The Atlas Read online

  Praise for The Atlas

  "These are anxious and dark reports from around the globe. . . . Vollmann is a gifted and obsessed writer, taking for his territory the embattled turf of the wounded Hemingway hero."

  —San Francisco Chronicle

  "An atlas of narrative styles and rhetorical devices, from allegory to zeugma. If nothing else, The Atlas offers further proof that Vollmann is perhaps the most stylistically daring writer working today."

  —Chicago Tribune

  "Woven through these pages are all the obsessions that have made Vollmann an avatar of postmodern literary chic: the petty thieves and hookers, the threats of physical danger, the sensations of living on the edge . . . the book has much to recommend it, not least its insights into Vollmann's mind."

  —The Village Voice

  "Vollmann is a raw and natural genius. ... At his best, Vollmann is both lucid and lush, like sunlight in a wet forest ... in the highest sense he is a witness and a talker and a frighteningly close and violent visionary."

  —The New York Observer

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  THE ATLAS

  William T. Vollmann's books include You Bright and Risen Angels, The Rainbow Stories, Whores for Gloria,

  An Afghanistan Picture Show, Thirteen Stories and Thirteen Epitaphs, Butterfly Stories, and three of the projected

  seven novels in his "Seven Dreams" series: The Ice-Shirt, Fathers and Crows, and The Rifles. The recipient of a

  Whiting Foundation Award, he lives in California.

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street,

  New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

  Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England

  Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia

  Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue,

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2

  Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road,

  Auckland 10, New Zealand

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:

  Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England

  First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin,

  a division of Penguin Books USA Inc. 1996

  Published in Penguin Books 1997

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  Copyright © William T. Vollmann, 1996

  All rights reserved

  Page 468 constitutes an extension of this copyright page.

  THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGUED THE HARDCOVER AS FOLLOWS:

  Vollmann, William T.

  The atlas/William T. Vollmann.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

  ISBN 0-670-86578-8 (he.)

  ISBN 0 14 02.5449 8 (pbk.)

  I. Title.

  PS3572.0395A85 1996

  813'.54—dc20 95-39987

  Printed in the United States of America

  Set in Bembo

  Designed by James Sinclair

  Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition

  that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise

  circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other

  than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this

  condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  For some fine people who've helped me travel:

  Will Blythe of Esquire magazine.

  Elizabeth Mitchell and Bob Guccione, Jr., of Spin magazine.

  Paul Slovak of Viking Penguin.

  Without you, friends, I would have seen much less.

  W.T.V.

  Compiler's Note

  This book was inspired by Yasunari Kawabata's "palm-of-the-hand stories," which I enjoy rereading at bedtime, in the five minutes between lying down and turning off the light. It is equally pleasurable for me to page through a certain great atlas that I have, idling over unknown countries while I wait for my companion of the evening to finish brushing her teeth. The writing of these stories has given me the same sort of desultory joy. As James Branch Cabell remarked, "Toward no one of those pre-eminent topics of my era do I feel incited to direct an intelligent and broad-minded concern." What you hold, then, is but a piecemeal atlas of the world I think in. I hope that you like it, in spite of its omission of a continent or two. And if you were to keep it by you as a pillow-book, reading through it in no particular order, skipping the tales you find tedious, dozing amidst my somniferous paragraphs, I'd feel that at last I'd done as much good in the world as the manufacturers of our drowsiest codeine syrups. Slide it under your buttocks when commencing the night's revels. Slay the nightmarish flies of sleep with its hard covers. Lay it across your eyes to guard yourself from light. And may your soul flit freely across this world! For, despite the opinion of a certain Transcendentalist, who informed us that "traveling is a fool's paradise," other philosophers reverence the salubriousness of a change of clime. Consider the school essay of a second grader of Cambodian origin. The children were asked to expound upon the topic "The Future." This boy wrote:

  IN the Future I would like the world to be a war zone IN CHINA. I hope I will be in the NAVY to help the USA NAVY to Kill ALLIES. I will Kill polpot and his men and famliy. I will come back as a heor. I will be the only CAMBOADIAO on the ship.

  May we all kill our best allies before they kill us. And so, reader, good night.*

  W.T.V.

