel, it can be slow going and repetitive in places, but it is not as dense or impenetrable as I feared it might be and it is an aesthetic masterpiece and thematically very rich. The prose is really beautiful and Vollmann manages to elevate the characters and events portrayed in his novel to mythic significance. The characters are not just explorers searching for a new place to live. They are spiritual seekers who are trying to escape the decay and sin of Gravesend - which is both a real and symbolic place - and imagine there is a Paradise to be found in the New World. This belief, and the desire for immortality, is so powerful, that they are willing to commit horrendous violence and suffer terrible hardships in pursuit of these dreams. But, ultimately, the dreams prove to be illusory since they find that “life e’en here on this far-flung Continent continued subject to the same baleful influences of sin & decay” (407).

The prose in the novel is really beautiful. Rather than trying to describe it I will just highlight some quotes that I personally found beautiful “Moonlight’s his only match to strike vision’s spark. Can he see? The clouds gape open; the round marsh-face called Luna peers down through the wound” (61). “though we know not which thought-flowers bloomed in the bone-room beneath her lustrous scalp” (265). “His fears swim slow and silent like an alligator submerged unto the eyes” (379). “All the grass bowed before the wind as if some invisible Prince were running his carelessly caressing hand down the furry neck of that dog called Terra” (510). “Twilight o’rran the oozy rushes behind James Towne, and he knew now GOD would never bless his life, that life would go on & on, that he would struggle in this swamp. The crickets began for to scream” (267). “Behind Argoll’s smoldering eyes burns a veritable Holocaust of starres, energy beyond any human limit” (347). “And thus flows humanity through this Dream, cloaking fear & murther deep within its own soft-grown flesh” (636). If you find this kind of prose moving you will love this book because it is full of it.

John Smith as a character is sort of the Ishmael of the novel. The landlubber who longs for the open sea and adventure. He represents the person who is not satisfied with their humble station in life everyone who lives in a small town and wants to move to the big city, everyone who is stuck in a dead end job and imagines moving to another country for adventure, everyone who feels trapped in a hum drum life and imagines a life totally free of boredom and tedium on the other side of some metaphorical ocean. He has a reverend warning him that his desire is “pride…that most revolting revulsion of the soul, when, contrary to GOD, we struggle to vomit our afflictions out…How can we seek to change our state, which GOD assigned each of us before birth?” (65). But the desire is too deep to be uprooted with pious sermons so John Smith does everything he can to escape his boring life in England and trade it for a life of adventure. Unlike some of the characters in the book John Smith is not striving for real gold but an “Ideal Gold which glisters thrice remov’d from the kind that Captaines Ratcliffe & Newport had sought at Cape Henrico” (405).

The novel can be read at a purely historical level and there is no doubt that it presents a fascinating story. We follow John Smith through his entire life, his slavery to the Turks, his trips to the New World, the politics and the Indian raids. But, ultimately, I think the novel is about the human condition. We all struggle with the human condition which involves us in “harbor-foulnesses the rotting, stinking hopes, the visions gutted & fried in Tavern-houses” and “most of us accomodate ourselves to such impurities by learning to deny our sense of smell” (406). We project some Ideal that we believe will allow us to escape our condition because “When eyesight stands at variance from dreamsight, ’tis natural to go Adventuring in misty places” (261). This “dream” is what the novel is about. The colonists dream of making the whole world new but because “eyesight stands at variance from dreamsight” their dream just produces violence and holocaust. What I found most interesting about Vollmann’s book is precisely that the explorers are not motivated by purely material gain or, to put it another way, we see that even the desire for material gain is really a misguided spiritual striving and ultimately leads to destruction.

Even after a succesful plunder the colonists find “Their plunder wearied ‘em now. They trampled it, or threw it into the river, or half-heartedly essayed to give it away. They complain’d that it stank” (429). Who does not recognize themselves in such a description? We project a desire for something into the future a new car, a new job, a new life, and then as soon as we get it we are already weary of it. The novel is about disillusionment. The dream of Virginia was the dream of a final beatitude but, in the end, instead of apotheosis we get a parade of road signs for discount cigarettes and fireworks and we are still captives in the same rotting flesh. I mentioned this in another review but the writer Henry David Thoreau lamented that the writers of his time were still writing about the Greeks (Achilles, Hercules, etc.) rather than turning their own history into something of mythic significance. William Vollmann is one of the few writers that I think really is turning our own history into myth. The characters in Argall are giants that represent universal human traits. This is probably the main reason I value this novel so much. If this kind of thing excites you I recommend giving it a try.