I've been thinking about the discrepancy between his reputation in the US and where I live (the UK). Over here he's much less read and appreciated than Steinbeck, Hemmingway or even Twain.
Do you think there's something more particular to America in his writing in comparison to those other authors?
Some googling tells me the French love him though so perhaps not.
Angel Russell
Sartre thought Faulkner was the greatest novelist of his era.
Jordan Anderson
It's Hemmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmingway. With 33 m's
Charles Lewis
Forgive me
Jackson Morgan
Faulkner was a very Southern writer, so his particular brand of writing is arguably niche even in America. He's definitely the best of those you listed, though -- read him if you haven't.
Jayden Miller
Also from the UK here and I've wondered this.
It seems to me that his stream of consciousness stick is pretty lame compared to our superior Virginia Woolf , so nobody gives a fuck. Also brits dont find his corncobbyness charming.
Andrew Thompson
i'm a britfag and as i lay dying is one of the best things i ever read currently reading the sound and the fury and that's unbelievably good too
he's seriously one of the greats, you can instantly tell
Jackson Ramirez
Those authors are all easier to read than Faulkner so it's not very surprising that more people do so.
Connor Wright
Britbong here. Part of it is a local thing- he's not just 'American', he's American south- it's the equivalent of books exclusively about, say, rural Wales.
But probably part of it is also that his best work is simply harder to read than the others you mention.
Jeremiah Gutierrez
>it's the equivalent of books exclusively about, say, rural Wales. i love those
Landon Reyes
dem valleys
Eli Taylor
This is a a pretty accurate answer. Not directly, but in its content.
Southern Gothic is a regional genre that Brits don't have a point of reference to empathize with. Faulkner's stream-of-consciousness is employed to help the reader immerse into the characters, a technique UK authors like Joyce and Woolf utilized as more of an artistic device, and so Brits see it as an American clumsily utilizing their toy in a less pretty way.
And it's easy to dismiss something you don't understand with a dumb meme. We do it all the time. "corncobby" is essentially giving away the fact that you dont empathize, havent made the attempt to empathize with the people of the story.
Hobbits from the Shire dismiss Faulkner because he's a realist. He doesn't have quirky characters with didactic messages like Twain or culture like Hemmingway or a more modernized depiction of upcoming America like Steinbeck. It's just American backwoods folks and their dying way of life.
Jaxon Adams
It's not all an issue of empathy. You can have empathy for a person, group, or whatever and still dislike them.
Hunter Bennett
Sartre thought Sanctuary was Faulkner's best. Kind of ruins it.
Jayden Jackson
Who cares? Sartre was wrong about everything he could be wrong about
Christian Clark
Yeah, that's how I feel about him, the idea of reading about yokel fucks from some shithole in America just does not appeal.
Julian Morris
He must've misinterpreted the corncob rape scene.
Jordan Diaz
Yes, Faulkner is my favorite American author and I love all those you listed as well.
Southern Gothic is incredible and strangely underrated. I think it has an Old Worldness to it from its feudal Dixie legacy that didnt take off in America the same way a "masculine adventure" schtick like Hemingway or new money big city parties like Fitzgerald or the unpretentious humor of Twain.
Oliver Gutierrez
I actually think that of 20th Century writers, only Joyce is greater than Faulkner. He's nearly without peer as a stylist, and he places you inside the universe of each character in his works extraordinarily effectively.
Andrew Robinson
Sartre liked him but fuck Sartre.
I haven't read much Twain so it is hard to say, but Faulkner gives a concrete and interesting perspective of the south is dying narrative in the US.
My friend from Louisiana thinks it is idiotic to think of the south this way, that is has lost all of its glory and they are all the same down there, but I think a lot of people in the US who haven't been to the south will take it.
I don't like him. He goes nowhere with his works and does it in a very dull fashion. He also isn't that difficult to read. TSATF has voices change on a dime but so what.
John Reyes
Woolf is better than Faulkner
Fight me
Ayden Howard
i agree with you but think both are really swell
Luke Myers
They both write similarly, but Woolf's style feels more like an affectation, while Faulkner's is integral to the story he's telling. That vaults him above her for me.
