The Sound and the Fury

[Anonymous No.13334859]

How many of you actually read it?

One of the most prominent things I noticed that isn't exactly in the text is how different my reading of it was from what I've seen in literature lectures on Youtube (mostly Yale's, but others too). Academic readings seem to focus a lot more on (what are currently) politically-charged motifs that seem to me to be totally unfounded, unsupported, and pretty arbitrary. Relations between blacks and whites, especially contrasting Dilsey with Jason and the rest of the Compsons, Quentin and themes of guilt and deception (the South was never great, blah blah), etc.

Aside from that, I thought the book was really a masterpiece. Faulkner hits tragedy harder and more completely than anyone I've ever read. He's like the post-war Jap authors, which makes sense considering the similar circumstances, but to me it feels even more beautiful and human and tragic, perhaps because it's a generation removed or because I'm American and not Japanese.

Ultimately I think that's what the novel explores mostly, the tragedy of adherence to tradition in a world where tradition dies faster than the people that live by it and is replaced by what seems to the adherents to be pretty much nihilism and heresy (for lack of a better term).

What did you guys take away from it? Am I an idiot and the academics are right?

Reposting because I wanna see if anyone else has drastically different takes on the book.

[Anonymous No.13334879]

I agree that academic english is largely concerned with race, gender and colonialism. it feels mostly forced or at least very shallow readings of a text. there appears to be very little aesthetic enjoyment or even acknowledgement in terms of what a text does or functions.

this is why i'm never taking an english unit again. this semester was the last straw for me, from now on, only philosophy units.

[Anonymous No.13334888]

>>13334859
>academic reading being focused on politics
why am i not surprised
i haven't really given much focus to the tragedy of the Compson family. i've mainly been focusing on how quentin uses language.

[Anonymous No.13335141]

>>13334888
>i've mainly been focusing on how quentin uses language.
What do you find interesting about it?

[Anonymous No.13335178]

>>13334859
>the tragedy of adherence to tradition in a world where tradition dies faster than the people that live by it and is replaced by what seems to the adherents to be pretty much nihilism and heresy
Welcome to Southern Literature, friend.