An Afghanistan Picture Show: Or, How I Saved the World

ALSO BY WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN

 

You Bright and Risen Angels
(1987)

The Rainbow Stories
(1989)

The Ice Shirt
(1990)

Whores for Gloria
(1991)

Thirteen Stories and Thirteen Epitaphs
(1991)

An Afghanistan Picture Show
(1992)

Fathers and Crows
(1992)

Butterfly Stories
(1993)

The Rifles
(1994)

The Atlas
(1996)

The Royal Family
(2000)

Argall
(2001)

Rising Up and Rising Down
(2004)

Europe Central
(2005)

Uncentering the Earth
(2006)

Poor People
(2007)

Riding Toward Everywhere
(2008)

Imperial
(2009)

Kissing the Mask
(2010)

Into the Forbidden Zone
(2011)

And I have admitted that the foreigner will probably pronounce a sentence differently if he conceives it differently; but what we call his wrong conception
need
not lie in anything that accompanies the utterance…

W
ITTGENSTEIN
,
Philosophical Investigations
,
I.20

Cover

Other Books by This Author

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

From an interview with Leonid Brezhnev (1980)

Looking due north from Peshawar (1982)

I: THE BORDER

Surely thy Lord [1]
 … 
The red hill [1]
 … 
The red hill [2]

The Land of Counterpane
 … 
Antarctica
 … 
Indiana
 … 
My first demonstration
 … 
The red hill [3]
 … 
Explanations [1]

Difficulties of the miracle worker
 … 
THE BUFFALO
-
MILK CANDY
 … 
FRIENDS
 … 
BEGGARS AND CHOOSERS
[1]
 … 
POST MORTEM
 … 
BEGGARS AND CHOOSERS
[2]
 … 
BEGGARS AND CHOOSERS
[3]
 … 
HAPPINESS
[1]
 … 
HAPPINESS
[2]

The Brigadier
 … 
MY CLOTHES
(1987)
 … 
THE BRIGADIER
(1982)
 … 
AT LATEST REPORT
(1989)
 … 
MORNING AND AFTERNOON
(1982)
 … 
Democracy
 … 
DECIDED OPINIONS
 … 
BETROTHED
 … 
THE MARTYR
 … 
The ants
 … 
THE CONSUMMATION
 … 
The statement of the Afghan Brigadier
 … 
Old Nick (1983)

II: THE REFUGEES

“
Or at least a long halt
”
 … 
FREE RIDES
 … 
THE RICH FAMILY
 … 
HIS POWERS REVEALED
 … 
HOWEVER
 … 
THE PROBLEM SOLVED
 … 
False impressions
 … 
TRUE IMPRESSIONS
 … 
IN WHICH WE ASYMPTOTICALLY APPROACH AFGHANISTAN
 … 
The man who would have to go to the camps
 … 
HELPLESSNESS
[1]
 … 
“
A VERY GOOD COUNTRY FOR ME
,” or,
HAPPINESS
[3]
 … 
ANOTHER TWIST OF THE WORM
 … 
HELPLESSNESS
[2]
 … 
PARASITISM
 … 
A QUESTION
 … 
ANOTHER QUESTION
 … 
Statement of the Afghan waiter
 … 
THE BANDITS
 … 
A QUESTION
 … 
HELPLESSNESS
[3]
 … 
HAPPINESS
[4]

The hairdresser
 … 
HOW TO BECOME A HAIRDRESSER IN ONE EASY STEP
 … 
TWO MEMORIES
 … 
EXPLANATIONS
[2]
 … 
A FRIEND OF FRIENDS
 … 
PRUDENCE
 … 
AN AMERICAN GIRL
 … 
An old yearbook (1984)
 … 
The waitress
…
A NICE THOUGHT
 … 
AN AMERICAN GIRL

“… 
Described formally as refugee camps
…”
 … 
“
IT WILL TAKE A LONG
,
LONG TIME
”
 … 
THE GIVER
 … 
THE PARABLE OF THE BEER CANS
 … 
GREAT STRIDES FORWARD
[1]
 … 
VARIOUS SIGHTS
 … 
HELPLESSNESS
[4]:
STATEMENT OF DR
.
TARIQ
(
HANGU CAMP
,
KOHAT—I
.
R
.
C
.)
 … 
STATEMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR
 … 
HELPLESSNESS
[5]
 … 
HELPLESSNESS
[6]
 … 
WITH HIS CHARACTERISTIC RESOLVE
 … 
The interviews
 … 
STATEMENT OF REFUGEE
IN CAMP
(
KOHAT
)
 … 
LOOKING BACK
(1987)
 … 
THE INTERVIEWS
(1982)
 … 
STATEMENT OF MARIE SARDIE
,
U
.
N
.
H
.
C
.
R
.
NUTRITIONIST
 … 
THINGS THAT PEOPLE WOULDN’T SAY ON TAPE
[1]
 … 
STATEMENT OF MARIE SARDIE
(continued)
 … 
THE MATTER OF WOMEN
 … 
SUCCESS AT LAST
 … 
STATEMENT OF MARY MCMORROW
,
I
.
R
.
C
.
NURSE
 … 
THE POINT OF IT
[1]
 … 
A SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT
 … 
HAPPINESS
[5]
 … 
THE POINT OF IT
[2]
 … 
STATEMENT OF THE AFGHAN DOCTOR
(
HANGU CAMP
)