Dylan Cooper
>who is Borges He even fixed Faulkner's shitty writing on the translations.
Jason Torres
>UK authors like Joyce >UK >Joyce
Justin Long
>american geography
Connor Morris
Where should I start with Woolf?
Robert King
It's because he's a difficult writer. That's literally it.
Difficult writers, if they're eventually recognized as good in their own country, tend to be jacked off by the critics of their own countries while other countries refuse to give a fuck about them. Of course, there are exceptions. Reading a difficult book written by an American and that is supposedly an iconic American book seems nice for an American, but who wants to read László Krasznahorkai or Máirtín Ó Cadhain in America (writers who, of course, are jacked off by the critics of their OWN countries)?
It's basically literary masturbation, wanting to read the most challenging and acclaimed authors from your own cultures but not others, unless they're super influential and well-recognized like Joyce.
Same reason they don't really care about Pynchon or Gaddis in Europe, or even Melville. That's my take on it.
David Myers
>seems nice for an American This is actually pretty funny, I mean for a pretentious American who's into books, not the average American..
Cameron James
I would agree, though Nabokov, Borges, Barthelme, and Pinecone give him a run for his money with their innovations imo. I have forever held that Faulkner is America's greatest writer. Only Melville (at his best), Whitman, and Emerson come close. He dethroned Twain completely.
And also whoever said Woolf >gtfo She is petty nonsense in comparison to Faulkner, let alone Joyce.
Logan Roberts
>stick
opinion discarded
Cooper Hernandez
Woolf is the most basic boring bitch I've ever read. And also >uk >"people care about our opinions re:literature" Don't get ahead of yourself, m8. After all, the Shire is a small place, and there's a much bigger world out there.
Hunter Scott
Let's be real: he is the male, white version of Morrison. He is completely, and I mean conpletely, derivative of the progress made by bigger and better writers from the Modernist period. His insights are far and few, the greatest of them literally being that "Hey, that Ernest guy wasn't very fond of difficult words was he?" Not particularly insightful or original right?
Liam Young
heh ;^)
Brandon Brooks
It just fits the tone of the American south.
There's a thick fog of social graces, masculinity, and just flat out ignorance blocking that seems to block perfect self-consciousness in the South. To speak derisively of it from a foreigner or Yankee perspective is to also miss the mark. Personally I grew up on the northern part of east coast USA but my mother's side is one of those old prim southern families and Faulkner's spot on. The outward prosperity: playing golf on perfect greens, going to church and worshipping God devoutly, white washed houses, colorful gardens, the "bless your heart!" crap is what's out in the open but their hearts and minds are dominated with vigilante justice, hushed murders, incests, suicides, intrigues, and so on. To blow all of this stuff wide open and honestly, which Faulkner definitely does, is a noteworthy feat.
What he's working with is much darker stuff than Steinbeck, Hemingway, and Twain.
The irony with OP is that the American South was essentially the English middle and working classes building a caste society where they were at the top and the typical southerner is probably more English genetically than the rest of his fellow Americans.
Southern Gothic also parallels literary movements in France, so perhaps it makes sense there's an appreciation there.
Thomas Brown
The rereading of The Sound and the Fury is one of my favorite literature experiences.
Julian Rivera
by the time joyce left ireland, never to return, it was still a part of the united kingdom.
Austin Long
>corncobbyness Today I learned a new word.
Hunter Watson
But user, I'm a burger and I have Graveyard Clay right here next to me to read tomorrow.
Chase Johnson
pick from the following: Mrs. Dalloway To the Lighthouse Orlando
At least that's all I've been able to stand so far.
Connor Reyes
Just want let you know I hate you and every other brit on this gay earth
Hudson Young
>that's all I've been able to stand so far the transition from pleb to patrish ain't easy, son. read The Waves
Henry Evans
I love Virginia Woolf she's a great writer who moves me But The Sound and the Fury was one of the greatest book so have ever read Albeit I read it while touring Texas lady summer and I'm from Vancouver so maybe the scenery helped