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/lit/ - Literature

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2863400 No.2863400 [Reply] [Original]

So, what does /lit/ think of Faulkner's 'Absalom, Absalom!'?

As I am going away to College without my television or PS3, my father consented to buy me some books of my choosing for me to entertain myself.

Anyway, I enjoyed the Sound the Fury (I will admit, I found it sometimes confusing); does /lit/ think 'Absalom, Absalom!' is a good choice?

The title has always resonated in my head... Do I purchase it, my fellow 4Channers?

Pic not related

>> No.2863407

Yes. Purchase it. As good as The Sound and the Fury is, Absalom is his masterpiece. It's one of the most beautiful, tragic, frightening works I've ever read. Read it immediately.

>> No.2863409

Absalom, Absalom! is my favorite novel, and as you can guess by extension Faulkner's real masterpiece. The real Great American Novel.
>>2863407
listen to this man

>> No.2863423

>>2863409
this guy here, a question just occurred to me that I wanted to bring here. Not for OP, I guess: Did anyone else sort of see a connection between Jim Bond and Benjy? I mean, they're both mentally impaired scions of great families. this is why the "I think one day the jim bonds of the world will rise up and rule the earth" line always gave me chills, just sort of thinking about a connection Quentin must have definitely recognized

>> No.2863427

>>2863423
Jim Bond is black, which is the important part of that line, not his dimwittedness.

>> No.2863435

>>2863427
Are you suggesting that the line is purely a race comment (black uprising), or that it's referring to the idea of Bond as the ineligible heir, specifically as an outcome of his race?

>> No.2863444

>>2863435
'“I think that in time the Jim Bonds are going to conquer the western hemisphere. Of course it wont quite be in our time and of course as they spread toward the poles they will bleach out again like the rabbits and the birds do, so they wont show up so sharp against the snow. But it will still be Jim Bond; and so in a few thousand years, I who regard you will also have sprung from the loins of African kings.”
Shreve McCannon, Absalom, Absalom!

seems like it's certainly a comment on race from the context of this entire quote

>> No.2863446

>>2863444
wow I feel like a dumbass I guess I forgot the context. Nevermind.

>> No.2863454

>>2863446
it's cool. I think it's still interesting to think about what exactly Shreve, and Faulkner-via-Shreve, mean by this line. I guess I'm still not quite sure why it's given such prominence near the end.

I have difficulty situating Faulkner's complex stance on race. I've always thought he was very progressive in approach, but I've read detractors who talk about the denial of Clytemnestra's voice as if it's marginalization rather than a deliberate statement on who is allowed to speak.

>> No.2863602

>>2863400
> So, what does /lit/ think of Faulkner's 'Absalom, Absalom!'?

Utter shite.

Reads like bad Lovecraft fanfiction: all of the purple prose, ridiculous 'gothic' affectations and quaint nineteenth-century speculations about 'Negroes', with none of the Eldritch horror junk.

I flushed the book down the toilet after I saw the word 'lugubrious' three times on three pages.

Nobody, I mean _nobody_ has a right to write prose that bad.

>> No.2864696

Alright: but is Absalom, Abasalom! as challenging as The Sound and the Fury (especially the Benjy and Quentin parts)?

I don't mind challenges: but realize that I'm going to college, and that I don't want something that needs deciphering to be enjoyed.

>> No.2864724

>>2864696
self-Bump

>> No.2864756

>my father consented to buy me some books of my choosing for me to entertain myself

Don't worry, you don't have to actually talk like that once you're in college.

Also get As I Lay Dying or Light in August instead

>> No.2865249

Faulkner's works suck. Pretentious to the max.

>> No.2865253

>>2865249
good take

you've convinced me

>> No.2865482

Absalom, Absalom! Is worth it if you're into Faulkner, but the reading is difficult: not more so than the Benjy section, but still pretty taxing.

>> No.2865483

I'm waiting for the fall semester, so that I can find a university professor who can help me understand Faulkner.

>> No.2865492

>no TV or PS3
>father consented to buy him some books
>he'll even let OP pick them out
what is this, the 1870s?

seriously though, it's nice leaving vidya and the TV back at the folks'.