Honeysuckle was the saddest odor of all…
There are books that you read once and they hold your attention for the moment of the read, but then slip away leaving a faint odour…then there are the books that require your full and total attention just to know what might be going on and what meaning you are to make of it. These are the books that more often stay with you, pointing to a depth of human nature that we must work to understand–but recognize when we do. The Sound and the Fury is one of those books…lines and images will stay with you long after the reading of it and our discussions will illuminate and galvanize your understanding of the book.
Listen:
poor Quentin
her face looked at the sky it was low so low that all the smells and sounds of the night seemed to have been crowded down like under a slack tent especially the honeysuckle it had got into my breathing it was on her face and throat like paint her blood pounded against my hand I was leaning on my other arm it began to jerk and jump and I had to pant to get any air at all out of that thick gray honeysuckle
The Sound and the Fury, p. 95
What?!? Lyric, beautiful, opaque and sensual–this is the world Faulkner explores in his churning psychological journey to the depths of the human soul. I was planning to start this study this Wednesday, but if there are other participants who are interested but can’t join this week, please tell me asap. The first section to be read for our first discussion is 45 pages, told in the voice of a character who does not understand that time progresses. This is a wonderful way to enter the stunning writing of Faulkner–once you have been lured, you will want to go further–into the honeysuckle, down to the creek, through the greasy rain…..
Next Salon: The Wasteland one night intensive
