William Faulkner at the University of Virginia

[bettinadrew]

Sound and Fury not best because the three disparate sections do not come together as a whole and too frustrating to start with because of the point of view. Interesting primarily as a modernist artifact and for breakdown of Southern family under weight of culture. Absalom, Absalom best, but Light in August outstanding. Personally, I love Snopes trilogy.

[nelrish24]

waw

[DennisfromDC]

I don't care what any asshole says, UVA is just as good as any Harvard or Yale.

[drmbowen]

He was first writer-in-residence in 1956 (not 57)

[LiveBrite]

God always loves u

[Imnothecrazyone]

Imagine being so revered that people give interviews about how they were in the same lecture hall as you. I can't.

[bewat7]

Don't start with "The Sound and the Fury." Would you start your math education with calculus? Start with a simpler work -- "The Hamlet," perhaps "As I Lay Dying," or my favorite, "Light in August." Give yourself time. Faulkner was once asked what people should do if they couldn't understand his work, even after reading it four times. He answered, "Read it five times."

[pmulbrecht]

Thomas Sutpen sucked... in a big, moribund, postbellum way... man, he sucked.

[lolalongneck]

Yes, a great writer who illuminated the importance of the heart...his books continue to amaze and enlighten me.

[TheKevtrevable]

Do I have to know much about American history to appreciate Faulkner? how can I understand his work more?

[Stonelee1947]

A great resitation of Mr. Falkner. Very interesting!

[kwcarter04]

Absalom, Absalom! is a masterpiece, very difficult but worth the trouble. I found it helpful to read some critiques and then go back and read it again.

[cfortnerXYZ]

@kwcarter04 Absalom was the first Faulkner I read. It was not an assignment and I had no idea what to expect. I was rivetted from first line through the last. I read it in one night and had nightmares for the next month. I still live where much of what informed Absalom is quite real. When you live in an epiphany nothing is unenlightened.

[JUANCHOBIG]

A Fable, The Wild Palms, Sanctuary, The Town, The sound and The Fury, in that order.

[NMSD]

Will do, thanks for the advice ;)

[heaventree22]

i would agree they are both similar in theme, as they deal with perserverance in the face of chronic hardship.

[NMSD]

Hey, i read The Old Man and The Sea, and loved it, im reading "The Sound and the Fury" at the moment and although im loving it too i consider Faulkner's style very distinct from Hemingway's ... Anyway, do you recommend Ligh in August? Is it someway similar to The Old Man and the Sea?

[invention13]

I would recommend one of his lighter, more funny novels. The Snopes trilogy (the hamlet, the town, the mansion) is really, really funny in places and introduces you to Yoknapatawpha county.

Absalom, Absalom is great, as is the Sound and the Fury - just a bit harder to read before you get a feel for the style and the setting.

[RandyHooHa]

Don't forget "The Reivers"! It's the most accessible of the Yoknapatawpha novels, and possibly the most endearing.

[hugozoom]

No, it isn't. FWIW I find "Intruder in the Dust" Faulkner's most readable novel.

[octavibg]

his poetry is just brilliant

[juancfile]

what is your recommendation for the best book Faulkner wrote? Some of his stuff I have tried to read lulls me to sleep...i know there is genius there, any tips?

[Asguarde]

The Sound and the Fury seems to be considered the best he's written. If you're having trouble getting through the books, I suggest reading it once real quick to get the gist of the story and focusing harder the second time through.

[patdaddy25]

i recommend "the bear." it's a novella (my edition has about 120 pages), so it's not quite as long and in my opinion not so dense as some of Faulkner's full-length novels. hope this helps!

[DarKool81]

He has a hermetical style that makes certain demands on the reader, but the effort is more than worth it. Read 'As I lay dying'.

[MKFaizi]

Well, I have read everything the man ever wrote and I have no recommendations. It is a matter of personal taste. His genius was purely in spinning out the tale in the way of The Southerner. Don't have to make perfect sense -- uh, immediately, that is -- might take a while. Here is the one thing I took away from his writings that I have imparted to my kids-- 'bout a horse trader -- "Don't be a fool about a horse." That applies to horses and automobiles and the opposite sex and sundry things.

[Marcolopolis5]

Absalom, Absalom!

[joebstewart]

Yes he liked Va. The people are snobs and they are so busy being snobs they leave you alone. Great writer. Great writing. Great voice.

[MKFaizi]

He was at the University of Virginia. I lived in Charlottesville, too, and they are damn snotty. But they ain't so snotty here in the southwestern part of the state -- except about their ancestors, of course, but that crap is entirely meaningless -- when everybody is kin to everybody and then some.

[crazychrisva]

Are you trying to say that S.W. Virginians are a bunch of inbreeders? Maybe that can be said about W. Virginians, but in S.W. Virginia (ex. Roanoke) that is hardly the case.

Virginia has and always will be a state of very independant people who are satisfied with what they have, and have no problems with people from other parts of the country as long as they don't try to change things. That is what Mr. Faulkner meant by saying that all Virginians are snobs.

[MultiMoonbat35]

Are you a bigot, or just an ignorant boor? You want to escape criticism by shifting it to others, perhaps even those less able to defend themselves. I lived in WVA and VA each for several years and I found jerks, cretins and slobs in both. I found hardly any "bunches of inbreeders" in either. You may be just stupid.

[crazychrisva]

Are you an idiot, or just clueless. The W. Va. reference was a JOKE!!! Virginians and W. Virginians have made jokes about each other since the Civil War.

[suarezguy]

Interesting that he thought Virginians were snobs; I would attribute that quality to him, given that he dismissed writers of his present day as too concerned with survival rather than upstanding morality.

[downeyr]

Well, lots of writers are still that way today--too concerned with survival rather than writing about the human heart in conflict with itself. Just because Faulkner had a high opinion of the station that a writer holds doesn't make him a snob. Neither does thinking that the writer as an artist has a higher responsibility than to make money. Plus, Faulkner held a high opinion of a lot of writers in his day. Plus, he meant the word "snob" in a different way than the way most people take it.

[jonnygreeny111]

Faulkner and Dostoevsky are probably my two favorite writers. This is just great!

[VenKo1]

I love Faulkner! "The sound and the fury" is a great book.

[olmusiclover]

My personal favorite(s) is the Snopes Trilogy - Hamlet" "Town" and "Mansion." I consider it a masterpiece of evolving the animalistic Mink into the ultimate destroyer of totally evil Flem.

[skutari]

God is dead jou moronic dumbass

[monkeysnail]

he's right about UVA being full of snobs.

[spershall]

The Faulk is god.

[gaud123]

Hitler is God. William Faulkner is just a writer.