Absalom, Absalom

Absalom, Absalom seemed to me to be very intricate. As with most Faulkner texts, I am learning there are so many layers to his works. The story within the story told not even by an eye-witness, but by an aunt and aquaintances of the family. I still have yet to finish the last two chapters but I have always related better to Quinten and Caddy than some of the other  members in their family. I have sympathy for people who have reasons for having issues. If you can tell me that you gave me the finger in traffic because you overslept and didn't get a shower, then I would forgive you. I have no sympathy for people who are just cruel to others. Jason Compson seemed to carry some of those characteriastics. Supten also was cruel to others in order to attempt to fulfill his dreams. Dreams are great but when you have to hurt others to accomplish them, they need to take an alternate route. Supten should have reevaluated his southern plantation ideas and stuck with his first wife and son. That was the first detour he should have made among others.

Faulkner Project

The Faulkner Family Tree Prezi that Sonia and I are doing for our final project is coming along well. It has taken an unexpected turn in the layout since we are creating our own formatted template. We found a new tree for the template and I used adobe Photoshop to edit both that tree and the other tree we were planning on using as the individual family trees. We also found some really good pictures of characters and events on an outside art source. Now all we need to do is write the characterization blurbs as well as put each family together in their trees and find out what characters overlap in each of Faulkner’s works. Some appear more than twice. We also decided to add another aspect to the family tree that Sonia came up with and are including the history of each family and their contribution to Southern society. So as I am putting together the formatting and we are both taking three Faulkner families to focus on. We need to explain each character and their importance to each of Faulkner’s works that they are featured in. When this is put together in one document we will input it into our tree template and add some other multimedia sources. Presently I’m deciding the order in which to present each family and putting together the presentation aspects of the Prezi through formatting. This is going to be just one big hypertext document with a bunch of different outlets for learning about Faulkner and different people’s interpretations of his characters and works. It will also exemplify the Faulkner families in their roles in the Old South. This will tie together our presentation together and make it applicable to Faulkner, the Old South and every work we have and will read by the end of the semester.

Article on the Social Traditions in Faulkner

If anyone is writing at all about the Sutpens, Absalom, Absalom, or the social traditions, this is an interesting article I came across today.
Faulkner and the Cavalier Tradition: The French Bequest
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2924098

Judith's take on life's intricacies

Judith's reaction to Bon's letter begs an existential question to her tirade: are people truly independent and acting on free will or are we simply an insignificant cog in a much larger, chaotic system? Judith takes the latter position, asserting that while we are all weavers on the same loom intent on making our own pattern. We are forced to react to the jerks and pulls on the strings that connect us to others. In her mind, this controlled chaos has little to do with personal choice but instead is perpetuated by causality--one reaction merely begetting another without foresight or consideration.

In addition, she also believes that any action we take, any scratch we can leave on the marble, will ultimately be devoid of purpose: the person that mark was meant for will either pass away, ignore, or completely disregard it altogether. In her own words, the stone can never be a was, the mark will never retain the impact it once had because the stone is permanent while the message perishers with the messenger.

Our flawed memories are inherent--the mind can only retain so much before something important gets bumped off. We can tell ourselves we will never forget, that the memory--tragic or triumphant--will be etched in our minds and hearts and can recalled on demand with crystalline clarity. But we don't.

In fact much of what we do remember is often the trivial, random, non-nonsensical tidbits. Some important memories might stick, but like the tapestry in the loom, the memory is perverted; it's existence the result of outside suggestion and selective recall. Our entire history is recalled this way: aggrandized recollection and faulty retelling soon replace any semblance of objectivity.

Judith recognizes the fallacy of history. For all our judgment--whether it's Thomas Sutpen, the Civil War, or contemporary America--we are helplessly attached to the chaos of our world and hopelessly disconnected from each other. We can only react to invisible tugs on our strings while we nudge and jostle for a spot on the loom. And for what? As soon as we are gone, the message we tried to convey dissipates like vapor from a steam room.  All that remains is the same stone, scratched all to hell for reasons unknown.

Judith Passage

To me this passage shows Judith's breaking point for life. She couldn't be the son that her father would've wanted because of the rules of society and when she tries to marry and be a good daughter her intended is murdered. I think within this passage we finally see the inner workings of this character. Since nothing else worked for her in her life she sees passing on the letter to someone outside her family will mean that she did leave her mark on the world in some way. maybe not with military achievements or with progeny, but with her story. She just seems tired of trying to "make" a life for herself so instead decides to give a piece of it to a stranger in order to let what life she did lead be known to someone who might be able to pass it on. 

The ending of this passage was like a flashback to As I Lay Dying: ". . . while the block of stone cant be is because it never can become was because it cant ever die or perish. . ." this sounds like something Darl would say (101).