absalom! absalom!

[lookingland]

i managed to graduate from college with a masters of fine arts in writing without ever reading Faulkner.

now how i did that is a very clever and interesting story (and yes, it was entirely intentional), but that's not the point of this entry.

the point is, i have been idly reading As I Lay Dying (which i picked up for a dollar because i was attracted to the physical book itself and the way it was printed) ~ and finally finished it tonight. i then got curious and took a wee glance into Faulkner's body of work, of which i know nothing about (save for some commentary on The Sound and the Fury).

well...

...it's not good.

tomorrow i will go to the library and probably check out The Unvanquished among others. i figure i had better actually read all these books so, just like when people shove Hemingway (gack) under my nose, i can at least say: yeah, i know Faulkner.

that, and to make a list of all the things i would be accused of stealing from his work before i even read it.

in the meantime ~ do you hear that sound?

it's the sound of me burning everything i have ever written.

~

this is okay: it's something that needs to be done.

i'm just amazed it's taken me this many years to do it.

: o p

Comments

[lastremnant.livejournal.com]

I didn't like Faulkner. I took a "Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald" class....Fitz is the only one of the three I enjoyed reading.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i managed to evade the unholy triumverate.

can't stand hemingway and would rather drink lye while swimming in a pool full of broken glass than read him again.

faulkner's style i find i like, but i want to bludgeon him with a stick even so.

and fitzgerald makes me want to kill baby seals with hand explosives.

unfortunately, this is the standard by which all american fiction is judged.

so making peace with these guys looks like a necessary evil.

: o p

[lastremnant.livejournal.com]

ah yes, it tis...the typical question is "Do you like Faulkner or Hemingway?" It's supposed to be an either/or question...but I must answer a neither...

I don't really like much american fiction when it comes down to it.:)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i dunna like most of it either, frankly ~ i have always had a wicked preference for french writers.

poe, bierce, and crane are the only exceptions.

: D