Pages

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

The Faulkner Finale

Big Cuter wondered what I learned in class this morning.  I had to tell him that class ended last week, with a whimper, not a bang.  I read two of the three books, and enjoyed them as literature even thought figuring out the story was less important than going with the flow.

Then again, to quote Alan Arkin, What flow?  There is no flow.

I need flow.  I'm uncomfortable without it.  I don't like fighting my way through to what's going on.  I require some basics, or at least a codex.  When I was able to spend an hour or two with the text, letting it wash over me, I could imagine the stream of Faulkner's consciousness.  But it was hard to get to a place of comfort before boredom set in.

The words were elegant.  The story was incomprehensible.  I couldn't keep the characters straight.

And yet I persisted.  I read nothing else for six weeks.  I knew that if I turned to something more accessible I'd never have the strength to return to those texts.  I read a few chapters of Absalom, Absalom, our final book, and I enjoyed the lecture. 

That was Monday.  I carried the text around all week.  It was in my bag at the TFOB.  But there were so many wonderful books at the Festival, and I was so tired of arguing with what I was reading, that I bought Craig Unger's House of Trump House of Putin  and I'm more than half way through it as I type these words.

I feel free.  I look forward to picking up the book.  I'm sharing factoids with TBG on a regular basis. 

But they are just words, sharing facts.  They are what they are, doing what Unger wants them to do - telling us what happened  He doesn't let the prose get in the way of the information he's sharing.

I kind of miss that annoying prose.

4 comments:

  1. It's funny as the books I most wanted to read when I first got to novels were all of Steinbeck, Hemingway, and writers like that. I tried with Faulkner but have a hard time when there's no hero, nobody to actually want to see succeed. I also am not a fan of arty writing but more of good solid stories-- the ones that don't often get the praise. Have you ever tried, Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund? It's one that had great prose and a story I totally loved about a woman and a time. I even claimed some of her words as quotes for my life-- like,"Where we choose to be--we have the power to determine that in our lives. We cannot reel time backward or forward, but we can take ourselves to the place that defines our being."

    That said, I read more nature books and memoirs these days-- non-fiction (theoretically anyway *s*)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Loved Ahab's Wife -it's still on my shelf behind me! Do you read Dava Sobel or John McPhee? I also love Stacy Schiff's biographies - Cleopatra is my shero!
      a/b

      Delete
    2. I read John McPhee. but have to look up the other two.

      Delete
  2. I believe it is hard for almost everyone to decide which book to buy first as they all are amazing.
    Tickets on Sale
    Buy Online Tickets

    ReplyDelete

Talk back to me! Word Verification is gone!