So it has been awhile since I have blogged last....whoopsies. Where does the time go? If I were the main character in the novel "The Crying of Lot 49" I would invent a conspiracy theory to explain where time goes. (A+ segue way) This was a tough one. Not in the Faulkner "can't understand the grammar or lack of punctuation" kind of way, but in a 60's induced hallucinogenic kind of way.
What I can gather from the plot, after the death of a former love interest, the protagonist Oedipa (ha!) is left as the executor of his estate and she gets embroiled in a search for answers regarding a conspiracy that relates to two rival postal services that date back hundreds of years. The novel is a winding narrative of seemingly unrelated encounters where Oedipa finds pieces of possible clues to the existence or non-existence of one of these postal services. What Pynchon seems to be commenting on is the need that people have to invent conspiracies or other belief systems to fill in the blanks of their own knowledge.
Cool beans, huh? The novel is beautifully written, and it kept me wanting to read more simply because some of the encounters and situations are so bizarre. Needless to say, however, that if you are looking to a satisfying resolutions to any answers regarding the possible conspiracy, there are none.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
#5: "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway (1926)
I have to admit, reading Hemingway while traveling feels right. It just seems to fit. I also have to admit that I was disappointed that no hipsters approached me to debate the merits of Hemingway’s famously economical writing style, or his ability to convey his point of view on large social issues by focusing on the experiences on a small group of people.
Hemingway’s style has been referred to as the “iceberg theory.” Essentially this writing style is characterized by describing the facts and allowing the supporting structure, comprised of unseen background story, emotion and subtle symbolism remain “underwater.” Hemingway described the style by saying “If you leave out important things or events that you know about, the story is strengthened. If you leave or skip something because you do not know it, the story will be worthless. The test of any story is how very good the stuff that you, not your editors, omit.” “The Sun Also Rises” is understood to be a prime example of this style, and is considered by some to be Hemingway’s most important work.
“The Sun Also Rises” describes the experiences of a group of Americans living in Paris after the First World War. This group of friends knock around the bars and clubs of Paris before traveling to the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. There two prominent views of Hemingway’s message behind the novel. Some believe he was relating the sense of decadence and frivolousness the “lost generation” of soldiers destroyed both physically and emotionally by war, and of women living with more personal, especially sexual, freedom. Others believe he was trying to convey the resilience of a generation ravaged by war; a generation of young adults trying to pick up the pieces of their lives and find morality in a world that can so quickly and completely descend into chaos.
It is my opinion, especially in light of what I have learned of his writing style, that the latter is more likely his primary focus. Hemingway lived in Paris, traveled to Spain, and based many of his characters on the people he encountered. He explains the facts, the tip of the iceberg concerning the decadence of the age and how a group of Americans in Paris and Spain enjoy their sport, their booze and their freedom, and leaves the story of the resilience of these friends, and the generation they repsresent hovering underneath the surface.
Hemingway’s style has been referred to as the “iceberg theory.” Essentially this writing style is characterized by describing the facts and allowing the supporting structure, comprised of unseen background story, emotion and subtle symbolism remain “underwater.” Hemingway described the style by saying “If you leave out important things or events that you know about, the story is strengthened. If you leave or skip something because you do not know it, the story will be worthless. The test of any story is how very good the stuff that you, not your editors, omit.” “The Sun Also Rises” is understood to be a prime example of this style, and is considered by some to be Hemingway’s most important work.
“The Sun Also Rises” describes the experiences of a group of Americans living in Paris after the First World War. This group of friends knock around the bars and clubs of Paris before traveling to the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. There two prominent views of Hemingway’s message behind the novel. Some believe he was relating the sense of decadence and frivolousness the “lost generation” of soldiers destroyed both physically and emotionally by war, and of women living with more personal, especially sexual, freedom. Others believe he was trying to convey the resilience of a generation ravaged by war; a generation of young adults trying to pick up the pieces of their lives and find morality in a world that can so quickly and completely descend into chaos.
It is my opinion, especially in light of what I have learned of his writing style, that the latter is more likely his primary focus. Hemingway lived in Paris, traveled to Spain, and based many of his characters on the people he encountered. He explains the facts, the tip of the iceberg concerning the decadence of the age and how a group of Americans in Paris and Spain enjoy their sport, their booze and their freedom, and leaves the story of the resilience of these friends, and the generation they repsresent hovering underneath the surface.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Next Up: Hemingway!
