Falling for Faulkner

My sister has had a massive aversion to William Faulkner since her senior year in high school. One of the novels that she was supposed to read that year was his Light in August...and she hated it. It was so horrible to her that she never finished the book (the only one she didn't finish) and she has never forgotten it. Not only has she never forgotten how much she hated Faulkner because of that book, she has never let anyone else forget it either.

Largely because of her experiences with his writing, and my lack of them, I have had an aversion to him. I've been a little wary of reading anything he's written, so I've just attempted to avoid it.

That's not entirely possible to do though, as an English major. It is even less possible to do as an English major who plans to teach High School English, and preferably junior year when the focus is on American Literature. In one of my previous English courses, I had to read one of his short stories, "A Rose for Emily." I honestly really liked the story a lot...I thought it was unlike anything else I'd ever read, so I was intrigued. My sister still hated him though, and it was only a short story and not one of Faulkner's novels, so I figured maybe it was just a fluke.

But this semester, I've been studying "A Rose for Emily" again (and still loving it) in one class, and in another course we've read the short story "Barn Burning" and his novella As I Lay Dying. Faulkner's not an easy read...not by any stretch of the imagination. He writes from multiple points of view, often using unreliable narrators. He writes with a strong Southern dialect. His prose pushes and challenges readers.

But it is gorgeous.

I am in love with William Faulkner's Southern Gothic style of writing, with his rich prose, with his oddball characters and rich tradition. I want to read more. And more. Faulkner may very well have just become my favorite author. I certainly didn't see this one coming. And I can now say that my sister doesn't know what she's talking about as far as Faulkner is concerned.

Filtering Critiques

In my Creative Writing class last week, I presented a short story that I've recently written titled "Dear Diary." Much like the last time I presented a piece, I got a lot of feedback. Tons of feedback. Maybe too much feedback. I'm really honored that the class is spending so much time talking about the pieces I present...it makes me think that they really like them and feel like they have a lot of promise. But at the same time, it is hard to really determine what parts of those suggestions I should actually try to incorporate into the story, and which ones I need to disregard.

I know that some of what was said would work really well in the story, in theory at least, but I have to question each thing before I try to do it. Will it actually push the story to where it is almost reaching but not quite? How will it affect the characterization of my heroine? Does that stick completely to the theme that I've set forth? There are so many factors in play, and the story really does balance on a fine line. I think that if I find a way to include some of these suggestions, that line will be even finer...which would be a good thing in the story. Primarily, I want there to be more questioning at the end of what my heroine decided to do. Some people questioned, and they brought up the reasons why they questioned. But others were very certain, based on the clues I had given them, which decision she had made. I want to make it harder for them to be certain...I want them to question. I really need to dive deeper into her head, and make it more realistic for her to have chosen either path.

The idea for this short story actually stemmed from music. I was doing some freewriting while listening to music for inspiration, and the song "Hurt" by Johnny Cash came on. Yes, I know that it was written by Trent Reznor and originally recorded by Nine Inch Nails. But when Johnny Cash sang "Hurt," it truly became a Johnny Cash song. He gives so much life to the song, and really makes you feel the pain of the lyrics. I began to wonder what would have to happen to a person, what would they have had to live through, in order to reach that level of desperation. "I hurt myself today to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real." What could be so bad that you don't even know if you're alive anymore? So the ideas started formulating in my mind as I continued to listen to the song. It ends with "If I could start again a million miles away, I would keep myself. I would find a way." This person has completely lost who they were, they are completely engulfed in the pain of whatever has happened to them and is just existing. They don't feel anything anymore, other than pain. And "Dear Diary" was born.

It still needs a lot of work, if it is going to really achieve what I set out to achieve with it. Like I said before, I have to go deeper into her mind, deeper into her pain, deeper into her anguish. It has to be believable. Right now, it is almost there, but there is something missing. I have to figure out what, if anything, out of the feedback I've been given will fill that void. The rest, I need to forget about, because it is so close to that point already.