The Sound and the Fury: Through the Fence (Section One Faulkner Lecture) (Patreon)

'Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.'

Today we are spending some time in William Faulkner's heterocosm of Yoknapatawpha with the Compson family. And we are seeing the world through the eyes of Benjy Compson.

We're discussing remembered time, southern gothic tropes, religious symbolism, scapegoating, sacrifice, loss, death, rebirth, weddings, wakes, stream of consciousness, wrangling with difficulty, and the human condition.

Please do feel free to enjoy the discussion even if you haven't this entire section yet. I'm being mindful to stay away from spoilers for things that are revealed later in the narrative.

Timestamps:

0:00 welcome to Benjy Compson’s world

2:00 how to read the difficult opening

4:00 Southern Gothic mystery play

6:00 symbolic significance of Easter

8:00 passion & crucifixion of Christ

13:00 sacrifice & scapegoating rituals

15:00 thinking about death & rebirth

19:00 descending in order to ascend

21:00 finding new life in the spring

23:00 significance of the time at the start

25:00 shadows in Faulkner’s novel

28:00 ‘the past is never dead…’

30:00 celebrating Benjy’s birthday

31:00 appreciating the beginning

33:00 analysis of the first three words

34:00 Old South vs the New South

36:00 Faulkner vs Gone with the Wind

39:00 through the fence into the past

40:00 Caddy & Benjy’s relationship

44:00 Benjy’s howls, moans & cries

46:00 Caddy communicates with Benjy

47:00 ‘Caddy smelled like the trees’

49:00 Caddy & Jason’s relationship

50:00 loss in the Compson family

52:00 a sublime gothic metaphor

53:00 feeling the absence of Caddy

54:00 how one minute lasts a lifetime

56:00 why we are all Benjy Compson

57:00 past as distinct physical realm

59:00 ‘to sleep, perchance to dream’

1:00:00 can Benjy predict the future?

1:02:00 confusion with names in the novel

1:04:00 names, destiny & family curses

1:06:00 the character of Miss Quentin

1:08:00 the visionary power of Benjy

1:11:00 ‘is this a wedding or a wake?’

1:13:00 Benjy drunk at Caddy’s wedding

1:15:00 grandmother/Damuddy’s funeral

1:16:00 when is the Lawd’s own time?

1:18:00 what exactly is a funeral?

1:20:00 momento mori vs denial of death

1:22:00 Caddy & the tree of knowledge

1:24:00 ‘Caddy done gone long ways away’

1:25:00 a traumatic scene with Benjy

1:28:00 how the first section ends

1:30:00 Faulkner’s characterisation of Benjy

1:32:00 reading & viewing assignments

1:35:00 what did you make of the beginning?

Resources to Explore:

• Film Appreciation: In addition to writing era-defining novels, Faulkner also wrote screenplays in Hollywood and worked with great directors like Howard Hawks. You might like to treat yourself to a screening of The Big Sleep, a screen adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel, or To Have and Have Not, an adaptation of a Hemingway novel. If you go for the former, think about whether you can see any parallels between the southern gothic and film noir. And are there any parallels between modern literature and modern cinema? And here's an article on Faulkner's Hollywood years that might interest you. If you've seen those films already, you may like to check out the reader-recommended film adaptation of a Faulkner short story, starring Robert Duvall, Tomorrow.

• Scripture: As discussed, the events of April 1928 in Faulkner's novel take place in a non-linear fashion across Easter weekend. Benjy's section specifically takes place on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Here is the relevant passage from John in the King James Bible, the cadence of which often sublimely inflects Faulkner's prose. It's worth thinking about what comments are being made with the work's biblical symbolism and death and rebirth motifs as you continue to forge through.

• Short Fiction: Malcolm Cowley's tour-de-force anthology The Portable Faulkner continues to be an excellent volume to have on hand for long-term lovers and newcomers to Faulkner alike. The two stories that I mentioned and recommended in our discussion are both in this volume: 'A Rose for Emily' and 'That Evening Sun.' The first is one of the best examples of the power of the southern gothic, and the second is part of the Compson family cycle and is narrated by Quentin Compson. If you find yourself inhaling them (they're short) and wanting more, then the same anthology also has 'The Bear,' which is part of Go Down, Moses, and Faulkner believed to be his finest story.

• Critical Appreciation: Michael Gorra has a tremendous study on the works of William Faulkner in light of the history of the Civil War: The Saddest Words. His insights on many of the great writer's works are powerful, but you may find it interesting, if you pick it up, to focus on the sections dealing specifically with The Sound and the Fury.

• Documentaries: For a real treat, check out this documentary from 1952 in which Faulkner gave CBS the rare honour of following him and speaking with him in his home of Oxford, Mississippi. The film is a scripted reenactment of the time in which he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. For another treat, check out this interview with Civil War historian Shelby Foote on his meeting with Faulkner.

• Compare: Can you see any influence from the writers of some of our recent reads in Faulkner? Are there any traces of the Flaubertian techniques in this modern novel? Is there an evolution of style? And can you now see the influence that Faulkner exerted upon Gabriel García Márquez and Toni Morrison? Going deeper, you might find it interesting to compare the stream-of-consciousness in James Joyce's Ulysses (like in the Proteus section) and think about how Shakespeare makes comment upon the experience of time in Macbeth. Just for fun, you could take a look at any random page from Melville's Moby Dick and keep the aesthetic in mind as we continue reading. And brace yourself, as we are now in for a significant stylistic shift as we move into Quentin's section together.

Reading Assignment:

Our next discussion will cover the second section of the novel, which is titled 'June Second, 1910'. This takes us around one hundred and fifty pages into the work depending on which edition you're working from.

We're continuing with the alternating weekend release rhythm and this coming weekend we will have our next Chaucer discussion before returning to Faulkner. If reading both, it would be great to know: Are you finding reading these masterworks in this season of the year rewarding? Although separated by a gulf of time, and with significantly different styles, are there any universal truths that they both seem to hit on? Has running them alongside each other resulted in any interesting insights for you?

Questions for You:

1) What did you make of Faulkner's characterisation of Benjy? How did you find the experience of seeing the world through his eyes?

2) Is life a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?

3) What have been the greatest challenges and rewards of this story so far?

4) How much time have you spent in the present moment today? What memories did you travel to in your mind? And why?

If this is your first reading of The Sound and the Fury, I would love to know how the story is meeting your expectations. If this is a reread for you, what is it like returning to the story? And please do share with us your favourite passages, characters, and ideas from the story so far.

Happy Easter & happy reading, everybody!