I'm curious as to why opera, singing, and music play so heavily in the story; why opera and not painting or something else? And I have some ideas about the answer.
The idea of culture plays into the critique of the upper class, and culture is best depicted by the arts as opposed to the sciences (which are rather subjective and would probably be considered dull or uninteresting by the decadent rich who must be entertained). Music, and singing especially, work because they are much more universal. Even the poor can sing (though the opera is a distinctly rich persons past time, at least during this period), which allows Gretta's old love to be brought into the story.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
The Dead Response
I think The Dead was interesting but I'm not sure my interest in it and my interpretation is the intended one. I have preconceived notions about the story because I'm fairly certain that the passage about the feast was mentioned in How to Read Literature like a Professor. As a result, I've interpreted the entire story as a critique of the excesses of the rich. Of their triviality and their complete ignorance of the suffering of the little. I think Gretta's lost love might act as evidence for this critique because he, having worked in the gasworks, was probably poor. Despite Gabriel's fear of his speech, which alluded to esoteric poetry, insulting the less educated at the party, he even admits to have never felt the kind of love the poor boy from Galway ever felt, thus implying that the wealthy and the educated, for all their talk of being better, their pretentions to superiority, are emotionally stunted.
Monday, October 12, 2015
Response As I Lay Dying looking back
I think considering what we've read so far the book takes on more religious symbolism and irony (considering that so many of the characters are horrible people... Actually no, just Anse and to a lesser degree Addie and Whitefield). Cash has always seemed vaguely like a Christ figure since the beginning. He's a carpenter and his name sounds similar, but in following his father's orders he is in this case nearly killed on the river (Hey! He falls in and gets symbolically baptized, because every time someone gets wet it's a baptism!). He almost dies for Anse's stupidity/recklessness/idiocy/selfishness/insert angry adjective et all, in the same way Jesus died for mortal sin; the irony comes from the fact that Anse remains an unrepentantly sinful individual he keeps, screwing everything up and proceeds to top of the sins with vanity (his new teeth) and lust (his new wife).
Another ironic religious metaphor I find interesting is that of Addie and Anse, who I've always likened a bit to Adam and Eve but now think the likeness is even more so knowing Addie's... personal indiscretions. She, as Eve, accepts the "forbidden fruit" (wink wink) from a servant of God who has now fallen into sin (fallen Angel). She suffers for this action (she has more children and ultimately dies) and her actions arguably spawn her husbands sinful actions as well (this hellish journey is inspired by the death). The irony comes from the fact that Addie and Anse could act as a stand in or representation for all families, rendering the familial unit, which is so often declared the basis of morality and Christian value etc... sinful and corrupted. Oh Faulkner, what sweet irony. Irony that is augmented and made even more obvious by the fact that the Addie-Whitefield affair is a modernist re-telling of the Scarlet Letter.
Another ironic religious metaphor I find interesting is that of Addie and Anse, who I've always likened a bit to Adam and Eve but now think the likeness is even more so knowing Addie's... personal indiscretions. She, as Eve, accepts the "forbidden fruit" (wink wink) from a servant of God who has now fallen into sin (fallen Angel). She suffers for this action (she has more children and ultimately dies) and her actions arguably spawn her husbands sinful actions as well (this hellish journey is inspired by the death). The irony comes from the fact that Addie and Anse could act as a stand in or representation for all families, rendering the familial unit, which is so often declared the basis of morality and Christian value etc... sinful and corrupted. Oh Faulkner, what sweet irony. Irony that is augmented and made even more obvious by the fact that the Addie-Whitefield affair is a modernist re-telling of the Scarlet Letter.
Response to As I Lay Dying ending
I hate Anse. He gets one son nearly killed, twice, steals the other one's horse (the one he demanded he'd never have to worry about feeding), throws one in an asylum (I guess this isn't completely his fault, but I am angry and he could have tried to stop it), and steals his daughter's abortion money. The only child he hasn't egregiously wronged is Vardaman, who doesn't even understand the concept of death yet (I feel it difficult to wrong someone who does not understand death, though as a self described understander of death I am slightly biased). And it seems by the end of this hair brained family ruining quest of theirs his primary motivation was getting new teeth and a wife. He even lectures his children on how his lack of teeth makes him morally better than them. It amazes me especially because Anse simultaneously seems so ditzy and moronic and absent minded (who the hell sets their sons leg with concrete when they could have just left him early on the journey? My god he literally could be of no assistance and the notion of funeral attendance on his part seems unnecessary considering she's been dead for days) that I wouldn't think him capable of actively being a horrible person but he is. He's like a spoiled, entitled child who does something forgivable and then just looks away instead of looking his parents in the eye (except in this analogy, the roles are reversed and his children are the ones he wrongs and cannot look at). He insists on self reliance and then proceeds to probably functionally bankrupt his family while relying on the non-consenting sale of his sons own property (I mentioned this but I think this made me angriest so I'm mentioning it a second time). If Faulkner set out to reveal the brokenness of the family he succeeded. Anse is the patriarch that a desperately hope the children band together to kill on the way back home.
Sunday, October 4, 2015
As I Lay Dying Commentary pages 84-176
So I was reading one of the sections from Darl's perspective when he talks about Jewel being out late and sleeping during the day because he's having sex with someone. Then at the end of that section I see Darl say he realized what happened with Dewey Dell. Is this another example of Faulknerian incest? Are they having sex with each other because I'm pretty sure they are.
In this case, I have some ideas about what the incest represents. In the Sound and the Fury, the Caddie/Quentin vaguely incestuous relationship was representative of the decline of the Southern Aristocracy. Addie's children are very obviously not the Southern Aristocracy; instead, perhaps the Jewel-y Dell incest is the opposite. It could represent the insularity of rural communities, especially poor rural communities. They as a group stay rooted in the past and do not work towards growth or mixing with those they consider to be other "other".
In this case, I have some ideas about what the incest represents. In the Sound and the Fury, the Caddie/Quentin vaguely incestuous relationship was representative of the decline of the Southern Aristocracy. Addie's children are very obviously not the Southern Aristocracy; instead, perhaps the Jewel-y Dell incest is the opposite. It could represent the insularity of rural communities, especially poor rural communities. They as a group stay rooted in the past and do not work towards growth or mixing with those they consider to be other "other".
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