DemoTex
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Sat May-07-11 07:44 PM
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What Faulkner works have you read? What was your favorite? Least favorite? |
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Edited on Sat May-07-11 07:49 PM by DemoTex
My Faulkner favorites are Absalom, Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury. My least favorite was the cryptic WW-1 story, A Fable.
Here is a partial list of the Faulkner works I have read:
Absalom, Absalom! As I Lay Dying The Collected Stories A Fable Go Down, Moses The Hamlet Intruder in the Dust Light in August The Mansion The Reivers Sanctuary The Sound and the Fury Spotted Horses Old Man The Bear The Town The Unvanquished
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hypocrisyandlies
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Sat May-07-11 08:17 PM
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As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury. The Sound and the Fury is one of my favorite books of all time. As I Lay Dying was good, but it isn't a favorite.
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DemoTex
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Sat May-07-11 08:33 PM
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2. "As I Lay Dying" was much better on my second read at age 60 (or so). |
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Edited on Sat May-07-11 09:09 PM by DemoTex
And it brings to mind a newer novel, written by the niece of a DUer (IIRC): Mudbound by Hillary Jordan (4.5 stars at Amazon .. I give it 5).
BTW: Another Faulkner character with the name "Vardaman" (as in "My Mother Is A Fish" Vardaman Bundren) shows up in Faulkner's murder mystery, Intruder in the Dust. Of course Vardaman is an old Mississippi name, with a town in Calhoun County named Vardaman, and a white-supremest governor during the WW-1 era named Vardaman.
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midnight
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Sat May-07-11 08:44 PM
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3. Slaughterhouse-five a long time ago. I just received Welcome to the Monkey House, |
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but have not started it....
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Jim__
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Sat May-07-11 08:48 PM
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4. Those are by Kurt Vonnegut, no? - n/t |
DemoTex
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Sat May-07-11 08:50 PM
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Frances
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Sat May-07-11 09:13 PM
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6. It's been years since I read Absalom! Absalom! |
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But the theme of that book has stayed with me. Like me, Faulkner grew up in the Bible Belt and must have known the story of the Biblical Absalom well. David loved Absalom best of his sons, but Absalom led a rebellion against David. Although David's armies defeated Absalom's army, David grieved greatly when Absalom died as he fled the scene (his hair was caught in a tree and his horse kept galloping while Absalom swung from the tree (I hope I remembered this right.)
In Faulkner's novel, as I remember it, a white plantation owner fathered a son with a black woman, and then refuses to recognize his son as his son.
In the Bible, David was guilty of causing the death of Absalom's mother's first husband's death. David saw Bathsheba, Absalom's mother, as she bathed. David sent Bathsheba's husband into the most dangerous part of a battle that was taking place, hoping that the husband would be killed. After the husband's death, David took Bathsheba as one of his wives and sired Absalom.
Both David and the father in Absalom! Absalom! are guilty in my opinion.
I cannot forgive the white men who fathered children with black women (often by rape) and then sold those children as slaves to other plantation owners. That's about as low as you can get in my book. I also cannot forgive white men who took advantage of the poverty of black women and did nothing for the children born of their union.
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BlueIris
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Mon May-09-11 01:25 PM
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7. That's one I haven't read. Thanks for the rec. nt |
The Northerner
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Mon May-09-11 01:38 PM
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8. I haven't read any but I'm considering reading The Sound and the Fury |
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Thu May 02nd 2024, 02:09 PM
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