We are cruising along to an Ernest Hemingway novel, next up will be "The Sun Also Rises." This will be the first time in this project where I will be reading a book by an author from wich I have read a different work, in this case "A Farewell to Arms." I have already learned that Hemingway was born in Illinois, yay for midwesterners! I don't really picture Hemingway as being a midwest kind of guy, but, hey, it's still cool.
4: "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" by Muriel Spark (1962)
Alright, now we are picking up the pace. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is a quirky little novel about the short career of an elementary school teacher in a small girls school in Edinburgh in the mid-1930's. This teacher, as you may have guessed, named Miss Jean Brodie, chooses several girls to be a part of an exclusive group that she seems to dote upon. She chooses each girl because they are all to be "famous" for something. To put it simply, one is brainy, one is beautiful and will be known for her sexuality, one is athletically gifted, and one is stupid and dies early, and so on. Miss Brodie is disliked by many of her colleagues because she seems to be progressive and wants to try new ways of teaching and emphasize different ways of thinking than what is the norm at a British private school. She has romantic relationships with both the male Art and Music teachers, while her relationship with the female science teacher is strained. She talks often of a love she lost in the First World War, and of her trips to Italy where she believes Mussolini and his black shirts are doing amazing things (whoops). As the story progresses, more and more teachers at her school lose their patience with her and her small group of favorite girls.
Initially, I assumed this would be the story, told many times since in literature and film, of a teacher with new ideas and a progressive outlook on education becoming unfairly discriminated against and forced out, something like "Dead Poets Society" except with girls. Surprisingly, that is not the case. Miss Brodie's attention to her girls doesn't seem to be rooted in a desire to help them, at least not completely. It seems to be more about having control over those girls' lives, and being associated with any success they eventually have.
Eventually Miss Brodie is betrayed by one of her own girls, who lets slip the romantic relationships that the teacher has had with her male colleagues. Due to those relationships, as well as the positive statements she had made about Mussolini, Hitler and their followers in her classroom, she is forced to resign, and she ends up losing the influence she once had on her girls, though they do keep in touch. Years later, we see that none of her girls end up in the places she originally had foreseen for them.
In reading up on Spark's message behind this novel, I found that much of the focus is supposed to be on the simple truth that we don't know that much about people. People's motivations, secrets, and desires are largely hidden from those around them, even those closest to them. Authors often write from an omniscient point of view, while they may not share everything with the reader, they know everything about their characters. Spark demonstrates that characters can be written in a way where their real selves are hidden from everyone, even the author. Did Miss Brodie want to help her girls, or control them? This is not revealed, and chances are the answer is a little of both.
I also realized while reading "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" that years of reading history books, biographies and legal texts, I am having a hard team reading critically and looking behind the literal meaning of the text for the author's purpose. This was especially evident to me in reading this novel and in retrospect a huge problem I had in dealing with "The Sound and the Fury." I need to focus on reading more critically in the future. See, I am improving myself! Yay!
Initially, I assumed this would be the story, told many times since in literature and film, of a teacher with new ideas and a progressive outlook on education becoming unfairly discriminated against and forced out, something like "Dead Poets Society" except with girls. Surprisingly, that is not the case. Miss Brodie's attention to her girls doesn't seem to be rooted in a desire to help them, at least not completely. It seems to be more about having control over those girls' lives, and being associated with any success they eventually have.
Eventually Miss Brodie is betrayed by one of her own girls, who lets slip the romantic relationships that the teacher has had with her male colleagues. Due to those relationships, as well as the positive statements she had made about Mussolini, Hitler and their followers in her classroom, she is forced to resign, and she ends up losing the influence she once had on her girls, though they do keep in touch. Years later, we see that none of her girls end up in the places she originally had foreseen for them.
In reading up on Spark's message behind this novel, I found that much of the focus is supposed to be on the simple truth that we don't know that much about people. People's motivations, secrets, and desires are largely hidden from those around them, even those closest to them. Authors often write from an omniscient point of view, while they may not share everything with the reader, they know everything about their characters. Spark demonstrates that characters can be written in a way where their real selves are hidden from everyone, even the author. Did Miss Brodie want to help her girls, or control them? This is not revealed, and chances are the answer is a little of both.