  * For those who require games and calculations in order to drowse, I should state that this collection is arranged palindromically: the motif in the first story is taken up again in the last; the second story finds its echo in the second to last, and so on. In addition, certain tales have tides in common with books I have previously written; they are thematic reductions in the manner of Kawabata's short "Snow Country," derived from his novel Snow Country. (However, while Kawabata's metonym contains material present in the parent tale, my own attempts use new material, because we Americans like new things.) As for the title story, that contains a little something from each of the others.

  GAZETTEER

  Mount Aetna, Sicily 37.45 N, 15.00 E

  Afghanistan

  Agra, Division of Uttar Pradesh, India 27.09 N, 78.00 E

  Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada 45.50 N, 78.20 W

  Allan Water, Ontario, Canada 50.15 N, 90.14 W

  Antananarivo, Madagascar 18.52 S, 47.30 E

  Avignon, Department Vaucluse, Provence, France 43.56 N, 4.48 E

  Bangkok

  (Krungthepmahanakhornbowornrattamakosinmahintarayuthayama- hadlikokpopnopparatratchathaniburiromudomratchaniwetmahasathan),

  Phrah Nakhon-Thonburi Province, Thailand (Prathet Thai)

  13.44 N, 100.30 E

  Ban Rak Tai, Mae Hong Song Province, Thailand

  Battambang City, Province Battambang, Cambodia 13.06 N, 103.13 E

  Battle Rock, Oregon, U.S.A.

  Beograd, Serbia, Yugoslavia 44.50 N, 20.30 E

  Berkeley, California, U.S.A. 37.52 N, 122.17 W

  Berlin, Germany 52.32 N, 13.25 E

  Big Bend, California, U.S.A. 39.16 N, 120.39 W

  Bologna, Emilia Romagna, Italia 44.30 N, I 1.20 E

  Boot Hill, Nebraska, U.S.A.

  Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 42.20 N, 71.05 W

  Budapest, Hungary 47.30 N, 19.03 E

  Cairo, Egypt 30.00 N, 31.15 E

  California, U.S.A.

  Capri, Campania, Italia 40.33 N, 14.15 E

  Charlevoix, Québec, Canada

  Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand 18.48 N, 98.59 E

  Churchill, Manitoba, Canada 58.45
N, 94.00 W

  Coral Harbour, Southampton Island, Northwest Territories, Canada 64.10 N, 83.15 W

  Cornwall, Ontario, Canada 45.02 N, 74.45 W

  Delhi, India 28.40 N, 77.14 E

  Diesel Bend, Utah, U.S.A.

  Elma, Manitoba, Canada 45.50 N, 95.56 W

  Eureka, Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories, Canada 80.00 N, 85.40 W

  Frankfurt am Main, Germany 50.06 N, 8.41 E

  Goa, Goa, India 15.31 N, 73.56 E

  Grand Central Station, New York City, U.S.A. 40.40 N, 73.58 W

  Great Western Desert, Northern Territory, Australia

  Guildwood, Ontario, Canada

  Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S.A. 43.42 N, 72.17 W

  Herculaneum, near Napoli, Campania, Italia 40.50 N, 14.15 E

  Highway 88, California, U.S.A.

  Highway 395, California, U.S.A.

  Ho Mong, Shan State, Burma (Myanmar)

  Home

  Hong Kong, territory of United Kingdom, Southeast Asia 22.20 N, 114.15 E

  Interstate 80, California, U.S.A.

  Inukjuak, Quebec, Canada 58.25 N, 78.15 W

  Jaipur Province, India

  Japan

  Jerusalem, Israel/Jordan 31.47 N, 35.13 E

  Joshua Tree National Monument, California, U.S.A. 34.09 N, 116.20 W

  Karenni State, Burma (Myanmar)

  Key West, Florida, U.S.A. 24.34 N, 81.48 W

  La Loma, near Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico 19.25 N, 99.10 W

  Limbo

  Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. 34.00 N, 118.15 W

  Lutton, Oklahoma, U.S.A.

