William Faulkner: As I Lay Dying

[veggiedog]

Hello all! I just got back from taking the SAT and desperately need some intelligent conversation after being locked for four hours in a stuffy room of crude, illiterate, juvenile delinquents.

I have once again failed in my efforts to find a thread for a book, so I have created one. I apologize beforehand for my ignorance if there is already an active thread for As I Lay Dying, and if somebody could point it out to me, that would be great.

My class finished reading this novel a few months ago, and I am rereading it because I did not do a very thorough job the first time . As it turns out, I really do like it while the rest of my class despised it with all their hearts. Typical. It is difficult reading, due to the fragile and calculated structure of the changing viewpoints. I am one of those people who doesn't pay attention to chapter titles . Nevertheless, I am liking it this time around.

The premise of the novel is deceptively simple, isn't it? The story of a family taking its dead mother to a cemetary to be buried isn't the most gripping and complex storyline, or at least it would appear so on the surface. What surprised me was the complexity and depth of each of the characters, and how they each interacted with one another. It was clearly a dysfunctional family before the term was even coined. There are many underlying messages and layers. I don't know if I'm reading to much into everything, finding symbolism where there isn't any, et cetera because I have a tendency to do that. So bear with me!

I am in the middle of Armstid's chapter. Here is what I have decided about the main characters based on the first two thirds or so of the book:

Darl - Faulkner's voice (main reliable narrator), knows his family better than they know themselves, sees/observes everything, cared deeply about his mother,

Spoiler

refuses to acknowledge her existence because she no longer 'is,' struggles with questions of existence

, knows things (you know what I mean), pesters his younger siblings (namely Jewel and Dewey Dell) either to get them out of denial of their problems or just to be mean (not quite clear), second oldest

Jewel - reacts violently to his mother's death, hard worker, doesn't respect his family, Addie's favorite,

Spoiler

bastard child born of Addie's affair with Whitfield--I was actually very proud of myself for figuring this out before Addie's chapter

, high tempered, independent (not selfish, as he is mistaken for by Cora), loves his horse, third oldest

Vardaman - uses a fish to understand the death of his mother, very young and innocent, needs love and protection,

Spoiler

believes Peabody killed his mother (or does he not think that anymore?)

, doesn't understand death, misses his mother, is confused by much of what is happening about him, wants to go to town to get a toy train, youngest

Dewey Dell - feels sexuality from everyone about her, feels sexually pressured by her family as the only woman amongst five males,

Spoiler

is pregnant--I figured out this one on my own too , wants to go to town to get an abortion, too preoccupied with her pregnancy to worry over Addie's death

, shares a special connection with Darl (communicate without words), second youngest

Cash - carpenter, logical/methodical, emotionally stunted approach to Addie's death, puts all emotions into the completion of the coffin (the one thing he can do for Addie), twice broken the same leg, reasons through everything,

Spoiler

very bothered by the fact that the coffin is off balance because the women placed her body in backwards so her dress would flare out, becomes ill during the river crossing

, eldest

Anse - selfish, resigned to Addie's death, frugal, pessimistic, blames everything on the bad luck, everyone helps him even though he doesn't deserve it because they've been doing it for so long it has become to late to stop,

Spoiler

only wants to go to town to get his false teeth, not for Addie's sake, probably wife-hunting

, lies to himself and believes himself (ex: sweating disease), uses words to fill the lack, father

Addie - is dead (yes, at least I got that much!), Cora views her as blasphemous/sacreligious and a poor wife and mother, masochistic, desperately wants to feel something (namely love), marries Anse because she thinks it will help her feel, former school teacher who hated children, takes pleasure in whipping children to have a connection with the word, finds words to be to fill in the lack, only actions make any difference in the world--not talking about it,

Spoiler

has an affair with Whitfield, invests all her love in Jewel because he was born of passion rather than the others, had Dewey Dell and Vardaman to negate Jewel's birth, felt that after repaying her debt to Anse she was ready to die and served no purpose

, feels pressured by Anse to make babies even though she doesn't want to (he never asked, only expected), despises Anse, feels it is her duty to make babies, gives up on life, mother

These are just a few of the assumptions that crossed my mind after reading what the character thought of themselves and what others thought of them. I realize that not all of them may be correct.

