How (and why) to read William Faulkner - Sascha Morrell
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Date: 2023-05-31
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Comments and reviews: 15
BasedIgor
Faulkner can be very difficult, but most of his work is not. I think Absalom is his greatest achievement but Sound/Fury and As I Lay Dying tend to get the most praise. This short video essay does anyone new to Faulkner no favors, as while some might look at his work through the prisms of race and colonialism (really. really) you'd be selling his work and your time short to take that approach imo (the basic contrast in his work is between planters versus merchants, country folk versus town folk. I'd recommend starting with Snopes Trilogy (The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion) and if you like his style then start going through it chronologically when it was written. For Sound and the Fury, you might want to find a good reader's guide, because you will get lost very quickly (the caddy/Caddie action takes place in the first few pages, and it only gets more difficult from there. Enjoy - Faulkner and Melville are America's greatest sons of letters, but they take patience.
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Faulkner can be very difficult, but most of his work is not. I think Absalom is his greatest achievement but Sound/Fury and As I Lay Dying tend to get the most praise. This short video essay does anyone new to Faulkner no favors, as while some might look at his work through the prisms of race and colonialism (really. really) you'd be selling his work and your time short to take that approach imo (the basic contrast in his work is between planters versus merchants, country folk versus town folk. I'd recommend starting with Snopes Trilogy (The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion) and if you like his style then start going through it chronologically when it was written. For Sound and the Fury, you might want to find a good reader's guide, because you will get lost very quickly (the caddy/Caddie action takes place in the first few pages, and it only gets more difficult from there. Enjoy - Faulkner and Melville are America's greatest sons of letters, but they take patience.
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Merrypaws
If I recall correctly, Faulkner once dissed Ernest Hemingway by saying He's never been known to use a word that would send a reader to the dictionary.
To which Hemingway replied: Poor Faulkner. He thinks that big emotion comes from big words.
I find it interesting because both of them are now considered some of the greatest juggernauts of literature, but they approached the craft from polar opposite directions.
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If I recall correctly, Faulkner once dissed Ernest Hemingway by saying He's never been known to use a word that would send a reader to the dictionary.
To which Hemingway replied: Poor Faulkner. He thinks that big emotion comes from big words.
I find it interesting because both of them are now considered some of the greatest juggernauts of literature, but they approached the craft from polar opposite directions.
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Writeon25
3: 41 As someone who wrote a book report on a book which I disliked for often using run on sentences, this would be a nightmare. In the essay, to prove my point, I took the entire second sentence of the story, word for word, and typed it all up in MLA font. It took up half a page. The sentence you're talking about here would likely span multiple pages and lose me and the reader in its length.
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3: 41 As someone who wrote a book report on a book which I disliked for often using run on sentences, this would be a nightmare. In the essay, to prove my point, I took the entire second sentence of the story, word for word, and typed it all up in MLA font. It took up half a page. The sentence you're talking about here would likely span multiple pages and lose me and the reader in its length.
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Dqan
Ugh. I think I need to go back to bed. I just spent a good five minutes researching one of literature's most confusing writers, Sascha Morrell, and wondering why I'd never heard of her books. Now that I know that it's really Faulkner the thumbnail totally makes sense. Couldn't see it before, though. Sometimes it pays to just hit 'play'.
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Ugh. I think I need to go back to bed. I just spent a good five minutes researching one of literature's most confusing writers, Sascha Morrell, and wondering why I'd never heard of her books. Now that I know that it's really Faulkner the thumbnail totally makes sense. Couldn't see it before, though. Sometimes it pays to just hit 'play'.
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ronkirk50
I was raised a left coast liberal so I knew little about the deep south, but when I went on to read at least half a dozen of Faulkner's classic novels, I learned not only something about the south, but something about the human condition as well. A pretty great writer with a remarkable body of work. Highly recommended.
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I was raised a left coast liberal so I knew little about the deep south, but when I went on to read at least half a dozen of Faulkner's classic novels, I learned not only something about the south, but something about the human condition as well. A pretty great writer with a remarkable body of work. Highly recommended.
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Rumple-chan
If I were made to read this in highschool, I would've flunked English so hard, it would've made reading Pet Semetary a lot easier for me (I only read about 80 pages out of the 600+ it has, and I was struggling with my fifth-grade reading-level impairment at the time.
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If I were made to read this in highschool, I would've flunked English so hard, it would've made reading Pet Semetary a lot easier for me (I only read about 80 pages out of the 600+ it has, and I was struggling with my fifth-grade reading-level impairment at the time.
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Fallen
I had to read Faulkner in high school. It wasn't the dissonance of povs that made me not like him, it was his dry, dry tone. I remember falling asleep on the couch reading the Jason chapter of The Sound and the Fury for school because it was sooooo boring.
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I had to read Faulkner in high school. It wasn't the dissonance of povs that made me not like him, it was his dry, dry tone. I remember falling asleep on the couch reading the Jason chapter of The Sound and the Fury for school because it was sooooo boring.
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MegaAthir
William Faulkner captures how QAnon members perceive
the world; they call everyone else bizzaro and confusing but their own cognitive dissonance has to move back and forth to rationalize every contradiction spoonfeeded to them.
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William Faulkner captures how QAnon members perceive
the world; they call everyone else bizzaro and confusing but their own cognitive dissonance has to move back and forth to rationalize every contradiction spoonfeeded to them.
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Born
Nice. I actually recommended a Why You Should Read William Faulkner video 3 years ago when they did one for Edgar Allan Poe.
Not saying I had anything to do with this. Just glad that it's a thing now.
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Nice. I actually recommended a Why You Should Read William Faulkner video 3 years ago when they did one for Edgar Allan Poe.
Not saying I had anything to do with this. Just glad that it's a thing now.
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asanka
Thanks for introducing a new writer to my reading world. Because of one of your videos, I read Toni Morrison's Beloved which astonishingly painful. So I will definitely read William's books too.
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Thanks for introducing a new writer to my reading world. Because of one of your videos, I read Toni Morrison's Beloved which astonishingly painful. So I will definitely read William's books too.
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Ken
TED-ED
Can you please do a video about Federico Garcia Lorca and his book la Casa de Bernarda Alba. It s one of the most important works of spanish literature
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TED-ED
Can you please do a video about Federico Garcia Lorca and his book la Casa de Bernarda Alba. It s one of the most important works of spanish literature
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PSYonion
Faulkner's literary labyrinths are like mirrors reflecting our own biases and blindspots, forcing us to confront the complexities of history and memory
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Faulkner's literary labyrinths are like mirrors reflecting our own biases and blindspots, forcing us to confront the complexities of history and memory
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Andrew
Getting to the last word of the 1288 word long sentence leaves you breathless, as if you just ran a marathon, chasing meaning and never catching it.
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Getting to the last word of the 1288 word long sentence leaves you breathless, as if you just ran a marathon, chasing meaning and never catching it.
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Joel
Oooo, this looks like a great read! I love books that play with your mind and discuss difficult topics, with strange and interesting characters.
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Oooo, this looks like a great read! I love books that play with your mind and discuss difficult topics, with strange and interesting characters.
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J1P2K
I have issue reading the Sound and the Fury because of my reading problems.
I had to use an audio book to just and try to follow along.
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I have issue reading the Sound and the Fury because of my reading problems.
I had to use an audio book to just and try to follow along.
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