William T. Vollmann is in Town, Suckas

• Author William T. Vollmann talks about his exploration of Noh drama and femininity, Kissing the Mask, at the Northwest African American Museum at 7 p.m. tonight; tomorrow he's at Third Place Books.

William T. Vollmann, author, gun owner

There are two kinds of readers in this world: those that know of William T. Vollmann, and those that can't handle the truth. You could argue there's a third group of people who know of him, but can't keep up with his output. He's written 21 books in 23 years, which includes Rising Up and Rising Down, a 7-volume exploration of humanity's rationales for violence. You can't find that one anywhere, it's sold out. Hobos, prostitutes, illegal immigrants, and terrorists have captured his attention. He's been a war correspondent, and burned off his eyebrows on a trip to the North Pole.

I'm halfway through his latest, with its duffel-bag-sized title of Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater with Some Thoughts on Muses (especially Helga Testorf), Transgender Women, Kabuki Goddesses, Porn Queens, Poets, Housewives, Makeup Artists, Geishas, Valkyries, and Venus Figurines. At 200 pages in, it's been mostly Noh, through the recollections, interviews, and research of an enthusiast (not an expert, as Vollmann is careful to emphasize). Though he has just hung out with a 60-something geisha.

Reading Vollmann may be an uneasy experience--he has a talent for putting himself into comprising situations, and for speaking his mind while in them--but this book is filled with an unusual passion and sincerity. Along with copious footnotes--you could dismiss Vollmann as a "holy fool," but for the knowledge he possesses, which (let's face it) few of us would go through such trouble to get firsthand.

The combination of his perverse/idiosyncratic lines of inquiry with the academic rigor of his observation often yields a bittersweet, bite-of-the-apple result: you're wiser, but the world is weirder than you thought.