“We shall not kill and maybe next time we even won't.”
I would like to think I know something about William Faulkner, but realize I have been hiding under a rock. Even after having read a few of his books and quite a few short stories, I'm just now realizing that all but three of his novels were written in Yoknapatawpha County. I had somehow assumed that only those books that were written for money were set in that fictitious county that was taken from Lafayette County, Mississippi, of which Oxford is the county seat and in which I spent the summer of 1976.
I am sure that at one time I knew where his major fiction was set but had forgotten, and in some ways I am disappointed, not being enamored with the denizens that I have met so far in my reading. I have just started, but I am hoping that "Intruder in the Dust" will help change my opinion.
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Later: I think it may be cheating that I am listening to this book rather than reading it. Since much of it is written as stream of consciousness, I am taking advantage of the Scott Brick or the producer choosing where the breaks are. I suspect that the only books I have ever read that used stream of consciousness were by Faulkner and am sure that was one of the roadblocks to reading "As I Lay Dying" for students in my high school class where I first read it. Whether it is because I have more motivation for reading than others, i.e., for the pleasure of it, or simply because I have more experience with varying styles of writing, I find myself more accepting than others for narrative devices such as this. In Amy Walsh's Minority Literature course, the other students were not tolerant of Silko's non-linear treatment of "Ceremony." I would have thought that since many of them were older than non-traditional aged college students that they would be more experienced readers, especially since most planned to be high school English teachers.
My (presumably) flawed memory of reading "As I Lay Dying" for the first time at 17 was that, while it was difficult to read, I was drawn into the story to learn about the characters. The same is true for "Intruder." Chick Mallison is a particularly interesting character to watch evolve. He has built a relationship with Lucas, the alleged murderer, that I believe exists only in his mind, but then I'm not so sure.
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Still later: The action is spare in this book, but the observation and description lush. I am sure that my roommate wouldn't like this - he complains when there is too much description - and I'm struggling with it a little.
Faulkner imbues his characters with special powers. Alexander has the eyes of a cat and can see in the dark farther away than some people can see in the daylight. Mr. Gowrie has physical powers that belie his slight frame and missing arm and is able to step over a fence in one stride and grab the reins and pummel of a saddle and throw himself up on the horse in a single move. Mrs. Habersham's hat never varies from its center of head position even after trekking through the woods before and after supervising the digging up of a grave in the middle of the night.
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Just finished: I'm not sure I saw as much in the book as the critical responses claim there is. There were supposedly three time periods in Chick's development - believing as society did that blacks had their place and should stay in that place, then believing that Lucas deserved consideration because he was innocent regardless of his color. That I got. But then his uncle's soliloquies about why the South is the way it is and why everyone feels safer when people have a place are supposed to bring Chick back to a traditional Southern way of thinking, but I must have missed that.
There is little critical analysis of this book and even the few journal articles confirm this in their text. One analysis is that it was too political a book and that Faulkner was propagandizing about the value of equal but separate. Chick's uncle makes many points about the history and tradition of segregation, but also talks about the time it will take before equality can happen. I didn't make out that he was calling for equality and segregation, but he clearly wasn't asking for integration.
Just one more thing before I close: Chick's uncle says that the car is cared for by man more than almost anything else in life, and that it has become the symbol for sex. Women prefer a car because it won't paw at them and make them sweaty, and so a man will care for a car so a woman will ride with him even if she won't sleep with him. Interesting.
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