The Sound and the Fury: The Day Dawned (Sections Three & Four, Faulkner Lecture) (Patreon)

'I seed de beginnin, en now I sees de endin.'

Today we draw to the close of The Sound and the Fury. The close of this profound novel, but certainly not the end of our deep engagement with William Faulkner.

We're discussing the climax of the novel, endurance, sacrifice, resurrection narratives, the significance of nothing, blood symbolism, sublime prose poetry, and much more.

Please do feel free to enjoy the discussion, using the timestamps at your personal pace, even if you haven't read these sections yet.

Timestamps:

0:00 reaching the climax of the novel

2:00 real model for Dilsey’s character

3:00 final image at the end of the story

5:00 clarity in the final two sections

7:00 dark content in Jason’s section

9:00 distinct individual dramatic voices

10:00 when does Jason’s take place?

12:00 William Faulkner on Christianity

14:00 theme of enduring & sacrifice

18:00 death of old & rising of the new

21:00 Faulkner’s posthumous popularity

23:00 from the passion to resurrection

25:00 what kind of person is Jason?

27:00 Jason Compson vs Miss Quentin

29:00 on the Compson curse rising up

30:00 resentment over the dead & buried

32:00 how others teach us about ourselves

34:00 Jason argues about Miss Quentin

36:00 what happened all those years ago?

38:00 how Satan carries hell with him

40:00 symbolism of short selling cotton

42:00 Jason Compson’s thoughts on race

45:00 Faulkner on race & America’s future

47:00 Miss Quentin raised in the family

49:00 the punishment of no knowledge

50:00 juxtaposition of past & present

52:00 the triumph of Jason’s section

54:00 does Jason have a conscience?

56:00 each section as Ulysses in miniature

58:00 ‘if I’m bad, it’s because I had to be’

1:00:00 appreciating final/Dilsey’s section

1:02:00 aspiring to the condition of music

1:03:00 seeing the big picture at the end

1:04:00 on death and rebirth narratives

1:06:00 ‘the day dawned, bleak and chill’

1:08:00 reading the novel in another order

1:10:00 Dilsey described in epic terms

1:12:00 enduring precedes prevailing

1:14:00 appreciating sublime prose-poetry

1:16:00 how nothing can signify something

1:18:00 Miss Quentin’s absence discovered

1:20:00 empty room like empty tomb

1:23:00 going to church on Easter Sunday 

1:25:00 at Reverend Shegog’s sermon

1:26:00 recollection & blood of the lamb

1:28:00 the power of individual sacrifice

1:30:00 the layered symbolism of blood

1:32:00 Jason Compson vs Omnipotence

1:34:00 Jason is full of sound and fury

1:36:00 statue of the Confederate soldier

1:38:00 the carriage ride scene at the end

1:40:00 you need to endure to prevail

1:42:00 how art makes man immortal

1:44:00 where to next with Faulkner?

1:46:00 William Faulkner’s favourite books

1:47:00 reading dystopian literature together

1:48:00 what did you make of this novel?

1:49:00 Congratulations on reading Faulkner

Resources to Explore:

• Film Appreciation: If you held off on watching the 2015 film adaptation until you finished the novel, then now would be a great time to give yourself a screening. How does it fare as an adaptation of the novel? Which directorial decisions do you agree with? And what should they have done differently? How would you produce an adaptation of this work? A lot of the masterpieces of twentieth century literature are deemed unfilmable - do you think this is true?

• Exploring Faulkner: It's been wonderful to see how much love readers have developed for Faulkner. I know many are keen to explore more of his works. There are so many great avenues to take next. Here are the recommendations I made at the end of the discussion: As I Lay Dying, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom!, Go Down, Moses, Sanctuary, the Collected Short Stories. There are lots more great works to check out, but I think any of those options would be powerfully rewarding as a next step. They vary in tone, theme, and difficulty and I'd recommend giving your next Faulkner the first page taste-test to see which one pulls you in. Of course, you could also choose to deepen your appreciation by reading some of Faulkner's favourite books. We read out the list of his personal favourites at the end of the discussion and saw that many of them are book club reads.

• Interviews: We pulled from the Paris Review throughout this discussion, so check out the full interview if you found the great writer's answers interesting. Reading a great author interview right after finishing one of their books is a powerful way to deepen your appreciation of their aesthetic and continue thinking about their thematic preoccupations. There is also this treasure of an interview, containing a recording and a transcript of Faulkner speaking about the craft of writing.

• Portable Faulkner: Have you been enjoying dipping into Malcolm Cowley's Portable Faulkner during your reading of The Sound and the Fury? Right at the end of that volume, you can see the appendix that Faulkner wrote many years after publishing the novel in which he explores the Compson family history and the biographies for his different characters. Does reading that change your outlook on the novel you have just lived through? The Portable Faulkner also prints the writer's Nobel Prize speech, which is well worth reading too, especially in regards to the writer's thoughts on enduring vs prevailing, art, and man's indomitable spirit.

• Biography: As mentioned previously, Joseph Blotner has a tremendous biography of Faulkner. It was originally available in two volumes, but here you can find it in one hefty tome. For another great option about the writer's life, you might like Carl Rollyson's The Life of William Faulkner: The Past is Never Dead. If you find yourself most keenly interested in the Southern historical context of Faulkner's work, then Joel Williamson has a great study on exactly that here.

• Our Next Masterpieces: Congratulations on bringing yourself so powerfully to The Sound and the Fury. You should feel intensely proud of your accomplishment. This coming weekend, we will be rounding up our curated appreciation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The weekend after that, we will be moving into the next exciting part of our reading adventure with our introductory 'how to read' video for our Dystopian Double Bill. We are going to read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World followed by George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Reading them back to back will offer us a really powerful exercise in comparing and contrasting great books. In our intro video, we will discuss everything from our practical approach and pacing to themes, genre, and socio-historical context. You don't need to read anything just yet, but, if you are keen to dive in, you may want to dip into the first chapter of Brave New World. The main thing you want to do right now is to secure your copies of the books. I'll be working from the Vintage edition for Huxley, and the Penguin edition for Orwell, but feel free to use the copies you like and that come most easily to hand. I am tremendously excited to share this next appreciation with you and am so grateful that you have made our read-throughs for the first half of the year so rewarding.

Questions to Consider:

1) What did you make of the novel's ending?

2) Which section was your favourite? And least favourite? Why?

3) What will you remember most from your journey through The Sound and the Fury?

4) What area connected with Faulkner are you now most keen to explore?

5) How would you persuade another to read The Sound and the Fury? And what advice would you give to facilitate a meaningful reading experience?

And please do share with us your impressions and favourite passages from the end of The Sound and the Fury.

Congratulations on reading The Sound and the Fury, everybody!