If anyone has read this book and would like to discuss, I would be interested in discussing a few specific lines and passages. I think that Faulkner addressed many issues in this novel, and some passages have multiple meanings that go beyond the literal one. Please reply!

Thanks for your time!

 

[Gem]

Hello Veggiedog,

Very insightful post. I'd love to join in with the discussion but I read As I Lay Dying early last year, so please bear with me if i'm a little slow in remembering things.

Addie is one of the few characters in literature that I genuinely felt gut wrenching sympathy for. The fact that she wanted to be buried with her blood relatives away from her family pretty much sums it up, plus there was a line which I can't quite recall, something along the lines of 'life is just preparation for a peaceful(?) long death' which was so grim and sad.

Jewel was an interesting character - because we don't really hear from him so much but rather about him from the other characters. So the contrast between their thoughts on him and his actions are interesting.

I'll go see if I can find my copy, I have a feeling it's gone walkabouts.

 

[Ronny]

Good timing on the post, I have recently bought the book and will be reading it soon for my first time. I have had trouble with Faulkner in the past but I am hoping that I'll like this one better. I'll come back to this thread as I get into it.

 

[Gem]

ello Ronny

I hope you enjoy the read. The story is told by each character in turn so it can be a little hard to get into but once you do then I found it to be an engrossing read.

I guess this means i'm going to have to learn how to use the spoiler tags

 

[Ronny]

I'm pretty good about blocking out what I don't want to see on my own so please don't worry about spoilers on my account.

 

[Gem]

Ronny;

I'm pretty good about blocking out what I don't want to see on my own

That is an art form, it takes a lot of skill to be able to do that, I too am well on the way too mastering it


The spoiler thing, It's about time I learnt to use them.

 

[Peder]

I am actually finding that the shifts in viewpoint are making the novel easier to read, I suppose because the narrative is broken down into individual short sections that can be thought about and absorbed individually -- "easier" anyway compared to The Sound and the Fury.
Peder

 

[Gem]

Hello Peder

Hope you're enjoying the read.
The Sound & the Fury has been sitting in my TBR pile for a long time. Everytime it makes it's way to the top I put it back at the bottom

 

[Peder]

The Sound & the Fury has been sitting in my TBR pile for a long time. Everytime it makes it's way to the top I put it back at the bottom

Hi Gem,
ROTFALOL!
Mine is snuggled in the middle someplace.
Although I am part way through -- three pages!
Peder

 

[veggiedog]

Oh yay! We have some takers (I think).
As a warning, the following paragraph/sentence is just me complaining about my life. I will add some Faulkner stuff tomorrow when my brain will be (hopefully) functioning correctly.

I am a bit muddled right now as I have just returned from one of those notorious distinctly Indian parties that my parents always drag me to make small talk with old people in Gujrati (not that there is anything wrong with these 'old' people, except that that have the most broken, terrible English), and it is currenly past midnight, and I am talking in run-on sentences without having my contacts or glasses on (so I am practically legally blind) and my eyes ache from the strain of being open for eighteen hours, scanning through stupid reading passages on the SAT this morning; my brain is fried and numb from sitting for four and a half hours in a chair in a stuffy room filled with jocks who don't know Doctor Zhivago from Dr. Seuss, and my back hurts from being hunched over ugly math problems (as you can see, this is my first experience with the SAT) and I am dying of dehydration so I think I will get some water now before I die while writing this incredibly pointless passage of my 'woe is me,' life and quietly go to bed.

Good night.

 

[Gem]

Hello veggiedog,

I will add some Faulkner stuff tomorrow when my brain will be (hopefully) functioning correctly...my brain is fried and numb from sitting for four and a half hours in a chair in a stuffy room...I am dying of dehydration so I think I will get some water now before I die while writing this incredibly pointless passage..

