A blog composed by students from Yeshiva University's Stern College for Women
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Amusing Faulkner Interview Response
I thought some of you might find the following exchange between "The Bear" author William Faulkner and an interviewer asking him about the difficulty of reading his stories.
Thank you for posting, Professor Miller. I really liked this; it made me laugh out loud. "So great!" (as my English professor from high school would say). Truthfully it is good advise, for many of the studies we pursue. It also shows Faulkner's sense of humor, which I definitely appreciate :)
I think besides the humor in it there is an important lesson being taught here. We are inclined to think that we have tried something, so we are done, and fulfilled our obligation, so if we can't understand/succeed, it must be a lack in the task at hand. However, Faulkner stated that sometimes things aren't meant to be easy, and the difficulty does not mean that the author failed in his task, but that the person acting (in this case the reader) has not actually but in the intended effort. We like to blame our failures on other people, on the task being too hard, etc, but Faulkner is telling us that sometimes our failure is not a failure, but an uncompleted task, and we just need to continue putting in effort
Ha. This is great. Faulkner definitely isn't cutting his readers any slack. Not that he should; no doubt he spent twice as much time writing it, than a casual reader does reading it. It deserves a concentrated reread. There's really so much in the careful phrasing that gives across weighted ideas, and I don't feel like I really grasped a lot of them on my first read through. I think it was Prof. Miller who said that this is the best book to be stuck on a desert island with? The marooned reader would constantly be finding new insights with every read. [My own desert island book would probably be a dictionary, just because even though the potential for insight is endless in Faulkner, there's a limit to how many times I can reread the same sentences. Solution: no sentences. It is my loss, but I can assure everyone that my vocabulary will be stupendous at the end of that trip]
As much as I think there is a lot to learn from Faulkner's response, as Shulie pointed out, I think his response reflects impatience regarding the content of the question, rather than his desire to teach his audience a lesson. In the same interview, Faulkner said, "an artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn’t know why they choose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder why,” which depicts that as an author, Faulkner viewed himself as too engulfed by his work to care about what every single reader thought. According to Faulkner, writing was an art, and just like most artwork, the artistry is more about the author's expression through his work, and less about whether or not the onlookers like it. He wasn't concerned about what others felt about his literature, but rather he strongly believed not "just to be better than [one's] contemporaries or predecessors" but that one should "try to be better than [oneself]." Evident in the testiness of Faulkner's response to this interview question is the belief that writing was about his own fulfillment, more-so than it was about pleasing the crowd. If the reader had difficulty with the reading, that was the reader’s issue, not Faulkner’s.
I'm not sure this will actually count as one of my comments but a snappy comment earns a snappy remark: It's a shame his stories are not as concise and easy to read as that remark...
Thank you for posting, Professor Miller. I really liked this; it made me laugh out loud. "So great!" (as my English professor from high school would say). Truthfully it is good advise, for many of the studies we pursue. It also shows Faulkner's sense of humor, which I definitely appreciate :)
ReplyDeleteI think besides the humor in it there is an important lesson being taught here. We are inclined to think that we have tried something, so we are done, and fulfilled our obligation, so if we can't understand/succeed, it must be a lack in the task at hand. However, Faulkner stated that sometimes things aren't meant to be easy, and the difficulty does not mean that the author failed in his task, but that the person acting (in this case the reader) has not actually but in the intended effort. We like to blame our failures on other people, on the task being too hard, etc, but Faulkner is telling us that sometimes our failure is not a failure, but an uncompleted task, and we just need to continue putting in effort
ReplyDeleteHa. This is great. Faulkner definitely isn't cutting his readers any slack. Not that he should; no doubt he spent twice as much time writing it, than a casual reader does reading it. It deserves a concentrated reread. There's really so much in the careful phrasing that gives across weighted ideas, and I don't feel like I really grasped a lot of them on my first read through. I think it was Prof. Miller who said that this is the best book to be stuck on a desert island with? The marooned reader would constantly be finding new insights with every read. [My own desert island book would probably be a dictionary, just because even though the potential for insight is endless in Faulkner, there's a limit to how many times I can reread the same sentences. Solution: no sentences. It is my loss, but I can assure everyone that my vocabulary will be stupendous at the end of that trip]
ReplyDeleteAs much as I think there is a lot to learn from Faulkner's response, as Shulie pointed out, I think his response reflects impatience regarding the content of the question, rather than his desire to teach his audience a lesson. In the same interview, Faulkner said, "an artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn’t know why they choose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder why,” which depicts that as an author, Faulkner viewed himself as too engulfed by his work to care about what every single reader thought. According to Faulkner, writing was an art, and just like most artwork, the artistry is more about the author's expression through his work, and less about whether or not the onlookers like it. He wasn't concerned about what others felt about his literature, but rather he strongly believed not "just to be better than [one's] contemporaries or predecessors" but that one should "try to be better than [oneself]." Evident in the testiness of Faulkner's response to this interview question is the belief that writing was about his own fulfillment, more-so than it was about pleasing the crowd. If the reader had difficulty with the reading, that was the reader’s issue, not Faulkner’s.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure this will actually count as one of my comments but a snappy comment earns a snappy remark:
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame his stories are not as concise and easy to read as that remark...
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