Ryan's Reviews > The Sound and the Fury
The Sound and the Fury
by
by

The first thing that comes to mind in regard to 篓The Sound and the Fury篓 is Eliot麓s 篓a heap of broken images.篓 Deciphering TSTF is like reassembling a shattered mirror; difficult, and likely to end in pain.
On the other hand, it麓s hard to deny that it麓s a great book, if only from the standpoint of workmanship. The skill it took to create this piece, composed of so many seperate perspectives, confined to such a narrow and specific moments of time, makes me think of interlocking puzzles carved from a single piece of wood or stone. Whether you like it or not, you have to admire the workmanship.
That being said, I believe that this book is so highly regarded for exactly the qualities that make it inaccessible to the majority of readers. If you have the patience to finish it, and the tools to decipher it, you become one of the select few, the literati elite. It麓s regarded because it excludes. Unfortunately, many lovers of literature want writing to need decoding; they want layers of meaning inaccessible to the uninitiated. I am not one of those readers.
After all, once you do decode the book, once you麓ve assembled the shattered mirror, is the image you see there really that unique or fascinating? I admit that I do have a certain sympathy for the characters in TSTF; I believe them. They feel real for me. However, it麓s hard not to care about the characters after you麓ve worked so hard to understand exactly what the hell is going on with them. You麓ve already invested so much time with them that they麓re practically family. It vaguely smacks of manipulation for an author to use such a device to get his readers invested with his characters.
Finally, I guess that my issue is not with Faulkner, a master of his craft who managed what is nearly impossible, to do some thing new in the field of writing. My issue is with the literature community, who chose to so highly esteem such a difficult nut to crack.
The Sound and the Fury; a masterpiece of form, and one of the most inaccessible books I麓ve ever picked up. Again, it麓s hard to argue with the quality of the book; I would recommend the book to very few readers, but I麓ve still been moved to write a couple of hundred words about it.
On the other hand, it麓s hard to deny that it麓s a great book, if only from the standpoint of workmanship. The skill it took to create this piece, composed of so many seperate perspectives, confined to such a narrow and specific moments of time, makes me think of interlocking puzzles carved from a single piece of wood or stone. Whether you like it or not, you have to admire the workmanship.
That being said, I believe that this book is so highly regarded for exactly the qualities that make it inaccessible to the majority of readers. If you have the patience to finish it, and the tools to decipher it, you become one of the select few, the literati elite. It麓s regarded because it excludes. Unfortunately, many lovers of literature want writing to need decoding; they want layers of meaning inaccessible to the uninitiated. I am not one of those readers.
After all, once you do decode the book, once you麓ve assembled the shattered mirror, is the image you see there really that unique or fascinating? I admit that I do have a certain sympathy for the characters in TSTF; I believe them. They feel real for me. However, it麓s hard not to care about the characters after you麓ve worked so hard to understand exactly what the hell is going on with them. You麓ve already invested so much time with them that they麓re practically family. It vaguely smacks of manipulation for an author to use such a device to get his readers invested with his characters.
Finally, I guess that my issue is not with Faulkner, a master of his craft who managed what is nearly impossible, to do some thing new in the field of writing. My issue is with the literature community, who chose to so highly esteem such a difficult nut to crack.
The Sound and the Fury; a masterpiece of form, and one of the most inaccessible books I麓ve ever picked up. Again, it麓s hard to argue with the quality of the book; I would recommend the book to very few readers, but I麓ve still been moved to write a couple of hundred words about it.
Sign into 欧宝娱乐 to see if any of your friends have read
The Sound and the Fury.
Sign In 禄
Reading Progress
Finished Reading
January 6, 2008
– Shelved
Comments Showing 1-14 of 14 (14 new)
date
newest »


I strongly disagree with what you say about TSATF being so highly regarded strictly because of its inaccessibility and sense of accomplishment one gets from finishing it. Faulkner doesn't ask you to "decode" his book 鈥� if he were that superficial then it would clearly show through once the pieces had been put together. He wrote the book like he did because it couldn't have been written any other way. I mean, the Benji section is so intentionally disorienting and difficult to read because Faulkner wanted to approximate the experience of living with a debilitating mental condition and, not only that, give the reader a fractured portrayal of a fractured family through a personally involved yet completely non-judgmental narrator. Understanding what is going on and constructing a cohesive plot is not the point here 鈥� it's reveling in his mastery of language and characterisation, his humour, and his heart wrenching empathy.






Let the words be triggers for your senses and emotions, instead of trying to perfectly grasp the events from one sentence to the next. It's not about the plot anyways -- it's about the portrayal of a time, an emotion -- which is best accomplished when you drop your need to analyze and just experience.

It doesn't need to be so difficult if you just read it for beauty. If you get frustrated looking for some ostensible meaning, something signified, ask someone to tell you what the basic events are, read Faulkner's introduction, and then get back to slowly sifting through the words.