Index of titles A-C (i)

from the janitor at the Viet Nam Literature Project

Books & Authors: Viet Nam, Inc., doing business as Viet Nam Literature Project, has posted a Viet Nam letter at substack 3 times each week since February 9, 2022. They appear in date order back from the present under each new post.

This post begins an index of titles of posts. These are usually the title of the work discussed, usually one for each post. Others like this one concern housekeeping, signed by our janitor.

He gives for all the others the name of the author of the work discussed, sometimes its editor or translator, and an institution. The numeral in parentheses tracks the iterations of a Viet Nam letter on that title.

After the date comes the first paragraph of the post, from the work of the title or from the janitor’s observations. Through C as of December 30, 2022:

A

None so far.

B

Black Americans in Viet Nam Letters (i). Janitor, Viet Nam Literature Project. October 5, 2022:

I am aware that my cheerful interest in what black Americans of talent and intellect have had to say occasioned by the nation of Viet Nam is a taste few wish to acquire.

C

Captain Blackman (i). The novelist John A. Williams of the United States Navy. April 4, 2022.

"The guys'll come splashing down here, Blackman thought, thinking there is only one or two of em out there, and they'll drop the hammer on them. What to do?”

Captain Blackman (ii). The novelist John A. Williams of Syracuse University. May 4, 2022.

We left Captain Abraham Blackman, United States Army, supine on the forest floor his head resting against a stump. It is the position in which I continued, from my couch, to read the story we share in mind as he bleeds and I read.

Captain Blackman (iii). The novelist John A. Williams of the Black Arts Movement. June 6, 2022.

Abraham Blackman, Captain, United States Army, is bleeding out staring at the sky in the last days of the Republic of Viet Nam. The Vietnamese Communists had pinned him down with a few rifles, luring his men to rescue and suffer overwhelming ambush.

Captain Blackman (iv). The novelist John A. Williams and Doubleday & Company. July 23, 2022.

Captain Abraham Blackman, United States Army, is still bleeding out in the Republic of Viet Nam. He had risen from cover to draw fire rather than let his young men walk into ambush from an overwhelming force.

Cõi Đem (i). The novelist Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn at publisher Làng Văn. March 23, 2022.

Country of Night, by Nguyen Ngoc Ngan. The author’s family, first name is that of the administration who unified Viet Nam over the same years as George Washington’s did the United States.

Cõi Đem (ii). The novelist Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn at publisher Làng Văn. April 23, 2022.

Night Country? Realm of Night. The first sentence on the first page begins: over there. If you are reading here in daytime then you are reading about what goes on in the shady part of the world.

Cõi Đem (iii). The novelist Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn at publisher Làng Văn. May 25, 2022.

Descriptive statistics on the first paragraph of my favorite novel in Vietnamese. Count of sentences and that of clauses in those sentences vary freely as the chapters also do in length. Walt Whitman’s poetry works the same way. Conversational, expressive, free verbs.

Cõi Đem (iv). From the novelist Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn at Làng Văn. July 2, 2022.

First sentence of the novel: Bên ngoài, trời dã sáng lắm. Outside, it’s bright, says the Google translator.

Cõi Đem (v). From the novelist Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn at Làng Văn. August 8, 2022.

“Bên ngoài, trời dã sáng lắm.” Outside, it was bright already.

Cult, Culture, and Authority: Princess Liễu Hạnh in Vietnamese History (i). From historian Olga Dror at Texas A&M University. December 21, 2022.

I write these letters to people who read them. I have no audience in mind, files and rows up a raked auditorium.

Cult, Culture, and Authority: Princess Liễu Hạnh in Vietnamese History (ii). From historian Olga Dror at Texas A&M University. December 24, 2022.

Spirit, wind moved on the face of the water and here we are in creation. Spirit, breath moves in and out of lungs, inspiration so we get all excited then expiration when we drop dead, dust.