I also realized while reading "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" that years of reading history books, biographies and legal texts, I am having a hard team reading critically and looking behind the literal meaning of the text for the author's purpose. This was especially evident to me in reading this novel and in retrospect a huge problem I had in dealing with "The Sound and the Fury." I need to focus on reading more critically in the future. See, I am improving myself! Yay!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Next Up
Next up on the list, and provided by my neighborhood soon-to-be-out-of-business Borders at a very reasonable price, is "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" by Muriel Spark (1962). My favorite thing about the book so far, despite the fact that I haven't actually started reading it yet, is that it is a mercifully short 137 pages long. Hopefully I can pick up the pace a little bit, because if I stick with the rate I am currently reading these books, I will be lucky if I get to #100 by 2025.
3: "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren (1946)
Well, here we are. Four months, 660 pages and a heaping pile of life altering events later, I have finally finished "All the King's Men."
"All the King's Men" won the Pulitzer and is, according to the back cover, one of the best novels on American politics ever written. What stood out to me though, was that this novel didn't really feel like it was about politics, at least not the politics we think of today. I don't remember a political party being mentioned once in the book, though I am sure they were at some point. The story really focuses on relationships, and the politics of personal relationships across many different facets of life. The main character, though I hesitate to call him a protagonist, and narrator is a man named Jack Burden. He is a journalist who gets swept into the inner circle that orbits the personality of the small town politician Willie Stark, who becomes governor of the state of Louisiana. Willie Stark takes office on the strength of his small town/everyman persona. He aims to sweep the old guard out of office and put the needs of the common folk first. The irony being, of course, that Willie is as corrupt and power hungry as any of the old politicians, but he is able to rationalize and justify his behavior because he is doing it all in the name of the working man. Jack is employed and befriended by Willie, and is used to research and rake up muck on the people Willie desires to have leverage against. It is never clear how much he believes in Willie's message or his own role in Willie's schemes, but he sticks with Willie until the bitter end. Without giving too much away, Jack loses almost everyone he loves in the process, but the ending does leave a little hope that Jack finds peace.
Warren's writing style is really incredible. The words flow off the page, and he creates as vivid a mental image as I can remember ever getting while reading. An example: "out at the University, on the practice field, the toe of some long-legged, slug-footed, box-shouldered lad kept smacking the leather, and farther away scrimmage surged and heaved to the sound of shouts and peremptory whistles." All Warren is doing is describing a scene where the background includes a football team at practice, and he crafts this wonderfully simple to read, but incredibly deep and rich sentence to describe it. And the entire novel is like that. It really is a joy to read. And, unlike Faulkner, Warren regularly uses punctuation, which is appreciated.
I enjoyed this book immensely, unfortunately due to my own laziness and the disruptions that life can have, my reading of it was inconsistent and disjointed. I would have enjoyed it more if I had been able to commit to it regularly. To me, "All the King's Men" will always remind me of some of the most tumultuous months of my life. Since I began reading this book in late October of 2010, and in no particular order, I have had one cousin get married, my sister-in-law get engaged, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and Valentine's Day have all come and gone, my grandfather passed away, followed only weeks later by the death of my father, I lost one job and began another, and my football team won the Super Bowl for the first time since 1997, and I travelled to Kyoto, Japan and Hong Kong, China. And I read "All the King's Men." If someone had told me all of that would happen when I purchased this book on a beautiful October day in Baltimore, I wouldn't have believed them. I might have run screaming in the other direction. Needless to say, life can head in some funny directions sometimes.
On that note, I would like to end with my favorite passage from "All the King's Men."
Warren writes: "After a great blow or crisis, after the first shock and then after the nerves have stopped screaming and twitching, you settle down to the new condition of things and feel that all possibility of change has been used up. You adjust yourself and are sure that the new equilibrium is for eternity....I felt that the story was over, that what had been begun a long time back had been played out, that the lemon had been squeezed dry. But if one thing is certain, it is that no story is ever over, for the story that we think is over is only a chapter in a story which will not be over, and it isn't the game that is over, it is just an inning, and that game has a lot more than nine innings. When the game stops, it will be called on account of darkness. But it is a long day."
