pickThis is an attempt to use William Faulkner to explain southern culture. The idea is maybe the unspoken, Faulkner being known for not telling us what he‘s reading about. The Civil War and its mythology are central to Faulkner‘s work and yet lightly touched, at best. Another oddity is that Faulkner the writer was a better person than the RL Faulkner. He was moderate on race (ie racist), but his writing demanded more human treatment.
pickI‘m so irresponsible giving this a pick. It‘s a mess. Directionless, rushed, sometimes incoherent. But it‘s a Faulknerian mess. It has its joys on flying, New Orleans (lightly fictionalized), Mardi Gras, drunkness, and lust…and its Macbeth themes/parallels. And its neologisms, words like yair, or smashed-together words like umbrellarib. If you can hack through, you might actually find it fun. I did.
I think it‘s time to get back to Faulkner. I‘m about to start this one, from 1935
New audiobook. Started this evening.
Terrific introduction. He explains the book as response to the Tea Party lunacy in 2010. He started researching how the contemporary US remembers the Civil War, and why those divisions then still play so prominent a role in American life and politics. He found Faulkner to be ideal for this topic, and began focusing on Faulkner from that perspective.
In August I continued my recent trend of not managing to read at all for the first week or so. 😒 Looking back on the month, I enjoyed a lot of these. Will have to give more thought to decide on the favorite.
so-soI found my enjoyment of this mixed. I loved Lena, the pregnant teenager. And Joanna, and Gail Hightower. But Faulkner got carried away with mixed race Joe Christmas, and he is most of the book. I‘m ok dealing with a racist Mississippi of 1932, as that‘s the thing it was. But it‘s uncomfortable to see no criticism of that in the text. Hence my rating of a major classic. (The pasted on cartoon cover came with the book)
My cover of Light in August, one of some 200 books a downsizing neighbor (and published poet) gave me almost 20 years ago. It‘s a very beat up Modern Library edition without a date, but with a 1950 copyright on the introduction. I‘m finally about to start.
so-soThis is both a sick work and a striking set of cultural contrasts. Faulkner, back in regular prose, has his town college graduates show off to drunken rum runners with loaded guns and opaque complex minds. It‘s weird and creepy in an interesting way. But like that movie, the story of Temple Drake is most memorable, but not in a good way. And it‘s really disturbing that Faulkner wrote it as he did. Some kind of trigger warning applies.
