William H. Gass was at the Sprachsalz 2012 festival in Austria a couple of weeks ago, and the Falter now prints Sebastian Fasthuber's Q & A with him, in which Gass reveals something I'd never come across anywhere before:
I'm actually kind of disappointed that Dalkey Archive Press -- who recently re-issued the book (see their publicity page) -- didn't do that. Surely they could have done a premium-priced boxed collector's edition or something like that (recall for example New Directions beautiful edition of B.S.Johnson's boxed novel, The Unfortunates (see their publicity page, or get your copy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk)).
Of course, they can still do it ... I can see it now:
'The Tunnel - THE POP-UP PENIS EDITION'
[Resigned to a bound and jacketed version when the book was first published in 1995, Gass still had some pretty precise instructions as to Designing The Tunnel. No dangling penises, however.]
(Note also that Conversational Reading is currently doing a 'The Tunnel-Big Read'. I wonder if any enterprising participants have torn (or now will be moved to ...) the binding off their copies, boxed the loose pages, and installed a pop-up penis to go along with it .....)
Sie wollten The Tunnel ursprünglich als eine Sammlung loser Blätter in einer Schachtel herausbringen.[Kohler is, of course, the narrator of the novel.]
Gass: Und auf dem Cover wäre William Frederick Kohler als Autor genannt worden. Ich wollte außerdem, dass ein Penis herausklappt, wenn man die Schachtel öffnet. Kohler ist doch immer sehr mit seinem Penis beschäftigt. Aber so etwas macht natürlich kein Verlag.
[Originally you wanted The Tunnel to be published as a collection of loose leaves in a box.
Gass: And on the cover William Frederick Kohler as author. I also wanted a penis to pop out when one opened the box. After all, Kohler is always so preoccupied with his penis. But naturally no publisher is willing to do that.
I'm actually kind of disappointed that Dalkey Archive Press -- who recently re-issued the book (see their publicity page) -- didn't do that. Surely they could have done a premium-priced boxed collector's edition or something like that (recall for example New Directions beautiful edition of B.S.Johnson's boxed novel, The Unfortunates (see their publicity page, or get your copy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk)).
Of course, they can still do it ... I can see it now:
[Resigned to a bound and jacketed version when the book was first published in 1995, Gass still had some pretty precise instructions as to Designing The Tunnel. No dangling penises, however.]
(Note also that Conversational Reading is currently doing a 'The Tunnel-Big Read'. I wonder if any enterprising participants have torn (or now will be moved to ...) the binding off their copies, boxed the loose pages, and installed a pop-up penis to go along with it .....)