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/lit/ - Literature

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7119873 No.7119873 [Reply] [Original]

Is this the best Southern novel of all time?

>> No.7119882

Undoubtedly. It is the great American novel in my opinion. I believe Faulkner to be the best American author.

>> No.7119891

I've been meaning to read the sound & the fury. do you think absalom is better?

>> No.7119894

1. The Sound and the Fury
2. Absalom, Absalom!
3. All the Kings Men
4. As I Lay Dying
5. Light in August

objective rankings

>> No.7119898

>>7119894
No. Absalom, Absalom! is better than The Sound and The Fury. Otherwise, good list.

>> No.7119899

>>7119891
Yes sound & the fury is great also but absalom is Faulkner's best. If you can get it you can get what its like in Mississippi the shittiest and best state(imo)

>> No.7119909

>>7119899
>the shittiest and best state(imo)
wot

>> No.7119945

>>7119909
poorest state, legalized gambling, highest percentage of black pop, most charitable state.
Mississippi is ass backwards and a conundrum but I love it.

>> No.7119953
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7119953

>>7119945
i'll read it 1st then

>> No.7119971

Damn, I'm reading this right now and having trouble getting into it. Loved the Sound and the Fury, liked As I Lay Dying a lot, but a hundred pages into this one it's not really doing it for me.

>> No.7119984

>>7119971
try the unvanquished might be more your speed

>> No.7119986

>>7119971
How come, anon? I got into it immediately. I thought the old woman's telling of the story (whatever her name was) was very cool. It made Sutpen seem very demonic. It reminded me of a "fire and brimstone" Christian tale.

>> No.7120004

>>7119898

Absolom! Absolom! and Light in August are both better than TSaTF.

TSaTF is 3rd.

But really they're all fantastic.

>> No.7120009

>>7119873

>Southern Lit thread
>No discussion of based Flan Flan

For what purpose?

>> No.7120019

>>7120009
She has nothing that can compare with Faulkner's body of work in my opinion.

>> No.7120025
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7120025

>>7120009
She was a gimmicky old maid with tacked on "muh catholicism" memes

>> No.7120054

Wise blood by flannery o'connor

>> No.7120118

>>7120025

She died at 39. Not exactly what I would call an 'old maid'. She also offers far more than simply MUH CATHOLICISM. This shit is retarded. It's akin to saying Faulkner just tacked on "muh lost southern way of life" memes.

>> No.7120132

>>7120025
As a Southern-bred fedoralord I disagree. She makes Catholicism work for her in her fiction.

>> No.7120156
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7120156

>>7120025
bitch shut the fuck up before I burn your eyes clean with the Word of God

>> No.7120158

>>7120118
She still isn't as good of a writer as Faulkner. Overall he is miles ahead of her.

>> No.7120183
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7120183

While Faulkner is my favorite Southern writer, Thomas Wolfe has his moments. Some of his prose borders on poetry.

>> No.7120184
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7120184

>>7120118
>>7120132
>>7120156
getting this worked up over that old spinster

>> No.7120460

Absalom, Absalom! is Faulkner's best that I've read so far

1. Absalom
2. Light in August
3. TSaF
4. As I Lay Dying

I think Absalom, Absalom! is the most American novel, at least from the first half of the 20th century. Also the best Southern novel.
For other good Southern Literature that isn't Flannery O'Connor go with Dorothy Allison and Walker Percy, Southern Gothic is the only good part about Southern Literature.

>> No.7120506

>>7120025

Don't diss the Flan man. She was a gem and had a charming voice. She was also sickly as hell and still produced some kick-ass work

>> No.7120541

>Faulkner
>not Eudora Welty's body of work

>> No.7120569

>>7119894
>no love for The Unvanquished
>no one else has even read it

Fuck. And I think it's the best of Faulkner's work.

>> No.7120625

>>7120569
Isn't it his most commercially successful?

>> No.7120640

>>7120625
Maybe back in the day. Now, I don't know of anyone who's read it, while plenty have read Absalom Absalom, Go Down Moses, etc.

>> No.7120672

>>7119894
AtKM isn't Faulkner? Or is this supposed to be a ranking of all southern lit?

>> No.7120687

>>7120672
I just ignored it

>> No.7120690

>>7120625
No, you're thinking of Sanctuary

>> No.7120695

>>7120690
From what I understand, he hated Sanctuary, which is unfortunate because it's a good gateway novel when it comes to his work.

>> No.7120697

>>7120690
Ah, yep. His least critically acclaimed but most commercially successful

>> No.7120769

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen Twain discussed on /lit/.

>> No.7120867

>>7120769
not common but not super uncommon. I remember chatting with a bunch of fellow fans of A Connecticut Yankee

>> No.7120900

>>7120695
A good gateway novel? I disagree. The book is a mess, completely unfocused. Reading it was a brutal experience for me, in very much the same way when I read Melville's Pierre.

>> No.7121046

>>7120900
For someone who is well-read? No. For a casual reader? Yes. It touches on themes Faulkner uses again and again, as well as providing a decent introduction to the setting of most of his books.

But, you know, to each their own.

>> No.7121061

>>7121046
Perhaps you have a point. But if it's to become familiar with some of Faulkner's themes, then I recommend starting with a few of his best short stories. For example, A Barn Burning and A Rose for Emily,which are richer and against which Sanctuary pales in comparison.

>> No.7121069

>>7121061
The short stories are a good place to start. Thinking about it, Light in August might be a better novel for those new to Faulkner.

>> No.7122185

>>7119986
Hard to say. I guess I'd heard it was 'difficult', but it seems more slow and repetitive than anything. It feels like it's meandering round and round the same events and characters without saying anything very new about them- I could understand if some kind of Rashomon/As I Lay Dying multiple viewpoint thing was going on, but I haven't seen any evidence of that so far.

Also, unlike both AILD and SatF, it seems to be lacking different character voices. Whether it's one of the two narrators or a letter, the style is the same- convoluted, epically long sentences. Worked for Quentin's thoughts in SatF, but it doesn't sound remotely like something anyone would actually say or even write in a letter.

Still has beautiful turns of phrase, though, and I like the ambition and the big tragic themes, so maybe it'll grow on me.

>> No.7122225

>>7122185
...also, what's up with the constant bracket use, as in
>he (Sutpen)
? Most of the time it would be obvious from context, or could be replaced by the name. Have I got some weirdly edited version or something? Is Faulkner satirizing his own convoluted style by adding clarifications?

>> No.7123606

>>7120019
exactly. it's far more interesting than Faulkner. I enjoy both but let's not mince words here. Faulkner had better prose but O'Connor's grotesque realism is otherworldly in her best stories.