Yes, I’m a Lit Major wannabe. Unfortunately jobs in that field are few and far between, hence my Masters in Marketing. Several years back I read a biography of James Baldwin, pausing every time he published something to read it, then returning to the biography – a totally pleasurable reading experience. At the beginning of this summer (2011) I decided to do the same with William Faulkner, one of the other icons of American Literature. I naively thought it would be a summer project – more likely a lifetime project, the man was incredibly prolific.
I’m up through the first couple of dozen or so short stories, and the first three of his endless stream of novels. They’ve been a difficult read, not nearly as smooth flowing as Baldwin, and steeped in a southern culture that I’m unfamiliar with – with the exception of his early short stories. I won’t comment on the novels, you’ve heard of them, but his short stories were a surprise.
First, they are set in New Orleans, aboard ship, and in Europe – all locales greatly different from Mississippi’s fictional (in name only) Yoknapatawpha County, the setting of his most famous works. Had he not returned to the American South at the conclusion of the war his life work clearly would have been different – but would it have been a success? Probably not, his short stories as is often the case were critical successes and commercial failures.
In decadent New Orleans, young Faulkner was part of what could almost be called a “Bloomsbury” circle of “artsy” types, including a close friendship with Sherwood Anderson (Winesburg, Ohio) and his wife. Faulkner’s short stories from this time period covered topics as varied as the jealousy resultant when a merchant sailor’s “bunk buddy” does not return to ship while docking in Naples, Italy – having spent the night with a call girl (Divorce in Naples); rum-running during prohibition in Once Aboard the Lugger; a Bayou folk legend named Al Jackson; and the hapless attempts at dating by a character ironically named Don Giovanni.
Faulkner’s commercial break came with the publication of Soldier’s Pay. It details the return of a young soldier seriously wounded in World War I to his fiancé and the trials that brings to all parties.
One final note on these initial Faulkner reads: the use of the “N” word is annoyingly frequent. There are those who would like to (no pun intended) whitewash his works by cleansing them of this term. That would be wrong. Its usage is, after all, an accurate reflection of the time period the works were written in. One can move on from history, but one cannot change it.
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