Faulkner, I KEEL you.

[stoopbeck]

So my goal this summer was to read all those classic books everyone says that one "must" read. It was a good goal. A worthy goal, even. However. I shouldn't have started out with "As I Lay Dying." Because Faulkner? Can't write. [Don't shoot me.]

An Actual Sample:

"In a strange room you must empty yourself for sleep. And before you are emptied for sleep, what are you. And when you are emptied for sleep, you are not. And when you are filled with sleep, you never were. I dont know what I am. I dont know if I am or not. Jewel knows he is, because he does not know that he does not know whether he is or not. He cannot empty himself for sleep because he is not what he is and he is what he is not. Beyond the unlamped wall I can hear the rain shaping the wagon that is ours, the load that is no longer theirs that felled and sawed it nor yet theirs that bought it and which is not ours either, lie on our wagon though it does, since only the wind and the rain shape it only to Jewel and me, that are not asleep. And since sleep is is-not and rain and wind are was, it is not. Yet the wagon is, because when the wagon is was, Addie Bundren will not be. And Jewel is, so Addie Bundren must be. And then I must be, or I could not empty myself for sleep in a strange room. And so if I am not emptied yet, I am is.

*brain explodes*

I finished it. Not a particularly great book. In fact, Faulkner gets added to my List Of People Who Get Visited And Slapped Upside The Head When I Build My Time Machine. Because dang. If I turned in something like this... Gah.

It's just not fair. I guess I'd better get to work on that time machine... Faulkner, here I come.

Comments

[espritdeterre.livejournal.com]

I read that book twice. It was much better the second time.

"My mother is a fish," is a great chapter. Faulkner might be overrated, but he's still a great Southern writer.

[stoopbeck.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I could get through it a second time.

*sigh* What does that say about the south, though? I get that his books are radically different from what was going around at the time, and I get that he's got a lot of talent... but... gah. Why's he got to be so difficult? Yes, we GET that they're crazy. Could he be a little less obscure, though? GAH.

I tried reading him before, but I thought I was just having trouble with that book. I guess I just have trouble with him in general.

I'm glad that you liked it, though...

[The "My mother is a fish" got a "heh" out of me, though... :D ]

[jzeiggy.livejournal.com]

I guess the main thing you have to keep in mind while reading As I Lay Dying is that throughout the book you're constantly switching viewpoints. Getting inside that many heads can definitely hurt your own though, as you found out.

[stoopbeck.livejournal.com]

At least it's not as bad as The Sound and the Fury. Because not only were you constantly switching viewpoints but there were about a gazillion characters. Ow.

[espritdeterre.livejournal.com]

I asked Charlie (well-read smarty pants at the Creek) and he likes it, too. So there...*sticks out tongue.* I have backup.

:P

[stoopbeck.livejournal.com]

Fine. BE that way. You and Charlie and Faulkner can go sit at the cool kid's table and snicker. *sticks out tongue*

*goes off alone to read Jane Austin*