Media Type

Audio

Physical Location

Number of Media

1

Language(s)

English

Format

Cassette

Digitized in HD?

No

General Note

[VNCA NOTE: Removed roughly 5 minutes of silence at end of Side A.] ;
[VNCA NOTE: 421au4866 contains objectionable material throughout, inlcuding derogatory terms, racist terms, xenophobic terms, and sexual content. Viewer discretion advised.]

From the case: American Arts Project The Monthly Magasette Back in the World: Writing After Vietnam Volume 1 Recorded at the Writer’s Voice of the West Side YMCA, New York City Moderator: Michael G. Stephens Panelists: John Del Vecchio, W.D. Ehrhart, Larry Heinemann, John Clark Pratt, and Robert Olen Butler © 1984 Holmes Cassette Group 485 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10017 [tape a] Back in the World: Writing After Vietnam Volume 1 Moderator: Michael G. Stephens Part Two Side 1 The American Arts Project © 1984 Holmes Cassette Group 485 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10017 [tape b] Back in the World: Writing After Vietnam Volume 1 Moderator: Michael G. Stephens Side 2 The American Arts Project © 1984 Holmes Cassette Group 485 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10017

Media is a recording of a panel held in March of 1984. Writers who are also Vietnam Veterans read excerpts of their stories and poems in front of an audience regarding how the Vietnam War shaped their writings, inspired fictional stories, and how their subsequent returns influenced their work. ;

00:00 On Side A, the first to speak in is Larry Heinemann ;
3:13 Larry Heinemann is the author of Close Quarters and reads an excerpt from a work in progress entitled, The First Clean Fact. This work later goes on to become Paco’s Story. ;
16:28 Next is a conversation between John Clark Pratt, author of The Laotian Fragments, W.D. Ehrhart, and John Del Vecchio, author of The 13th Valley. They discuss the separation of fact and fiction in Vietnam and their inspired writings. ;
24:56 Next, Robert Olen Butler reads an excerpt from his book, The Alleys of Eden. ;

00:00 On side B, recording begins with reading from The Alleys of Eden, a story of an American service man requesting a Vietnamese sex worker to sing a song into a recorder so that his wife in America can hear Vietnamese songs. ;
7:16 Afterwards, John Del Vecchio takes over moderation and analyzes myths that came out of Vietnam, including wrong assumptions about Ho Chi Minh. Next, he analyzes the myth that the U.S. military lost the war, and provides a timeline of the major wins and losses in the Vietnam War including the Tet offensive, the massacre of civilians in Hue, the battle of Khe Sahn, and the fight for the Ho Chi Minh trail and the social and political turmoil that led to the U.S. withdrawing from Vietnam. ;
17:33 Following this portion, W.D. Ehrhart, author of Vietnam-Perkasie. Ehrhart reads a poem called, “The Relative Thing”. Next is a poem called “A Confirmation” written for his best friend, Gerry Gaffney who he reconnected with only once. Next, a poem entitled "The Blizzard of Sixty-six” where Ehrhart reflects on a snowstorm before he left for Vietnam. Next is a poem entitled, “Responsibility”, a comparison of safety in America and turmoil in other countries. ;