David Shetzline
Encyclopedia
David W. Shetzline is an American author residing in Oakridge, Oregon
.
Shetzline received his bachelor of arts from Cornell University
in 1956 and his masters in literature from the University of Oregon
in 1997. His dissertation was entitled “Quantum Dialogues: The Rhetorics of Religion and the Metaphors of Postmodern Science (English, 2000). He served as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army, in addition to being a ditchdigger and a student at Columbia University. He wrote in “the Cornell school” of writing in the 1960s with Thomas Pynchon
and Richard Fariña
. This school of writing has been defined through as having three preoccupations (1) socio-political paranoia, (2) concern with environmental degradation, and (3) awareness of popular culture’s unique impact on the American mind. In addition to Pynchon and Fariña, the Cornell School would also include Mary F. Beal, to whom Shetzline was married. The Cornell School could also be said to include, or be influenced by, Vladimir Nabokov
and Kurt Vonnegut
. It stands in contrast to older literary traditions of that university, such as the literary traditions represented by E.B. White and Hiram Corson
.
In 1968, Shetzline signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.
wrote, "What makes Shetzline's voice a truly original and important one is the way he uses these interference-patterns to build his novel, combining an amazing talent for seeing and listening with a yarn-spinner's native gift for picking you up, keeping you in the spell of the action, the chase, not letting go of you till you've said, yes, I see; yes, this is how it is." DeFord was a seminal contra use of geography as a metaphor.
Heckletooth 3 followed the next year as DeFord, and was noted as a lead text in the new ecology movement of the 1970s. Of Heckletooth 3, The Whole Earth Catalog wrote, “[t]here are some writers and books that I only hear about from others. William Eastlake is one. So is David Shetzline, notably for his forest fire novel Heckletooth 3. Ken Kesey
went on about I to me years ago. And last week Don Carpenter firmly put the book into my hand. Well they’ve got my agreement. My summer logging the Oregon woods tells me that Shetzline has the work right, the fire and the men right. He especially has the language – Oregon laconic. It’s and introspective action-novel about virtue. I mean, about detail.”
in 1976, entitled Typescript: A Boy from Iowa Becomes a Revolutionary.
He is currently an organizer of the Wickes Beal Studio, in Oregon.
Oakridge, Oregon
Oakridge is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States. The population was estimated at 3,205 in 2010. It is located east of Westfir on Oregon Route 58, about east of Eugene, and southeast of Portland...
.
Shetzline received his bachelor of arts from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in 1956 and his masters in literature from the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
in 1997. His dissertation was entitled “Quantum Dialogues: The Rhetorics of Religion and the Metaphors of Postmodern Science (English, 2000). He served as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army, in addition to being a ditchdigger and a student at Columbia University. He wrote in “the Cornell school” of writing in the 1960s with Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
and Richard Fariña
Richard Fariña
Richard George Fariña was an American writer and folksinger.-Early years and education:Richard Fariña was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Cuban and Irish descent. He grew up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn and attended Brooklyn Technical High School...
. This school of writing has been defined through as having three preoccupations (1) socio-political paranoia, (2) concern with environmental degradation, and (3) awareness of popular culture’s unique impact on the American mind. In addition to Pynchon and Fariña, the Cornell School would also include Mary F. Beal, to whom Shetzline was married. The Cornell School could also be said to include, or be influenced by, Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
and Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
. It stands in contrast to older literary traditions of that university, such as the literary traditions represented by E.B. White and Hiram Corson
Hiram Corson
Hiram Corson was an American professor of literature.Corson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1828.His teaching career included positions at Girard College, St. Johns College, Annapolis, and Cornell University...
.
In 1968, Shetzline signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.
Primary Fiction
His first work, DeFord, was published in 1968. DeFord is dedicated to the memory of Fariña. Reviewing DeFord, artist Thomas PynchonThomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
wrote, "What makes Shetzline's voice a truly original and important one is the way he uses these interference-patterns to build his novel, combining an amazing talent for seeing and listening with a yarn-spinner's native gift for picking you up, keeping you in the spell of the action, the chase, not letting go of you till you've said, yes, I see; yes, this is how it is." DeFord was a seminal contra use of geography as a metaphor.
Heckletooth 3 followed the next year as DeFord, and was noted as a lead text in the new ecology movement of the 1970s. Of Heckletooth 3, The Whole Earth Catalog wrote, “[t]here are some writers and books that I only hear about from others. William Eastlake is one. So is David Shetzline, notably for his forest fire novel Heckletooth 3. Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey
Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a...
went on about I to me years ago. And last week Don Carpenter firmly put the book into my hand. Well they’ve got my agreement. My summer logging the Oregon woods tells me that Shetzline has the work right, the fire and the men right. He especially has the language – Oregon laconic. It’s and introspective action-novel about virtue. I mean, about detail.”
Other works
A short story, "A Country of Painted Freaks" appeared in the Paris Review in 1972. Shetzline also conducted the critically acclaimed memoir interviews of William Appleman WilliamsWilliam Appleman Williams
William Appleman Williams was one of the 20th century's most prominent revisionist historians of American diplomacy, and has been called "the favorite historian of the Middle American New Left." He achieved the height of his influence while on the faculty of the Department of History at the...
in 1976, entitled Typescript: A Boy from Iowa Becomes a Revolutionary.
Network
Shetzline was friends with both Fariña and Pynchon. As Shetzline noted regarding the relationship between Farina and Pynchon, “I think Tom recognized that Richard had a magic with language, that he was genuinely gifted, and I think Tom recognized that Richard worked with his gifts, he worked consciously to hone them. Tom always hung back. You didn’t find out much about his writing from him, but he was always complaining that he wasn’t getting enough writing done, and that is the tip-off that somebody is absolutely haunted as a writer. Richard knew Tom was as serious about writing as he was. I think Pynchon was also fascinated with Richard’s effect on women, which was powerful. Pynchon developed a capacity to appeal to women who would then sort of go after him.” In the foreword to Greening the Lyre, David Gilcrest described Shetzline as “a true artisan of the pen and fly rod, has earned my respect and thanks as an exemplar in all things philosophical and anadromous.”He is currently an organizer of the Wickes Beal Studio, in Oregon.