Faulkner Thread

I. Is there a flowchart for Faulkner's books?
II. What is his best book?
III. Does he shit on Hemingway?
IV. Would you count him as continental and/or existentialist?
V. Is he the American Tolstoy?

Also general discussion.

I. Did you check the sticky?
II. Absalom, Absalom, IMO but I The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying a very close seconds. If you read him, read all three of those.
III.On a personal level, yeah he talked a lot of shit. From a literary standpoint it's like comparing a soccer player to a football player. They both write, but they do entirely different things with their work.
IV. Yeah, probably a continental, I haven't thought much about him as an existentialist though. There may have been a slight impulse, but I don't think he leans strongly towards it.
V. No, they're too dissimilar and play different roles within their own cultures.

I. Pic related. For some reason it excludes Light in August, though – don't forget it.
II. As I Lay Dying.
III. Yes.
IV. This is nonsense. He's a modernist – would you ask this question of Joyce, Eliot or Pound?
V. See above.

I just finished As I Lay Dying and it was beautiful. The characterization in that book is something else.

1. Take cob of corn
2. Husk it
3. Rub the removed husk over your genitals
4. Take the corncob itself
5. Thrust it deep into your anus

I have a question, also: Should it be viewed as a comedy or a tragedy? It seemed pretty melancholy but I read there's a lot of subtle humor, and I could see this with how the ending goes.

Absalom is his best by a longshot imo (which speaks to its quality since AILD and TSaTF are both still good)

Modernism is an artistic movement related to a specific period of time, not a general "worldview" philosophy such as existentialism. Obviously, existentialism didn't exist under that name in his time, but to say he was a Modernist is somewhat irrelevant.

Yes, but Joyce would be an absurdist, had he known the movement existed. Iḿ not asking if *he* considered himself an existentialist, but if *we* consider him one today from a current standpoint.

I don't understand. Surely any philosophical school you attribute to him is only a single and reductive way of reading him?

The last stretch is definitely supposed to be funny, but you're laughing at how abject and disgusting what happens is, so it's a tragicomedy I guess.

>Joyce would be an absurdist, had he known the movement existed
Why do you think that?

interesting
I also just finished it
I had a hard time figuring out what happened at the end, why did Darl lose his shit out of nowhere?

also
Captcha: Select Bananas

Of course, I don't think OP believes the answer to his question would explain all of Faulkner's work, he's just curious about what philosophical movement he might have agreed with.

Just started Sound and the Fury.
Any tips, desu?

wasn't out of nowhere. but it had to do with his relationship with his mother, coupled with the emotional/existential weight of everything he knew about his family

I think that was actually hinted at a lot before it occurred. Notice how near the beginning he can see what happens at the house even while he's away on the trip to town. His function as a narrator who eventually goes insane is a pretty funny thing to include if you think about it, like the reader is being made fun of in a way.

is probably more on the mark though

thanks, makes a lot of sense

if I've read all of his masterpieces already (Sound&Fury, Absalom, as I lay dying, light in august), is it even worth reading his other work?

The Unvanquished is really good. Wild Palms is a little above average. Fable is shit. Pylon is shit. Snopes trilogy is great, especially after Hamlet.

I. Already answered.
II. Snopes trilogy
III. Yes, fuck that guy.
IV. Both.
V. No.

In Absalom Absalom during Rosa's narrative she is all of a sudden back home after Sutpen said to her three words and now the town is making chants like Rosie Coldfield couldn't keep a man.

I'm a dense cunt I know but what happened here? Did Sutpen just send her off home?

stick it out to the end, then re read.