Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" is too fucking much for me.

[Redleg]

I have twice struggled to read it but I can't get past the the first 10 or 15 pages. Jeebus- someone explain to me how this is classic American Literature.

[Reverend_Smitty]

1. Had to read that damn book twice just to realize that there were...

two characters with the same name, even with that resolved I still couldn't figure out that fucking book!

[rwenos]

4. Faulkner is Unreadable to Me

Some folks love "Light in August." I could never make any sense of it whatsoever.

[nutsnberries]

19. I remember loving Light in August

but I can't remember a single OTHER thing about it now.
gotta re-read it someday and see if i love it again.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. It's deep thinking stuff. Trouble is the style of writing is different

now than it was then. Just like comparing old movies to new movies. Whole different feel to them.

----------------------------------------------------------
Save our country one town, county, and state at a time!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm#why

[Reverend_Smitty]

7. It's strange...

because the language isn't much different to today's English. I have no trouble reading Shakespeare (I really enjoy his stuff) but the language is almost foreign, but there is a poetic lilt to it that makes it easy to understand once you get the hang of it. There is something about stream of consciousness modernism; I don't know what it is but I find it almost impossible to read. I feel the same way about Joyce, although I enjoyed Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

[flamingyouth]

3. Is it required reading?

And if so, is your instructor a sadist? :shrug:

[Redleg]

8. I am a college professor.

I tried to read it for fun.

[flamingyouth]

10. LOL - I'm sorry

I had no idea you were a professor. I feel really embarrassed now. :D

[Redleg]

12. Well, I'm not an English or literature prof if that makes you feel better.

LOL

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Now you have to tell us what you teach. our interest is piqued!

----------------------------------------------------------
Save our country one town, county, and state at a time!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm#why

[Redleg]

16. Organizational Behavior.

EOM

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. meaning? You teach people how to become organized?

----------------------------------------------------------
Save our country one town, county, and state at a time!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm#why

[Redleg]

25. No- the study of how people think, feel, and act in organizations

EOM

[flamingyouth]

15. Thanks - only slightly!

As an aside, for great Southern literature, nothing beats Carson McCullers in my book. :)

[susanna]

5. Thank goodness it's not just me.

Now, no kidding, I go OUT OF MY WAY to read southern U.S. writing. I've read so much of it, and gotten something back: McCullers, Welty, Wolfe et al et al ad nauseum. All of it, I've understood. EXCEPT "The Sound and the Fury." Made me furious at wasting my time within about 1/2 hour.

Can anyone help with this issue, since it affects at LEAST a few people on the planet?

edited to up the number of folks who are confused by this book :-)

[yardwork]

6. I'll try

Faulkner wrote for himself, not English literature classes. He really didn't give a damn whether anybody understood what he was writing or not. He hoped they would pay money to buy the books.

When I read Faulkner I remember that he just didn't care whether I got it or not, so I relax and read him for the hell of it. Then, when I've relaxed and kind of gotten into Faulkner's rhythm and Faulkner's world, I start to enjoy it. A lot. (Not Light in August, though.)

Personally, I don't think anyone should be required to read Faulkner. Some people like him and others don't. If you don't, don't read him. That's what I say.

[Redleg]

11. I'm reading it for my own pleasure, not for a class.

I am no dummy but I just don't fucking get it. I don't see how the book is a classic. I believe you when you say Faulkner didn't give a damn if anybody could understand it.

[susanna]

14. That was my problem, too...

Goodness, I LOVE reading most southern writers, so I picked him up; no deadlines, no classes, nothing - did it for me and me alone. And I understand all the other southern writers, so I figure no biggie, right? Well, now, that was a misguided assumption!

Maybe I'll try it again, attempt getting into Faulkner's rhythm. My problem is I HATE not understanding literature. It shouldn't be that difficult (or maybe I'm just spoiled)? LOL

[yardwork]

21. There's nothing wrong with simply not liking it

If you think you would like it if you understood it better, get Cliff's Notes.

[Maddy McCall]

9. I love Faulkner!

I guess I'm a weirdo. :-)

[Elidor]

17. Can you believe there are Faulkner scholars?

I never got past the Benji section, either. Too fucking obtuse, even if you know what he's about. Faulkner's a fucking wanker.

[WiltedFlowerChild]

20. Faulkner is my favorite author

'The Sound and the Fury' is a four part narrative with the same story being told from four different viewpoints.

The story takes place over Easter weekend but covers a period of nineteen years.

Once you figure out what year you are in and know that there are two characters named Quentin, and that Benjy's name was changed, it becomes a great story.

[punpirate]

23. The story about the four-part narrative...

... from a Faulkner course I took is that Faulkner did understand the difficulty the reader might have with at least one part of it--the multiple time periods in Benjy's section. He asked Bennett Cerf to print it in four different colors.

Cerf told him that it was simply not possible to do, as the costs would wipe out all the profits and more. If Faulkner had been writing today, it would have been relatively easy to do with computer desktop publishing and modern digital printing.

Cheers.


Edit for syntax.

[Redleg]

27. Thanks for the insight. Faulkner deliberately made it as clear as pigshit

I could tell that the story was moving back and forth in time but I couldn't tell that there were two characters named Quentin- although I did think something strange was going on with the names.

