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Blog Entry 15 of 15 Reading Past Midnight....
Not only is there not enough time to read all the new books, or the classics, there isn't enough time to talk about them with other readers. New books arrive like mushrooms after a spring rain, and keeping up with them seems impossible. In my blog I will try to mix it up with what's new and what's classic - what sustains readers over time. A big part of my reading and writing is my attempt to get back to college and high school readiing lists and re-read the good stuff, instead of feeling guilty about all those Cliff Notes. Books, old and new, spill from my bookshelves, lurk under coffee tables, peer from beneath the bed. They call to me like sirens....come closer...just one more page. Even past midnight. My mission is simple. Keep reading and take the time to think about why the book is a classic. And as new titles arrive to join the ranks of classics, what makes them great? I'll share what I think, what I enjoy. The simple act of writing about a great book makes me look at it more deeply, helps me understand it, rewards me for the pleasure of reading. Let me know your thoughts, your favorites.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~somanybooks

The past is never dead. It isn't even past.

Contributed by: Irma Sturgell   on 12/18/2007

We've all read Faulkner. Or at least we've read the Cliff notes in high school or college. And many of us suffered through just enough unguided exposure to know we didn't like him. His sentences are so long (the infamous 30 page sentence in The Bear); his writing seems so random, we don't know who is speaking (remember Benji in The Sound and the Fury); Yoknapatawpha County? Who can even pronounce the name of this fictional setting that was home to so much of what he wrote? Or, the ultimate dismissal: "He's just a dead white guy!" All true.

At 18 or even 22, it's hard to appreciate the complexities of fine writing. But as seasoned readers, we are open to the elegance of a complex sentence; more accepting of perfectly rendered images. Well past 22, I was finally ready to revisit Faulkner. After all, he keeps coming up on "must read" lists, and he did win a Noble Prize for Literature in 1949. He even made it to Ophrah's list. It was time to find out what I missed in the first reading.

As part of an extended road trip, my husband and I planned on visiting Rowan Oak, Faulkner's home in Oxford, Mississippi. This alone was impetus to reread Faulkner's work. Oxford, just south of Memphis, is home to the University of Mississippi, Ole Miss. Oxford is built around the town square, the same square that features so prominently in Faulkner's novels as the town of Jefferson, the seat of Yoknapatawpha County. Now, Oxford is a little town of cafes, bookstores, shops, and even an old fashioned department store. It is easy to picture Faulkner walking into town to pick up his mail and visit with friends on the square.

The University of Mississippi now manages Rowan Oak. Faulkner loved his home but grew weary of the constant stream of visitors that poured in as his fame grew. This was a particular problem for him once he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Knowing this, we wandered through the house on our self-guided tour, feeling like intruders. But seeing these rooms, particularly the study where he wrote the outline for The Fable on the wall, brings a reader into a kind of connection with the writer. I can see him in this space; see him struggle with passages that simultaneously stream and trickle from his pen. He wouldn't like it that his home is a literary shrine. But it is a gift to readers to be able to apprehend the author a bit more through this kind of physical connection.

I started my re-reading of Faulkner with The Sound and The Fury, the novel he called his "finest failure." He wrote it after receiving a stinging critique that contended, "You don't seem to have any story to tell." It made him mad! But not mad enough to quit and go back to being a postmaster.

Instead, he wrote what he wanted, what came to him, without "any accompanying feeling of drive or effort." It was easier to read The Sound and the Fury this time around, and since nothing in the text has changed over time (I did enjoy reading my own notations in my dog eared copy) I have to believe it is I who changed. Perhaps he is introduced to most of us at too young an age; an age at which we have no understanding of the "old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed - love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice." These lines from his Nobel acceptance speech reveal core of his beliefs about writing. One of the great Nobel speeches, it is haunting in its prescience:

"Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up?"

The full text of his acceptance speech can be heard on the following link.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/williamfaulknernobelprizeaddress.htm

Even in the 1930's and 40's, Faulkner understood what was happening not only in his beloved south, but also around the world. He understood how fear separated us and clouded our perceptions of one another. He understood how our past continues to be part of our present; it never leaves us, always shaping the ways we interact with one another, the ways we connect in the world. And, he understood how to weave these ideas into the kind of writing that remains meaningful beyond his own time and place.

Often unwell, he was either suffering with riding injuries, or clawing his way back from repeated drinking binges, medicating himself with great quantities of whiskey. His death on July 6, 1962, at 65 was poignant. He died alone in a sanitarium, recovering from one such injury.

Jay Parini's biography, One Matchless Time: A life of William Faulkner, is a supportive accompaniment to a study of Faulkner. He reminds us that Faulkner cannot be read; he can only be reread. Parini includes summaries for each of Faulkner's major works along with the biographical details for Faulkner's life. His book makes any re-reading of Faulkner's work a richer experience.


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Submitted By: Neil brady
posted on 1/30/2008 @ 4:42:02 PM
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If you wish to find more true stories and interesting reading that you can also contribute to. Visit www.cmylife.net
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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Irma Sturgell

Centennial , CO

Irma Sturgell has posted 15 blog entries and 2 comments since joining on 4/13/2006. Irma Sturgell 's average blog rating is 5.
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