"All the King's Men" won the Pulitzer and is, according to the back cover, one of the best novels on American politics ever written. What stood out to me though, was that this novel didn't really feel like it was about politics, at least not the politics we think of today. I don't remember a political party being mentioned once in the book, though I am sure they were at some point. The story really focuses on relationships, and the politics of personal relationships across many different facets of life. The main character, though I hesitate to call him a protagonist, and narrator is a man named Jack Burden. He is a journalist who gets swept into the inner circle that orbits the personality of the small town politician Willie Stark, who becomes governor of the state of Louisiana. Willie Stark takes office on the strength of his small town/everyman persona. He aims to sweep the old guard out of office and put the needs of the common folk first. The irony being, of course, that Willie is as corrupt and power hungry as any of the old politicians, but he is able to rationalize and justify his behavior because he is doing it all in the name of the working man. Jack is employed and befriended by Willie, and is used to research and rake up muck on the people Willie desires to have leverage against. It is never clear how much he believes in Willie's message or his own role in Willie's schemes, but he sticks with Willie until the bitter end. Without giving too much away, Jack loses almost everyone he loves in the process, but the ending does leave a little hope that Jack finds peace.
Warren's writing style is really incredible. The words flow off the page, and he creates as vivid a mental image as I can remember ever getting while reading. An example: "out at the University, on the practice field, the toe of some long-legged, slug-footed, box-shouldered lad kept smacking the leather, and farther away scrimmage surged and heaved to the sound of shouts and peremptory whistles." All Warren is doing is describing a scene where the background includes a football team at practice, and he crafts this wonderfully simple to read, but incredibly deep and rich sentence to describe it. And the entire novel is like that. It really is a joy to read. And, unlike Faulkner, Warren regularly uses punctuation, which is appreciated.
I enjoyed this book immensely, unfortunately due to my own laziness and the disruptions that life can have, my reading of it was inconsistent and disjointed. I would have enjoyed it more if I had been able to commit to it regularly. To me, "All the King's Men" will always remind me of some of the most tumultuous months of my life. Since I began reading this book in late October of 2010, and in no particular order, I have had one cousin get married, my sister-in-law get engaged, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and Valentine's Day have all come and gone, my grandfather passed away, followed only weeks later by the death of my father, I lost one job and began another, and my football team won the Super Bowl for the first time since 1997, and I travelled to Kyoto, Japan and Hong Kong, China. And I read "All the King's Men." If someone had told me all of that would happen when I purchased this book on a beautiful October day in Baltimore, I wouldn't have believed them. I might have run screaming in the other direction. Needless to say, life can head in some funny directions sometimes.
On that note, I would like to end with my favorite passage from "All the King's Men."
Warren writes: "After a great blow or crisis, after the first shock and then after the nerves have stopped screaming and twitching, you settle down to the new condition of things and feel that all possibility of change has been used up. You adjust yourself and are sure that the new equilibrium is for eternity....I felt that the story was over, that what had been begun a long time back had been played out, that the lemon had been squeezed dry. But if one thing is certain, it is that no story is ever over, for the story that we think is over is only a chapter in a story which will not be over, and it isn't the game that is over, it is just an inning, and that game has a lot more than nine innings. When the game stops, it will be called on account of darkness. But it is a long day."
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Two months I won't soon forget (AKA the best excuse not to be reading my books)
It has been far too long since I posted, and more has happened in the last two months than I can really acurately describe. Of course, at the end of December was a wonderful Holiday season that I was able to share with my family.
Unfortunately the happiness of the holidays lasted only until the night of December 29th when my father suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. I won't get too deeply into how it happened, only to say that he had spent a day with my two brothers, doing what he loved, which was skiing. He spent the evening with the love of his life, my mother, and he passed away in her arms on the floor of the home that he had built with his own two hands. While I wish he were still with us, I am envious of his final day. I love my father, and always will.
Now that I have sufficiently bummed you out, I have to say that even if you may not want it, the joy in life seems to miraculously appear when you most need it. My father and mother had planned a trip to Asia for late Jamuary that they obviously were not able to go on. Part of that trip included business, so my mother had to go. Fortunately my two brothers and I were able to go with her, with stops in Kyoto, Japan and Hong Kong. Let me tell you, if you need to find peace in your life, going to a city full of Zen gardens is not a bad place to start. We had a wonderful trip, and were able to find some joy at a time when it didn't seem possible. The only negative was my beautiful wife had to stay home to work. At least our puppy wasn't left to fend for himself.