[Elidor]

36. Perhaps

I'll try to keep that in mind if I ever need something to read while I'm gnawing my own arm off. :D

Seriously, though, maybe I'm wrong. Beauty is in the eye.

[Babel_17]

22. I feel your pain

I'm a sci-fi fan and I can remember struggling through parts of Iain M. Banks' "Feersum Endjinn". I realize that the prose I have in mind is nowhere near as dense as Faulkner's but I'm sure the pain was similar. :)

"The Bascule sections of the novel are told in a compressed prose, abbreviating words phonetically (like feersum endjinn for fearsome engine), also using numbers and symbols. This is initially difficult to follow, but I picked up on it pretty quickly, and I thought it was vital to providing Bascule an individual voice (one quite reminiscent of Holden Caulfield`s voice, I thought)."

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553374591/qid=1105682741/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-1352818-8207936?v=glance&s=books



The one novel that did defeat me (so far, I still haven't given up) I purchased some 20 odd years ago.

Curiously enough it was written by the novelist who penned Babel-17, the novel who's title I use as a nick here and elsewhere.

The Samuel R. Delaney novel I'm referring to is titled "Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand".

Very daunting.

"A flawed work of genius, July 1, 1998
Reviewer: A reader
Yes indeed, after reading this I do not doubt Delaney's genius. His literary skill and ability to create highly individualistic turns of phrase never fails to impress me. The tale of Rat Korga comes alive in a galaxy of fascinating peoples and places. However, this is by no means an easy read. Delaney's overly-stylized writing can grate at times. Sentence fragments. He uses them a lot. I recall reading the same chapter two, three times then having to put the book down in utter frustration, not understanding a word of what I had just read. As a result, it took me a good deal longer to read this than many books much longer than it (it's under 400 pages). But it was worth the difficulty, and is certainly a book that lends itself to rereading. Intelligent and intensely rewarding prose."

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0819567140/qid=1105682533/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-1352818-8207936?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

[necso]

24. "All Sound and Fury". /nt

[dolo amber]

26. Joyce is easier to read than Faulkner

x(

[htuttle]

29. Joyce?

(falls on the ground, shuddering with seizures, foam coming out of mouth)

Ehem...I found Joyce to be rather...challenging to read. Maybe I shouldn't have started with Finnegan's Wake.

:shrug:

[dolo amber]

30. Maybe that's why I forced myself to read

it until it made sense...it *was* challenging. And as cliche as it sounds, it really does get easier the more you read it. Something about Faulkner just put me into an instant stupor.

And yes, next time do the sensible thing and start with Ulysses. :D

[htuttle]

31. Ah, so I should 'begin again'?

:D

[Orsino]

28. Try The Unvanquished

There's actual story that is interesting, as with about the first half of The Bear.

[Zensea]

32. "A tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing"

When you consider where Faulkner got the title (from Macbeth)and that the first part of the Sound and the Fury is an attempt to represent in writing the thoughts of a mute (thus an "idiot"), then it is no surprise if there is difficulty in getting past the beginning of the novel.

Once you get past the first 10 or 15 pages things become more comprehensible.

[susanna]

33. I might give it another try.

I did like "Absalom! Absalom!" by Faulkner. So he's not universally incomprehensible to me.

[Zensea]

34. You should if you got through Absalom, Absalom

Absalom Absalom is about as complicated as Sound and the Fury. It's just that the complication is not on the language/discourse level the way it is in The Sound and the Fury.

[susanna]

37. Exactly...

Absalom followed a plot, chaotic as it was; it just seemed easier somehow. Thanks for your insight. I'll give S&F another try.

On a side note, I read a biography of Faulkner. He was a complicated man. So his writing is not so surprising (being complicated I mean).

[SOteric]

35. I adore that book.

The initial perspective in the book is the most difficult to struggle through, but the remaining perspectives make it so evidently appropriate to have started with the idiot's thought process. If you can make yourself struggle through, there is reward in the effort.

[RetroLounge]

38. Hardest Class I ever took in College while doing my Masters.

"William Faulkner and Intertextuality"

Sound and The Fury
Absalom Absalom
The Bear and other Short Stories
Light in August

Plus huge papers on each. 30 - 50 page papers.

I actually asked to add the class. The professor told me "No one ever adds my class, students *drop* my class." Being a smart ass, I said, "Add me and I'll guarantee an 'A' for the semester. He laughed and said okay, I'll take your dare. Shit, that fucking class was hard. I had to read and read and read, and research and discuss and study and write and meet with him over and over.

I ended up with an A-

He became my favorite professor while I was there for 3 years and I returned to some of his classes as guest writer and poet.

He was murdered my last semester by someone he picked up in a bar, stabbed 80 times. So freaking sad, I cried...

RL

[fishnfla]

39. Try "As I Lay Dying" instead

I love Faulkner. TSATF is a challenge alright, especially at first, but it gets clearer later on.

[curse10]

40. I love Faulkner, and read the book in high school (by choice)

I got started by reading As I Lay Dying and loved it so much I started reading his other stuff. The Sound and the Fury is difficult, but, IMHO, well worth it.