Faulkner on Audio

OK, so….first blog entry. I suppose it’s better late than never. I’ve had a few problems with Faulkner so far, though most of them have nothing to do with the text itself. As a visually impaired student, it is difficult (at best) for me to complete reading assignments. I have been attempting to have The Sound and the Fury read to me by an 18 year old high school dropout. Don’t get me wrong, I love my future sister-in-law very much, but I should have thought it over a bit more before I handed her the book and told her to start reading to me. Oh well…hopefully she learned a little something about modernism and point of view before I told her to stop reading. The good news is that Audible.com has all of the novels we’ll be reading this semester available for download, so I figure that, with my monthly membership credits, I should be able to stay up to date from here on out, at least with the novel assignments. I’ll deal with the short stories as they come. Maybe my future sister-in-law will have less trouble with Faulkner’s short stories. Also, hopefully his love of showing off his expansive vocabulary will help expand her vocabulary. Today my Faulkner audiobooks finally downloaded onto my Kindle, and I have spent the day alternating between listening to The Sound and the Fury and taking naps. Coincidence? No not really. I was up really late last night, and so that is why I’ve been napping off and on. My pets, on the other hand, really don’t seem to be too fond of Faulkner on audio. There are several things going through my mind as I listen to this audiobook. First of all, I sort of wish that I weren’t blind because I think that the Benjy section would make considerably more sense if I could physically see the words on the page. As would Quentin’s section. But life hands you lemons, so you gotta make lemonade as best you can. I also have my pocket-sized DSM-IV sitting next to me on the couch. Occasionally I will take my magnifier, pause my Kindle, and read through a different developmental disorder in an attempt to understand Benjy’s mental state. I’m pretty sure that Benjy is autistic, though Faulkner never really reveals the full extent of what’s really wrong with Benjy. I don’t reckon it’s Down’s Syndrome, because Benjy would be more articulate if that were the case. From what I can tell, the only word he can coherently speak is “Caddy.” Hmmmmmm. I’m still looking through other disorders, though, trying to see if I can nail down Benjy’s condition better. Then again, I only have a pocket version of the DSM-IV, so there could be a more appropriate diagnosis that I just don’t have access to at this moment. I’m debating about whether or not to bring in my Abnormal Psychology professor in to brainstorm about this. I hesitate to ask him, though, because I don’t’ want to inflict Faulkner on him if I can help it. More interesting, though, is what the frack is wrong with Quentin. I see where J. D. Salinger might have drawn inspiration from when he came up with Holden Caulfield. The only thing I can guess at with regards to Quentin is that he is a pedophile, specifically interested in incest. I mean, OK, maybe not, but a lot of signs are there, at least when I look at the DSM’s way of diagnosing this “Sexual Disorder.” This seems like a really horrible claim to make and there’s not a lot of textual evidence to support it because Quentin (at least insofar as I have read at this point) doesn’t really seem to have sexual fantasies about Caddy. He’s just really protective of her. I mean, creepily so. So maybe he doesn’t explicitly talk about wanting to make the beast with two backs with his sister, but clearly he is too involved in her life to really be a normal, protective big brother. My fiancé is protective of his little sister, but not on the same level as Quentin. I mean, he thinks that any man that his sister is interested in isn’t good enough for her, but he doesn’t slap her around or anything like that. Quentin…..wow. Obviously, Quentin has depressive tendencies, seeing as he (spoiler alert) commits suicide, but I’m trying to figure out if it’s merely depression that causes his downfall or if there’s something co-morbidly going on in that Good Old Boy head of his. Another thing that keeps popping out at me is just how much V. C. Andrews drew from Faulkner, both pre-and post-mortum.Caddy reminds me on many levels of a typical V. C. Andrews heroine, such as Cathy Dollanganger or Dawn Cutler. She’s sort of torn between family loyalties and wanting to live her life for herself. Caroline Compson reminds me of most any given matriarch from a V. C. Andrews novel: obsessed with the family name and honor, crazy as all get-outs, and constantly lamenting everyone’s sins, especially her own. Basically, Caroline Compson is a martyr mother of the Old(ish) South. Then there’s Miss Quentin, the daughter/granddaughter trying to escape from all the sins and indescretions and, much like her mother, wanting to live her life for herself rather than for the sake of the family honor or anyone’s peace of mind. Male Quentin keeps making me think, very specifically, of Phillip Cutler, from the Cutler Family series (written after V. C. Andrews passed away). He’s so obsessed with Caddy, it’s really not healthy. Phillip Cutler was the same way about his sister Dawn, even though, unlike Quentin, Phillip didn’t know that Dawn was his sister until he was like 16 or 17. Obviously, both Faulkner and Andrews wrote Southern Gothic novels, so of course I knew that there were bound to be similarities, I just didn’t realize how many there would be. Yeah, I’ll admit it: I’m having a hard time keeping up with everything, but I figure that, once I finish the Quentin section, it’ll all be downhill from there. Not necessarily in a pleasant sort of way, but in a way that makes it easier to listen and hopefully wont’ put me to sleep.