Take your time in recovering. Luckily I don't have to go to school or worry about exams anymore , but I do intend to print out your post and stick it on the fridge door. So that everytime the thought of taking on an MBA crosses my mind, I'll read your post and become sane again.

one of those notorious distinctly Indian parties that my parents always drag me to make small talk with old people in Gujrati (not that there is anything wrong with these 'old' people, except that that have the most broken, terrible English),

My family is Punjabi, so the gettogether's tend to be loud and rather rambunctious. I love it when the 'oldies' speak English- I had an aunt spend an hour telling me that her daughter had a new 'phlat', took me ages to realise she meant Flat (apartment).


Peder,

Mine is snuggled in the middle someplace.
Although I am part way through -- three pages!

Darn it,I'm jealous, you've done well.

 

[veggiedog]

Addie's passage

Hello veggiedog,

Take your time in recovering. Luckily I don't have to go to school or worry about exams anymore , but I do intend to print out your post and stick it on the fridge door. So that everytime the thought of taking on an MBA crosses my mind, I'll read your post and become sane again.

to you too.

Hi guys, sorry I'm late but this weekend has just been so busy (I didn't have a minute to myself) and next week we are going out of town so everything is really hectic...well anyway, to the point: the book.

I kind of wanted to talk about Addie's passage. I think it would be easiest for me to explain what I think of it if I go paragraph by paragraph, and then whoever wants to add to or talk about a specific section (or any other part of the book) can do so.

Addie's Chapter

Paragraph #1
Addie is explaining her hate for children. She just wants to be left alone in isolation, but all these dirty, snuffling children are annoying her. I don't quite understand her hate for them, or why she hates the spring.

Paragraph #2
Addie views children in a schoolhouse as unconnected, unrelated persons that really have no business with each other, each having their own selfish responsibilities only to serve themselves. They all have strange blood, or do not share blood with each other. Addie is disappointed that her fate seems to be nothing more than a school marm. She enjoyed whipping children because it gave her something to feel as she became aware of the pain the children felt (almost maso-sadist). She felt this created her mark on the world.

Paragraph #3
Addie watched Anse go out of his way to pass by her schoolhouse (just as a student may take the long way to class just to pass by a certain someone at his/her locker). Anse is not especially subtle or romantic with his tactics.

Paragraphs #4-13 (conversation Addie & Anse)
I believe Addie may hate spring because it is the season when everything comes alive. It is the season of birth, and Addie does not appreciate birth or life. Anse is very blunt in his approach and proposal to Addie. He has a distinct repulsion for townfolk. Addie marries him because she thinks it to be another way to feel something--anything--and to leave her mark on the world. The stunted courtship accounts for Anse's failures as a father and a husband because he doesn't care for Addie, and she doesn't love him.

Paragraph #14
Addie believes that words were created by people who never experienced or understood what it meant to be in that position. They were made by people who had never felt that emotion, who had never been through that experience, who just wanted someway of describing that which they knew existed, but had never felt. They are representations of abstract concepts that can never truly be explained lingustically. They do not always connect to actual experiences. With the birth of Cash, she feels as though her privacy and isolation have been violated. I don't really understand this part, so could someone explain that to me?

Paragraph #15
Anse calls his feelings for Addie 'love'. Addie does not believe it, because 'love' is just another one of those words invented by someone who had never experienced it, a 'shape to fill the lack' that couldn't explain what that feeling truly was. If there really is love there, no word would be needed to express it. Both would know it. Addie and Cash are able to wordlessly love each other. She allowed Anse to use it to describe whatever he liked. It didn't really mean anything.

Paragraph #16
Whilst her aloneness has been violated by Cash, Anse, love, and time, these very things have recompleted her aloneness. She was able to shut them out. They were 'outside the circle' and didn't matter to or affect her anymore. She had grown used to this routine, and did not mind it. Am I misinterpreting that?

Paragraph #17-18
The she found out she was pregnant with Darl. She was furious at Anse for making her pregnant. But then she realized that they had both been tricked by something (fate?) and that she would take her revenge by asking him to bury her in Jefferson (it appears that she took quite some revenge, didn't she? ) and she sees that her father was right: that life is just about preparing to be dead. Anse still wants more kids.