When we returned home, we had one more joy to celebrate. My beloved Green Bay Packers won their fourth Super Bowl, and 13th NFL title. My father, who always loved sports and made gameday special for our family, would have loved to celebrate with us. It is funny though, when life sucks, and you need anything, even something as trivial as sports, to cheer you up, a little miracle happens. My family and I got to spend a night cheering for our favorite team to do something unimaginable only a few weeks before, and we got to see my hometown team win the Super Bowl. Incredible.
And here is where the excuses start: Still not finished reading "All the King's Men" though I did read a few hunderd pages on the flight to Asia. Hopefully within the month I will be able to finish and move on to book four. So long as people stop dying. Or if the Packers offer me the job as team historian. If that happened I would dump this blog so fast.....
Unfortunately the happiness of the holidays lasted only until the night of December 29th when my father suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. I won't get too deeply into how it happened, only to say that he had spent a day with my two brothers, doing what he loved, which was skiing. He spent the evening with the love of his life, my mother, and he passed away in her arms on the floor of the home that he had built with his own two hands. While I wish he were still with us, I am envious of his final day. I love my father, and always will.
Now that I have sufficiently bummed you out, I have to say that even if you may not want it, the joy in life seems to miraculously appear when you most need it. My father and mother had planned a trip to Asia for late Jamuary that they obviously were not able to go on. Part of that trip included business, so my mother had to go. Fortunately my two brothers and I were able to go with her, with stops in Kyoto, Japan and Hong Kong. Let me tell you, if you need to find peace in your life, going to a city full of Zen gardens is not a bad place to start. We had a wonderful trip, and were able to find some joy at a time when it didn't seem possible. The only negative was my beautiful wife had to stay home to work. At least our puppy wasn't left to fend for himself.
When we returned home, we had one more joy to celebrate. My beloved Green Bay Packers won their fourth Super Bowl, and 13th NFL title. My father, who always loved sports and made gameday special for our family, would have loved to celebrate with us. It is funny though, when life sucks, and you need anything, even something as trivial as sports, to cheer you up, a little miracle happens. My family and I got to spend a night cheering for our favorite team to do something unimaginable only a few weeks before, and we got to see my hometown team win the Super Bowl. Incredible.
And here is where the excuses start: Still not finished reading "All the King's Men" though I did read a few hunderd pages on the flight to Asia. Hopefully within the month I will be able to finish and move on to book four. So long as people stop dying. Or if the Packers offer me the job as team historian. If that happened I would dump this blog so fast.....
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Long Delays
As with anything, life gets in the way of good intentions. That is particularly true this year as I have spent the past couple of weeks either celebrating thanksgiving or celebrating the life of my Grandfather, who recently passed away. While I am dedicated to forging ahead with this project, I am sure there will be long delays between the completetion of some of these books, so please bear with me.
Oh, and "All the King's Men" is 600 pages long. Just sayin'...
Oh, and "All the King's Men" is 600 pages long. Just sayin'...
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Author Bio: Robert Penn Warren
Reading bios of Robert Penn Warren makes me think about how small and insignificant my own attempts at writing are. It's like knowing a person who is attractive, kind, successful and wealthy. You are happy for them, but you also hate their guts just a little bit for being so perfect.
During his years as a student Warren spent time at Vanderbilt, University of California Berkeley, Yale Universty and the New College, Oxford in England as a Rhodes Scholar. C'mon Warren, dude, you are making everyone else on the planet look bad. He spent much of his time at these various schools in various poetry groups and societies and became as well known for his poetry as he would for his novels.
In an interesting flip-flop, there is evidence that Warren spent his early years as a segragationist, but over time became a strong proponent of racial integration, publishing interviews with important civil rights leaders, including Malcolm X and MLK.
His best known work, and the work of his that I am in the process of reading, is All the King's Men, for which he won a Pulitzer in 1947. This work follows the political career of Willie Stark, inspiried heavily by the real-life Governer of Louisiana from 1928-1932, Huey Long. Warren was able to observe Long closely while a professor at LSU during the height of Long's political popularity and subsequent assassination.
Warren is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes in both ficton and poetry. He won twice in poetry for his collections entitled "Promises: Poems 1954-1956" (1958) and Now and Then (1979). He went on to be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Carter, was named first U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1987.
...what a loser.
Oh, and once I got an A in our 10th grade poetry assignment. Check and Mate.
