Traveller’s
Comments
(group member since Jan 14, 2015)
Traveller’s
comments
from the On Paths Unknown group.
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Linda wrote: "I'm not 100% certain that he's consistent with it. The jumps are way too frequent...."Yeah, I didn't mean to say that he puts italics on every jump, but he often does. Other times he does give other clues, indeed, like mentioning their ages, and so on. Also, the italics aren't consistently applied to the same era; sometimes they're in front of jumping back to the future again. To me that's a bit of a flaw; since it's not really consistent, as you say.
Any comments, anybody?
Here's another very clear transition from his 33rd birthday back to when they were all children, and the latter is very explicitly stated here (Caddy is only seven), and heck, the transition happens right in the middle of a sentence!!:“Sit down.” I sat down and he took off my shoes and rolled up my trousers. “Now, git in that water and play and see can you stop that slobbering and moaning.” I hushed and got in the water and Roskus came and said to come to supper and Caddy said, It’s not supper time yet. I’m not going. She was wet. We were playing in the branch and Caddy squatted down and got her dress wet and Versh said, “Your mommer going to whip you for getting your dress wet.” “She’s not going to do any such thing.” Caddy said. “How do you know.” Quentin said. “That’s all right how I know.” Caddy said. “How do you know.” “She said she was.” Quentin said. “Besides, I’m older than you.” “I’m seven years old.” Caddy said. “I guess I know.” “I’m older than that.” Quentin said. “I go to school. Dont I, Versh.”
Ok, and how about we try to separate the different timelines a bit:First there is what seems to be the present, where Benji watched gholf and is 33 years old. Let's call that 33.
Then there is a time when Caddy was still a schoolgirl and it's just before Christmas.
Then there's the day when Benji and their (view spoiler) mother get into the carriage and the mother is fussing terribly while the little girl Quentin is left playing with Luster at the house.
Ok, over to you guys. My fingers are sore from typing now. ;)
Ok, let's cheat a bit here. Admittedly the different servants can be confusing, so let's peek at a cheat sheet about how the servants fit together. (Heaven knows we have enough other things to try and figure out ;) )Dilsey is one of the oldest black servants of the Compson family. Her husband is Roskus. Their children are Versh, (a bit older), and Frony and T.P., who are younger, and are about the age of the Compson kids. Luster is (view spoiler)
Have you guys read Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf? In it, the narration is also stream-of-consciousness by various narrators, and the cool thing is, that in Mrs Dalloway, there is always some link geographically when the narration jumps from one person to the next.Here in Benji's narration, it seems as if he is jumping from time to time based on things that are happening that then remind him of another time, for example, now, as a 33-year old, he crawls through the fence and gets snagged, which reminds him of when he and Caddy crawled through and he got snagged.
She then mentions him keeping his hands warm, which then reminds him of another time, when Versh told him to keep his hands warm: "The gate was cold. “You better keep them hands in your pockets.” Versh said. “You get them froze onto that gate, then what you do".
Then there's suddenly a jump back to the present or yet another time, again, with: What are you moaning about, Luster said. You can watch them again when we get to the branch. Here. Here’s you a jimson weed. He gave me the flower. We went through the fence, into the lot.
Then back to another time again, the close to Xmas time, with:
““What is it.” Caddy said. “What are you trying to tell Caddy. Did they send him out, Versh.” “Couldn’t keep him in.” Versh said. “He kept on until they let him go and he come right straight down here, looking through the gate.” “What is it.” Caddy said. “Did you think it would be Christmas when I came home from school. Is that what you thought. Christmas is the day after tomorrow. Santy Claus, Benjy. Santy Claus."
...then we go back in time, to where they were children, with the following passages in italics:"Caddy uncaught me and we crawled through. Uncle Maury said to not let anybody see us, so we better stoop over, Caddy said. Stoop over, Benjy. Like this, see. We stooped over and crossed the garden, where the flowers rasped and rattled against us. The ground was hard. We climbed the fence, where the pigs were grunting and snuffing. I expect they’re sorry because one of them got killed today, Caddy said. The ground was hard, churned and knotted. Keep your hands in your pockets, Caddy said. Or they’ll get froze. You don't want your hands froze on Christmas, do you. "
So, for example, here is a clear back-and-forth in time, where it clearly starts off with Benji being 33 and taller than Luster, then jumping to Benji and his sister Caddy crawling through the fence at Christmas-time.