Paragraph #19
Addie viewed Anse as emotionally dead. He had no passion. Anse is just another empty word that served as shape or structure to hold on to, to fill us space and time. He was a profoundly lifeless shape and hollow at heart. When she thought of him, or Cash, or Darl, she could think of nothing but their names, their words, which were useless and didn't matter.

Paragraph #20
Cora Tull says that Addie is not a true mother because she does not love or respect her children. Addie comments on how worlds float up in the air, harmless, and how actions are grounded and reap consequences and benefits. Eventually, talk is so high up and actions are so grounded that it impossibile to straddle both. You can either do or talk, but not both. One who is actually loving and fearing and sinning does not talk of loving and fearing and sinning whereas one who talks of loving and fearing and sinning is not actually loving or fearing or sinning. Cora is talker. She can talk, but she can never do. In the beginning of the novel, Cora talks about cooking: the eggs, the cakes, this and that, Addie was a great baker, etc. However, Addie states that Cora could never actually cook.

Paragraph #21
Cora says that Addie owes her kindness, love, and attention to Anse and her children. Addie feels that she doesn't owe anything to them. By making babies and giving them to Anse, she has completed her duty in life. She does not even ask Anse for a divorce because it is her duty to stick with him despite himself. She would let Anse be the echo of love. It was enough for her (until later).

Paragraph #22
Addie once again describes that Anse is passionless, careless, loveless and emotionally dead. Voicelessness is that in which the words are deeds, solid behaviors actually carried out, not just discussed. Words will never be implemented. Just talking about something will never get you anywhere. Words must be acted upon.

Paragraph #23
The only reason to live is because it is one's duty to complete certain tasks. During her affair with Whitfield, she felt that the true sin was hiding their affair, the clothes they wore in the world's face. The sin was even greater, because Whitfield is a minister, a messenger of God made to sanctify sin. He came to her dressed in sin. Addie turned away from Anse, Cash, and Darl. She no longer felt connected with them. Any 'love' for them was them was the mere echo of love, that high dead word in the air.

Paragraph #24
Addie never tried to hide the affair. She didn't care if everybody knew. However, for the sake of Whitfield, and respectable man in the town, she kept it a secret to protect his reputation. When Cora spoke of her, the words like 'love' lost any and all significance, even their dead sounds.

Paragraphs #25-26
Whitfield ended the affair. She would always be aware of him and his presence, but would never have that love and passion for him and with him ever again. It was over for him, but it was not over for her. There was no beginning or ending to love like that. She found that she was pregnant with Jewel for two months. Jewel was Whitfield's child. Her child. Not Anse's, like the other. He was all hers.

Paragraph #27
Addie remembers what her father told her about the meaning of life (getting ready to stay dead) and thinks she understands what he means. Addie has 'cleaned up her house' or settled her affairs. She invests all her love in Jewel because he is hers and hers alone. He has not violated her the way Anse, Cash, and Darl have. And he was born of passion, unlike the others.

Paragraph #28
Addie mothered Dewey Dell and Vardaman to negate Jewel, so that he would have, mathematically, three children that were his alone and not hers to share. After this, she could prepare to die for she had fulfilled her duty and had no purpose left in life.

Paragraph #29
Cora believes Addie is unrepentent for her sins. She wants her to pray. But prayer is nothing more than the murmuring of words--empty, useless, hollow words. To Cora, sin is only a word. She has never sinned. To such people, salvation is also nothing more than a word.

Well, that's it! Oh, wow, that is one of my longer posts ! I'll give you all a few days to digest it all before you reply. Bye!

 

[veggiedog]

I forgot to add spoiler tags to the previous post...sorry...

***SPOILERS!!!***
​

I apologize for forgetting to mention that earlier.


