So, I recently finished reading The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. I will now write about all of my thoughts on this very unique text.
Let me just say, reading through pure stream-of-consciousness writing is a very, very, very hard thing to do. The first passage of four is written entirely in it. The second passage is still mostly stream-of-consciousness with a few sensible pieces, the third even less confusing, with the final passage leaving out stream-of-consciousness writing all together. In a way, the reader gets the hardest part out of the way first - quite a relief. I have to say, though, I honestly don't think I've read anything as confusing as this book in my life. The way the stories read in choppy sentences or fragments, and the way the scenes jump around so much - even through different times. Yes, I'm sure you have all experienced time gaps in books but for the most part, it is easy to see when your character is in a different time period - a few months have passed, years, whatever. Well, in The Sound and the Fury, the exact day or year can be impossibly hard to find at parts - especially in the first part of the novel. I was completely confused for the first fifty pages with all of these off-topic things jumping into the text and the character would suddenly be in a different place than before. I then thankfully realized that the character had been having flashbacks with the use of italics. So all I had to do was look for the main story-line in the paragraphs without italics, right? Yeah, I wish it had been that easy. In fact, that was my first thought. Unfortunately, if the flashback was long enough, it would be written without italics, switching the main story-line's view with the flashbacks altogether. Let's just say, it was extremely confusing.
Not that I have anything against Faulkner's writing style, I just find it hard to read. In fact, I found certain parts of this book (namely part one) harder to interpret than Shakespeare - and that's saying something. It's written in a completely different tone than Shakespeare's writing, of course - much less "formal" - but that does not change the fact that it is truly confusing.
Although I found most of this story terribly difficult to read there were a few parts I, as the reader could actually understand. Those parts were a relief. There was one section in part two like that, when one of the main characters - Quentin - was trying to help this little girl find her home. The writing for that scene was very straight-forward, unlike a lot of the book itself.
Okay, I know it's hard to explain just how interesting the writing of this book is. Here's a short passage from part two:
"A face reproachful an odor of camphor and of tears a voice weeping steadily and softly beyond the twilit door the twilight-colored smell of honeysuckle. Bringing empty trunks down the attic stairs they sounded like coffins French Lick. Found not death at the salt lick" (Faulkner 95).
That quote is written word for word - I didn't leave anything out or change a thing. Notice the sting of separate thoughts mending together and the mysterious lack of normal punctuation? This is an extreme example - one of Quentin's flash backs. But you get the idea now right? It was by no means an easy read.
Surprisingly, however, the characters were developed wonderfully - despite the hard-to-interpret writing itself. As readers, we got to know Benjy - the mentally disabled narrator of part one, Quentin,- brother to Benjy as well as Jason, who fights with himself over his feelings towards his sister Caddy as he envelops part two, Jason - the strict leader of part three and hard-headed uncle of Miss Quentin, as well as other important characters. They all have a purpose in the story - each one has a meaning.
I find it perplexing that a book so very confusing can have such great character development. It's one of the mysterious things I discovered on my adventure reading this novel. Although it's definitely not one of my favorite books (honestly, you will have to bribe me with tickets to a really good musical if you ever want me to read that book again), but I am glad I read it. While it wasn't a particularly fun experience for me, I can now say I have read a book written mostly in stream-of-consciousness. Knowing that may never happen again, I'm glad I was able to explore an area of writing such as this. Though had to interpret, I found the way Faulkner wrote so unique and unlike anything I had ever read before. As we learned at the beginning of the year, originality is hard to find. By reading something unlike anything I have read before, I can start to feel that calm sense of originality. Seeing something so unique is really quite fascinating.
So there you have it - my experience with The Sound and the Fury. Well, out with the old, and in with the new. Time to read another book, and have a whole new adventure.
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