Oh, and Faulkner suggests right away that we are witnessing a very child-like thirty-three year old here, by cleverly mentioning the birthday cake with 33 candles on it. ...and everything is told to us in a roundabout way, for example the fact that Benji is taller than Luster, is conveyed by : "My shadow was higher than Luster’s on the fence."
Oh, and how you deduce from what Luster says that Benji is 'moaning'. I also love how very sense-oriented his narration is; everything is bright and vivid and in the here and now, just like you're supposed to be during "mindfulness". I must say that I find his narration quite delightful, very much that of the ingenu.
Ok, let me make some comments: I find it interesting how Faulkner tries to imagine how Benji would see things, while at the same time giving the reader clues regarding what it is that Benji is talking about; for example, right at the start, one is not too sure what the 'hitting' is about. Is it boxing? Is it baseball? ...and then you realize; oh, no, it must be gholf - Benji calls the gholf course a pasture? And, delicious play on word and name, there is talk of a 'caddie' and of course, if the flag wasn't a dead giveaway, then Luster's talk of 'finding balls' surely must be, that this is the game of gholf they are witnessing.Oh, and "hitting little," is of course putting. Ha, I love it.
I love how Faulkner makes you work, forces you to become a detective of sorts.
For your convenience, threads to be found here:Thread 1. Benji April Seventh, 1928 . https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Thread 2. Quentin June Second, 1910. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Thread 3. Jason April Sixth, 1928. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Thread 4. Omniscient Narrator April Eighth, 1928. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Thread 5. End spoiler discussion https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Ok, here is a little map to the other threads; - I'll also edit this into the first message on this thread, as well as the first message of the convening thread.EDIT: Threads to be found here:
Thread 1. Benji . April Seventh, 1928 . https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Thread 2. Quentin. June Second, 1910. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Thread 3. Jason . April Sixth, 1928. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Thread 4. Omniscient Narrator. April Eighth, 1928. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Thread 5. End spoiler discussion . https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Hello, everyone, once you are done with the novel, please come here to discuss what you thought of it overall and what you think of how the author put the story together!
Bonitaj wrote: "hello Traveller - Respectfully, to address your comment about "trying to immerse ourselves in the reading of the actual novel", I agree and yet, to those that are "drowning" in the sense of overwhe..."In the meantime... yeah, you see, this is one of the typical characteristics of the novel that makes me want to put it into the Po-mo category. With postmodernist works, the authors tends to be playful and can sometimes play with the reader like a cat with a mouse...
I can see you're a mouse that doesn't like to be played with, Bonitaj! 😂
Seriously, though, besides the confusedness of the narration, what about the narrator do you feel yourself reading through the lines, Bonitaj, Linda and other members?
This makes me think of reading Nabokov, who loves to create thoroughly unlikeable narrators whom you end up loving to hate.
For instance, do you think that Faulkner managed to create a convincing 'idiot" (I suppose in today's terms he would have been either autistic or have a "learning disability").
Any professional opinions on that aspect, Bonitaj?
Hmm, in ye olden days of GR, one could set up an entire group and all the threads in it, all in the space of an hour, but now that it's become so... commercialised, I'm getting a robot check with Captcha tests if I try to open too many threads at once, so you might have to be patient yet a little bit longer, sorry!
Aug 25, 2024 03:43AM
Hello, everyone, once you have read Jason's section, you can start commenting here in the Omniscient Narrator thread.
Hello members, once you have read through the Quentin section, you can start commenting here in the Jason thread.
Hello, everybody, once you have finished reading Benji and want to start commenting about the Quentin section of the novel, please do so in this thread.
Bonitaj wrote: "The introduction to one of the most pivotal characters and the motivation for why Faulkner invested so much into the character, is undoubtedly the center point to where I started from and will continue to focus. Should anyone want me clarity, please advise and I will elaborate. (it isn't it Benji).."If you are dying to divulge it, Bonitaj, can you hold on to it a little bit and I will go and make those other threads I promised. I will let you know and link to them once done. I just hope you won't have problems linking again, but we'll get there by hook or by crook! 👍
Linda wrote: ". It would have been confusing to figure out who the three characters were, the three different caretakers. ..."I actually did manage to figure it out, but not the timeline so much, and there is something extremely confusing that I didn't manage to figure out at first -
Luckily there are devices that Faulkner used to navigate the different time periods. Firstly when the narration jumps in time, he puts a sentence or two in italics to signify this, and secondly, he uses leitmotifs to indicate in which era we are finding ourselves in. (view spoiler)
Also, re Quentin: (view spoiler)
