Entertaining the Alien

13. The Sound and The Fury, William Faulkner

I almost decided not to list this one, just because while yes, I read it, I'm not entirely sure I got it. The thing that I both love and hate about Faulkner is that he never tells you anything directly. Well, almost never. And when he does tell you something, it's rarely anything that seems to make sense at the time. Reading Faulkner for me is always like trying to solve a mystery--the mystery being "what the hell is going on in this book/story?" It's compelling, but frustrating as hell.

After I finished reading this book this afternoon, I was finally forced to go online looking for some interpretations and summaries, just so I could figure out what I'd missed. I'd missed quite a bit, but not as much as I'd feared. I did, sort of, get the main points right.

As a writer, several things confound me. How does one manage to write "around" an entire book without ever deliberately being clear or straightforward? And how does one manage to not only make that obscurity work, but produce what's generally regarded as a masterpiece? How can you tell the difference between marvelously written stream-of-consciousness and s-o-c that's just crap? I'm baffled by it, because I spend so much time trying to be as clear as possible--so much that I overexplain. No one will ever accuse Faulkner of overexplaining anything.

I have a feeling I'll be reading some more criticism on this book, mostly because I feel like I have it right at the tip of my tongue. I can see it, and I can see why folks consider it a master work, but I'm not quite there yet.