  Madagascar

  Mae Hong Song, Mae Hong Song Province, Thailand 19.18 N, 98.01 E

  Mahebourg, Mauritius 20.24 S, 57.42 E

  Malachi, Ontario. Canada 49.56 N, 94.58 W

  Marakooper Cave, Tasmania, Australia

  Masada, Territory of Judea, Israel 31.19 N, 35.21 E

  Mendocino, California. U.S.A. 39.20 N, 123.46 W

  Mexicali, Estado de Baja California, Mexico 32.28 N, 115.29 W

  Mexico

  Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico 19.25 N, 99.10 W

  Mission-Sainte-Marie, Midland, Ontario, Canada 44.45 N, 79.53 W

  Mobile, Alabama, U.S.A. 30.40 N, 88.05 W

  Mogadishu, Somalia 2.02 N, 25.21 E

  Mont-Pellerin, Canton Vaudois, Switzerland

  Montréal, Québec, Canada 45.36 N, 73.38 W

  Nairobi, Kenya 1.17 S, 36.50 E

  Napoli, Campania, Italia 40.50 N, 14.15 E

  Nevada, U.S.A.

  New Orleans, Louisana, U.S.A. 30.00 N, 90.03 W

  New South Wales, Australia

  New York City and State, U.S.A.

  The Nile River, Egypt

  North America

  Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A. 41.15 N, 96.00 W

  Orillia, Ontario, Canada 44.36 N, 79.26 W

  Ottermere, Ontario, Canada

  Pacific Palisades, California, U.S.A.

  Paris, Département Paris, Région Parisienne, France 48.52 N, 2.20 E

  Philadephia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. 40.00 N, 75.10 W

  Phnom Penh, Cambodia 11.35 N, 104.55 E

  Pickering, Ontario, Canada

  Poland

  Pompeii, Campania, Italia 40.45 N, 14.27 E

  Pond Inlet, Baffin Island, Northwest Territories, Canada 72.40 N, 77.59 W

  Port Hope, Ontario, Canada 43.58 N, 78.18 W

  Puako Bay, Hawaii, U.S.A. 19.58 N, 155.49 W

  Reddit, Ontario, Canada

  Redfern, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 33.55 S, 151.10 E

  Resolute Bay, Cornwallis Island, Northwest Territories, Canada 74.40 N, 95.00 W

  Rice Lake, Manitoba, Canada 47.44 N, 82.08 W

  Roberts Camp, Wyman Creek, Deep Springs Valley, California, U.S.A. 37.21 N, 117.59 W

  Roma, Italia 41.53 N, 12.30 E

  Sacramento, California, U.S.A. 38.33 N, 121.30 W

  Samuel H. Boardman State Park, Oregon, U.S.A.

  San Bruno, California, U.S.A. 37.37 N. 122.24 W

  San Diego, California, U.S.A. 32.45 N, 117.10 W

  San Francisco, California, U.S.A. 37.45 N, 122.27 W

  San Ignacio, Belize 17.14 N, 89.03 W

  Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina 43.52 N, 18.26 E

  Savant Lake, Ontario, Canada 50.16 N, 90.44 W

  Sioux Lookout, Ontario, Canada 50.05 N, 91.55 W

  The Slidre River, Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories, Canada 80.00 N, 85.39 W

  The Sphere of Stars

  Split, Dalmatia, Republika Hrvatska (Croatia) 43.31 N, 16.28 E

  State of Vatican City (Citta del Vaticano) 41.54 N, 12.27 E

  Sudbury, Ontario, Canada 46.30 N, 81.01 W

  Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 33.55 S, 151.10 E

  Tamatave, Madagascar 181.05 S, 49.23 E

  Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico 18.32 N, 99.36 W

  Thailand

  The Pas, Manitoba, Canada 53.50 N, 101.15 W

  Tokyo to Osaka, Japan

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada 43.42 N, 79.25 W

  Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S.A. 36.51 N, 75.59 W

  Wailea, Maui, Hawaii, U.S.A. 19.52 N, 155.08 W

  Washago, Ontario, Canada 44.45 N, 79.20 W

  Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada 49.53 N, 97.10 W

  Winnitoba, Manitoba, Canada

  Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma) 16.47 N, 96.10 E

  Yukon Territory, Canada

  Zagreb, Republika Hrvatska (Croatia) 45.48 N, 15.58 E

  I always liked books that contained some fine thoughts, but books that one could read without stopping, for they aroused ideas in me which I could follow at my fancy and pursue as I pleased. This also prevented me from reading geometry books with care, and I must admit that I have not yet brought myself to read Euclid in any other way than one commonly reads novels.

  Leibnitz, letter to Foucher (1675)

  OPENING THE BOOK

  Grand Central Station, New York City, U.S.A. (1991)