Also, just as an afterthought, did anyone else notice how the sanity and reliability of each of the characters seems to have inverted towards the end of the book? Whereas in the beginning, Vardaman was confused and half-blinded by Addie's death, he later begins to view the world as it is, with calmer perceptibility. Dewey Dell, previously hysterical about her pregnancy has now taken a more practical and reasonable view of the pregnancy by speaking with Lafe about it, obtaining the money, seeking help to abort, etc. Cash has turned from a slow, careful, methodical person, always thinking in terms of carpentry, obsessed with the coffin, into perhaps the calmest and clearest narrator af all. Even Jewel has calmed down and rationalized. He is not as hotheaded and independent. He gives up his horse to pay for the mules, saves Addie's coffin, develops a better relationship with Darl, and backs down against the town man when they approach Jefferson after offending him. It seems that these characters have become able to deal with their grief and accept Addie's death.

On the other hand, Darl, our reliable narrator and Faulkner's voice from the beginning, has spiraled into despair and confusion. He has become frenzied and unclear with his anger, and is no longer quite as straightforward with his prose. His anger and frustration of what the family has gone through thus far--lost pretty much all their dignity and their livelihood--he has attempted to burn down a barn, incinerate Addie's coffin, being cruel to Jewel about his father and the horse, etc.

I think this inversion of character has a literary term for it, but I can't remember what is it. I keep thinking the word is chiaroscuro but that is evidently not it . If anyone recognizes what I am talking about, can you please tell me the word? It's on the tip of my tongue, and it is bugging me. Thanks!

EDIT: I just wanted to add this...

The fact that she wanted to be buried with her blood relatives away from her family pretty much sums it up, plus there was a line which I can't quite recall, something along the lines of 'life is just preparation for a peaceful(?) long death' which was so grim and sad.

Very true. The line was "the reason for living is getting ready to stay dead for a long time." The fact that she wants to buried away from her family, and put them through all this hardship to get her there, really shows how she feels about them. Even though Addie is a mostly absent protagonist, she creates a very vivid image and inspires all kinds of sympathy and sadness.

 

[Gem]

Veggiedog,

You've provided a great deal to think about. The computer's just eaten my reply so i'll have to get back to you about some of your points.

Since you've started with Addies section, lets deal with her first. It's pretty obvious that Addie lead a life filled with disillusion. She leaves behind a family that simply can't function together. Even when they try to be considerate of each other they mess it up. How much of this is Addie herself responsible for?


With regards to the characters changing at the end and having dealt with their mothers death. I'd agree with you in the sense that yes they do change - after all having been through what they did it's expected that they would grow in certain ways.
But as far as i remember thinking, at the start of their journey, it was as if they were lone individuals who happened to be travelling together not a group or close family unit. I don't think that this had changed completely by the end. Had they changed so completely then I wouldn't have admired the book as much as I did.

 

[veggiedog]

***SPOILERS***​

With regards to the characters changing at the end and having dealt with their mothers death. I'd agree with you in the sense that yes they do change - after all having been through what they did it's expected that they would grow in certain ways.
But as far as i remember thinking, at the start of their journey, it was as if they were lone individuals who happened to be travelling together not a group or close family unit. I don't think that this had changed completely by the end. Had they changed so completely then I wouldn't have admired the book as much as I did.

Hi Gem! Thanks for the reply.

Regarding the characters, what I meant when I stated that they changed was that they reversed in their reliability as narrators. Earlier on in the book, Vardaman was hysterical, claiming that Addie was a fish and she was killed by Peabody. Dewey Dell was obsessed with her pregnancy. Cash only spoke and thought in terms of the coffin. Jewel reacted very violently to the death of his mother. The only reliable narrator was Darl, who was very clear and straightforward with his thinking. Towards the end, though, the other characters (Vardaman and Cash especially) become more important. They become the clear, reliable narrators, while Darl goes--and I hate to say it--kind of psycho.

However, regarding the relationships of the characters, while they improve (especially that between Darl and Jewel) they are certainly not a family in the way that a true family loves and respects its other members. Anse in particular thinks only of himself and his wellbeing, ignoring the emotional status of the others. Darl, Jewel, and Dewey Dell each at least take some initiative moves to protect each other and the memory of Addie. However, as of yet (I have 30 pages left) they are by no means a family. I agree, had they ended up as one big, happy family, it wouldn't reflect reality and the true nature of human beings. The book would lose value. Even though the family shares blood, they are still selfish, secret selves.