During his years as a student Warren spent time at Vanderbilt, University of California Berkeley, Yale Universty and the New College, Oxford in England as a Rhodes Scholar. C'mon Warren, dude, you are making everyone else on the planet look bad. He spent much of his time at these various schools in various poetry groups and societies and became as well known for his poetry as he would for his novels.
In an interesting flip-flop, there is evidence that Warren spent his early years as a segragationist, but over time became a strong proponent of racial integration, publishing interviews with important civil rights leaders, including Malcolm X and MLK.
His best known work, and the work of his that I am in the process of reading, is All the King's Men, for which he won a Pulitzer in 1947. This work follows the political career of Willie Stark, inspiried heavily by the real-life Governer of Louisiana from 1928-1932, Huey Long. Warren was able to observe Long closely while a professor at LSU during the height of Long's political popularity and subsequent assassination.
Warren is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes in both ficton and poetry. He won twice in poetry for his collections entitled "Promises: Poems 1954-1956" (1958) and Now and Then (1979). He went on to be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Carter, was named first U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1987.
...what a loser.
Oh, and once I got an A in our 10th grade poetry assignment. Check and Mate.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
2: "The Sound and The Fury" by William Faulkner (1929)
First off, I have to admit that I didn't enjoy reading this book. If you couldn't glean that from a few of my previous posts, I want to lay it all out there. I don't like "The Sound and The Fury." That having been said, I don't think one is necessarily supposed to like this novel. This story at its root is about the decay of a once affluent southern family. The majority the of the main characters are generally unlikeable and pitiful. The text is next to impossible for a casual reader to get through without some kind of guidance, especially the first couple of sections. I equate my feelings about "The Sound and the Fury" with the feelings I had leaving the theater after seeing "Saving Private Ryan" for the first time. Saving Private Ryan is not a movie you are supposed to like. I don't like seeing the deaths of hundreds of soldiers depicted onscreen. I don't like seeing the destruction of French towns. I don't like seeing the main characters dying one by one as they attempt to achieve a somewhat silly, but noble, goal. Does that mean the film was bad? No, of course not. "Saving Private Ryan" was a extremely well done war film, that can allow viewers who weren't there on the battlefields of France during the Second World War to experience a tiny piece of the terror and loss and brotherhood that soldiers experience. And based on the sobbing older gentlemen I saw leaving the theater, it can apparently allow veterans who were there to revisit a defining experience in their lives. It was a powerful film. Not a likable one, but a powerful and well crafted one. I feel similarly about "The Sound and the Fury." It is powerful. It is beautifully crafted. It is a classic. And I hated every minute of it.
....well, ok, maybe not every minute. I hated 3/4 of my minutes with Faulkner. And I suppose hate is a little too strong of a word. I really didn't hate this novel. There were times I stopped to marvel at the style Faulkner uses to convey the points of view of his subjects. "The Sound and the Fury" is broken up into 4 long chapters, or sections, and is set on a different date and comes from a different character's point of view. It details a few days in the lives of the members of the Compson family. An affluent clan whose wealth and power and reputation is in decline. The first two sections were incredibly difficult reading. The very first is from the perspective of a boy, Benjy, who is mentally handicapped. He is the youngest of the four Compson children There is little language that indicates the chronology of the events that Benjy experiences. The style of writing is purely stream of consciousness. There were pages at a time when I realized I couldn't remember what was actually happening, I just got lost in the cadence of the prose. I won't attempt to discuss the events that take place in this section, because I don't think I can. Go give it a try yourselves! The following section is, like the first, difficult reading. It comes from the perspective of Quentin, a Harvard student and oldest of the Compson children. He is obsessed with his sister Caddy, who has been victim of sexual scandals starting at a young age. As the section progresses, chronology gets more jumbled, and consistent punctuation, grammar and spelling goes out the window. Apparently this indicates Quentin's slow mental deterioration as he is unable to come to grips with the fate of his sister, his family, and the degradation of the American south since the end of the civil war. (Thank you Internet for explaining this to me).
It is at this point in the novel I considered giving up reading altogether and instead focusing on cable reality shows, but persisted. I don't think a book has ever made me feel, outside of maybe my Federal Tax Law casebook in law school, so incredibly stupid than the first two sections of "The Sound and the Fury." I felt like I just wasn't getting it. This is one novel that I wish that I had read within the context of a literature class.
