tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post7397439884559261808..comments2024-03-28T15:01:12.582+00:00Comments on The little white attic : On the appendix of "The sound and the fury" Hai Di Nguyenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02230670162621139739noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-22896041933018469852022-10-12T13:24:55.246+01:002022-10-12T13:24:55.246+01:00This was 9 years ago so I didn't even remember...This was 9 years ago so I didn't even remember writing this blog post, but I'm glad you found something of interest.<br />But yeah, I do think the author isn't always the best guide to their own book. Hai Di Nguyenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02230670162621139739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-55865515126195180872022-10-12T06:41:44.448+01:002022-10-12T06:41:44.448+01:00Thank you for posting this article along with your...Thank you for posting this article along with your observations on the relationship between The Sound and the Fury and the novel's appendix. I recently re-read the book for the first time in decades without knowing anything about the history and circumstances surrounding the appendix. I found myself befuddled by much of the appendix to the point of questioning even my most basic understanding of the novel. Most befuddling is the claim in the appendix that Quentin's obsession with his sister lacks incestuous elements and is entirely about “honor,” and the transformation of Jason into a provident and responsible business owner whose career follows an Horatio Alger arc while his relationship with Lorraine turns out to be "uxorious" and "matrimonial" although the little that is said about this in the novel suggests it was at best transactional, and that she is little more to Jason than the type of whore he constantly accuses sister and niece of being. This confusion led me to a Google search that brought me to your posting.<br /><br />Thus thankfully enlightened, instead of trying to make reconcile or make sense of these contradictions I've been trying to understand what could have let to them. What comes to mind is that during the sixteen-year gap between the novel's initial publication and the addition of the appendix, the book had been poorly received by many of its initial reviewers as obscure if not opaque and had been a commercial failure to the point of being out of print for a portion of this period. Since this was not only Faulkner's favorite among his novels but belongs on any short list of the greatest American novels ever written, I can only imagine how dispiriting and crushing its early reception must have been to Faulkner. This leads to the inference that he ought to address complaints about the novel's obscurity by adding what amounts to a brilliantly written albeit misleading set of over-simplifying Cliff Notes which he wanted placed at the front of re-issued editions. Part and parcel of this misleading over-simplifying is appendix’s sanitizing of Quentin obsession with his sister by turning this into a matter of honor, and the honorable postscript he provides for Jason. But this attempt at popularizing The Sound and the Fury, if that’s what it was, amounts to a devil's bargain that would eviscerate the novel's essence and genius.<br /><br /><br />Andrewkauf@aol.comAndrew Kaufmanhttps://Andrewkaufman.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com