If you recall, in Addie's section she stated that she hated schoolchildren and working in a school because each of the students were selfish, secret selves. They shared no blood. There was no connection, the very thing that Addie longed for, and she resented them for it. She thought that by marrying Anse she would experience an emotional connection. Her aloneness had not been 'violated' (which I now realize is what she wanted--sorry, I was confused earlier when I said she didn't) by Anse because they didn't have that connection either. Then Cash was born. Cash was the child she had robbed him of (who she replaced with Vardaman) and she viewed him as her child alone, not Anse's. Cash violated her aloneness. She loved him, and he loved her, and they didn't need words to express that. They had that connection. They were a family. But after Darl's birth, she sunk back into her aloneness.

In terms of how much emotional damage Addie herself caused...Cora stated she was a bad mother. She viewed Cash and Jewel as her own and the others as Anse's responsibility. However, Anse clearly shares some of the blame. He was a terrible husband and terrible father with no sense of respect or responsibility.

Also, I wanted to point out something I just noticed. It was an epiphany, really. Please excuse me if this was blatantly obvious to you and you feel like rolling your eyes at me .

In one of Cora's chapters (right before Addie's), Addie says this:

He is my cross and he will be my salvation. He will save me from the water and from the fire. Even though I have laid down my life, he will save me.

Cora claims this is sacrilige. But did anyone notice that this is exactly what Jewel did? He saved her coffin at the river crossing, and saved it again during the barn burning. It kind of makes you wonder if Addie had, in the back of her mind, planned out this entire journey as her revenge, not just the burial in Jefferson. Because she sure has made them go through a lot of hell to get her there. I just found that interesting.

Bye for now!

 

[Gem]

hello Veggiedog,

In one of Cora's chapters (right before Addie's), Addie says this:

Quote:
He is my cross and he will be my salvation. He will save me from the water and from the fire. Even though I have laid down my life, he will save me.

Yep. He proves Addie's word/actions theory. We don't really hear from him that much, and so have to 'judge' him by other peoples views and his own actions.

As for Darl, i didn't really interpret his actions as 'psycho'. I thought his passages were the most useful - He was more probing and understanding than the others. He came across as more intelligent (at least to me) and therefore more able to understand and see the hopelessness of their trip.
Ok so you can probably tell, I have a soft spot for Darl

 

[veggiedog]

Hello Gem,

As for Darl, i didn't really interpret his actions as 'psycho'. I thought his passages were the most useful - He was more probing and understanding than the others. He came across as more intelligent (at least to me) and therefore more able to understand and see the hopelessness of their trip.
Ok so you can probably tell, I have a soft spot for Darl

I didn't really mean that Darl was 'psycho' (although I am aware that that is what I wrote) but that he was becoming a bit extreme in his behavior. He is not, by any means, as violent as Jewel, but I find Darl much more disturbing, because even though he has narrated much of the plot of the book, and revealed much information about the characters, I know the least about him. Even though Jewel had only one short passage, I feel I know more about his mental and emotional states than those of Darl, because he acted on his feelings constantly. Darl tended to keep to himself. He didn't reveal his emotions as easily, and the barn burning was really one of the few times he let them overpower him. He wasn't insane (the only reason Anse sent him to Jackson was so Gillespie couldn't sue him) but he became less reliable as a narrator and a character towards the end. He was always very different from the others. He knew things (some of these things he seemed to find very funny). He was observant. He didn't really live life so much as watch others live it. Darl was certainly the most intelligent or one of the most intelligent in his family (Addie was up there too). He knew his family too well, better than they each knew themselves. However, he didn't really know himself, if you know what I mean. He was constantly questioning himself, and his existence. He didn't understand himself.