Thankfully the last two sections were less of a chore to get through. The third section follows Jason, the third child and the means of financial support for the family. This section is linear and much easier to read. Jason's role has left him as a despicable character, whose sole focus lies on money. The last section is the only that is not set from a first person narrator, and the only one not focused on person outside of the family. It follows Dilsey, who is a black servant to the Compsons. Her section was the easiest to read, and the most enjoyable for me. Her character is likable. The simplicity of the prose in her section mirrors the simplicity of her life, compared to the Compson children, which revolves around her faith and her loyalty to the Compsons, despite their sometimes harsh treatment of Dilsey and her family.
I don't care to try and explain more of the plot of the novel, nor will I try to dissect the style Faulkner uses in his various sections. It would take it's own book to be done properly. Generations of brighter minds than I have already done so far better than I ever could. I can only relate my experience while reading "The Sound and the Fury." Again, I didn't necessarily enjoy this book, but I did marvel at the style and complexity of Faulkner's achievement. How someone could weave the threads of this work together, long before being able to easily save and edit on a computer, I will never know! This work could be Exhibit A for an example of how fine the line between genius and insanity can feel.
Now it is my time to say Goodbye to the "The Sound and the Fury" I am proud to have read you, and I am happy to be moving on!
....well, ok, maybe not every minute. I hated 3/4 of my minutes with Faulkner. And I suppose hate is a little too strong of a word. I really didn't hate this novel. There were times I stopped to marvel at the style Faulkner uses to convey the points of view of his subjects. "The Sound and the Fury" is broken up into 4 long chapters, or sections, and is set on a different date and comes from a different character's point of view. It details a few days in the lives of the members of the Compson family. An affluent clan whose wealth and power and reputation is in decline. The first two sections were incredibly difficult reading. The very first is from the perspective of a boy, Benjy, who is mentally handicapped. He is the youngest of the four Compson children There is little language that indicates the chronology of the events that Benjy experiences. The style of writing is purely stream of consciousness. There were pages at a time when I realized I couldn't remember what was actually happening, I just got lost in the cadence of the prose. I won't attempt to discuss the events that take place in this section, because I don't think I can. Go give it a try yourselves! The following section is, like the first, difficult reading. It comes from the perspective of Quentin, a Harvard student and oldest of the Compson children. He is obsessed with his sister Caddy, who has been victim of sexual scandals starting at a young age. As the section progresses, chronology gets more jumbled, and consistent punctuation, grammar and spelling goes out the window. Apparently this indicates Quentin's slow mental deterioration as he is unable to come to grips with the fate of his sister, his family, and the degradation of the American south since the end of the civil war. (Thank you Internet for explaining this to me).
It is at this point in the novel I considered giving up reading altogether and instead focusing on cable reality shows, but persisted. I don't think a book has ever made me feel, outside of maybe my Federal Tax Law casebook in law school, so incredibly stupid than the first two sections of "The Sound and the Fury." I felt like I just wasn't getting it. This is one novel that I wish that I had read within the context of a literature class.
Thankfully the last two sections were less of a chore to get through. The third section follows Jason, the third child and the means of financial support for the family. This section is linear and much easier to read. Jason's role has left him as a despicable character, whose sole focus lies on money. The last section is the only that is not set from a first person narrator, and the only one not focused on person outside of the family. It follows Dilsey, who is a black servant to the Compsons. Her section was the easiest to read, and the most enjoyable for me. Her character is likable. The simplicity of the prose in her section mirrors the simplicity of her life, compared to the Compson children, which revolves around her faith and her loyalty to the Compsons, despite their sometimes harsh treatment of Dilsey and her family.
I don't care to try and explain more of the plot of the novel, nor will I try to dissect the style Faulkner uses in his various sections. It would take it's own book to be done properly. Generations of brighter minds than I have already done so far better than I ever could. I can only relate my experience while reading "The Sound and the Fury." Again, I didn't necessarily enjoy this book, but I did marvel at the style and complexity of Faulkner's achievement. How someone could weave the threads of this work together, long before being able to easily save and edit on a computer, I will never know! This work could be Exhibit A for an example of how fine the line between genius and insanity can feel.
Now it is my time to say Goodbye to the "The Sound and the Fury" I am proud to have read you, and I am happy to be moving on!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)