I think that all the characters but Anse saw the hopelessness of their 40-mile odyssey. But the others had their motives for going to town. Cash wanted to buy new tools, a 'talking machine' and such, and after slaving away at the coffin I'm sure he didn't want to see his efforts go to waste. Dewey Dell wanted her abortion, and was clearly panicking when Darl was communicating that he had the power to convince Anse to bury Addie in New Hope. Vardaman wanted the toy train that he had seen during his last trip. Jewel wanted his mother to be buried where and as she had wanted (though I doubt he knew of the revenge). Anse wanted to get his false teeth. Darl was the only one who had little or nothing to gain, so he saw most clearly the pointlessness of the trip. The others saw it, but didn't want to see it. Darl forced them to see it. Darl has that perceptiveness that the others lack. He seems to know what is going on at different times and places. Perhaps he knew something of Addie's revenge. Anse certainly didn't, blaming everything on luck. It was mainly Anse that dragged them along. None of the others were quite as interested in the trip to Jefferson, except maybe Dewey Dell.

As for my favorite, I would have to say either Darl or Jewel. I like Jewel because he is a doer, not a talker or a questioner. As Addie basically said, talkers never get anywhere. He didn't let common sense stop him. Notice that Addie's favorites (Cash and Jewel) are the doers, not the talkers? Not that Darl didn't do anything (he did burn the barn, after all) but he seemed to avoid the action of doing in general. He was a thinker. I also like Jewel because he is not afraid to let his feelings be heard, and he cares deeply for his mother, even though he doesn't express his love in words. He shows his love through actions (of which Addie would approve). Even though Darl is more intelligent, I would Jewel has brains too. Cash is a more sensible, practical character than either of them. Really, the only character I couldn't get attached to was Anse. Faulkner did an excellent job of causing me to hate him with every fiber of my being. He was always outside the circle, as Addie put it.

Which brings me to my next question. Addie spends a lot of time showing her annoyance with words, and how talking and thinking never get anybody anywhere. Action must be taken. But how does Faulkner feel about this? Essentially, being a writer is the same is being a talker/thinker. The best you can do in the writing profession is to describe using words. Of course, without affecting somebody enough to take action, writers and writing do nothing for society. Does Faulkner agree or disagree with Addie?

 

[Gem]

Veggiedog,

Which brings me to my next question. Addie spends a lot of time showing her annoyance with words, and how talking and thinking never get anybody anywhere. Action must be taken. But how does Faulkner feel about this? Essentially, being a writer is the same is being a talker/thinker. The best you can do in the writing profession is to describe using words. Of course, without affecting somebody enough to take action, writers and writing do nothing for society. Does Faulkner agree or disagree with Addie?

You sure know how to ask a question . The short reply is I have no idea. The long winded reply is that in order to come to any reasonable conclusion I would have to read more of Faulkners work (this is the only one i've read).
At first glance though, i'd have to say that he does perhaps agree with Addie - that action must be taken. Examples of thise would be, firstly Jewel, his actions speak far more loudly than anything that he says or anything that is said about him. Also the actions of the family show more clearly their 'truth' than the words that they speak. What do you think?

As for the writer point, i'd have to disagree - if an author did not act upon his thoughts and words then there would be no book - the process of writing is the action.

Oh and I forgot to mention early i loved how you described the family as "secret selfish selves".

 

[veggiedog]

Gem,

This is also the only work that I have read by Faulkner. But after reading a couple of short essays by him, and his speech after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, he seems to apply that, in regard to writers, it is their job to observe and warn society of impending danger. That is the writer's job, and to expect more of them would be silly, because writing is what they do. They show people society's flaws, and then it is their job to change. People, then, cannot blame writers for not being loud enough, because the writers have fulfilled their duties. They can only blame themselves. The same applies to any art form, whether it be the fine arts, performance arts, literary arts, etc, but literature seems to stand out the most because it is the most direct in its approach.

But the writing has to strike a chord with someone, otherwise the effort the writer put into it has gone to waste. Good writing changes people and the way they behave or view the world. Good writing inspires. If that doesn't happen, then either the writing isn't good, or the people cannot be changed. And usually, people can be changed.

 

[Gem]

Hello Veggie,

Good writing changes people and the way they behave or view the world. Good writing inspires.

Very well put. I agree with that totally.

What did you think of the title - As I lay Dying?