Go Down Moses by William Faulkner (Gill and others)

[Gill]

My Faulkner book for June is Go Down, Moses. I'll be starting it at the beginning of the month. Anybody joining me?

[Leslie]

I think that I can get a copy from the library so I will join you.

[Petra]

I fell down with The Reivers: A Reminiscence (but will restart ....and finish....it over the summer).
I have requested a copy of Go Down, Moses. Looking forward to joining in.

[Gill]

I've been reading a bit of background to this. Apparently it's a sequence of seven interconnected short stories, that can be considered to be a novel. Faulkner reveals bits of information about the characters from early on in the book, the relevance of which only becomes clear as the book progresses.

I'll be starting tomorrow.

[Sandra]

I'll see if it's available at my library. So perhaps I'll join in too.

[Gill]

That would be nice if you do, Sandra.

[Leslie]

Gill wrote: "I've been reading a bit of background to this. Apparently it's a sequence of seven interconnected short stories, that can be considered to be a novel. Faulkner reveals bits of information about the..."

I will be able to get a copy tomorrow so great timing Gill!

[Gill]

I've finished reading the first two of the seven short stories, 'Was' and 'The Fire and the Hearth'.

I'm finding it quite hard to sort out how all the different characters relate to each other. Notwithstanding that, I am enjoying Faulkner's writing immensely,

[Leslie]

I ended up not getting the book until today so I will start tomorrow. Sorry for the delay!

[Leslie]

I finished the first story this afternoon 'Was' -- I took a while to adjust to Faulkner's writing, especially figuring out who the "he" was at various points. *grin* I do love Faulkner's writing even when I don't know what he is saying! So evocative...

I had to look up 'fyce' which was clearly some sort of dog. Here is what I got from Google: FYCE obsolete spelling variant of FEIST --"Feist (or Feisty) is a type of small hunting dog, developed via crossbreeding of various other hunting breeds in the rural southern United States."

I found the situation with Sophonsiba and Uncle Buck hilarious! The contrast with the black couple was so deliciously ironic.

[Gill]

I agree about how evocative Faulkner's language is, Leslie. I imagine, some of the time, how it would sound out loud. There are so many aspects and nuances of life in the South, that I'm unaware of; reading books like this one give me some glimpses into it. For example, in 'The fire and the hearth' the way interactions and self image relate to race and blood, is fascinating. I love the sentences in 'The fire and the hearth' about (view spoiler)[ having the facial features of Confederate soldiers (hide spoiler)]. I also thought the description (view spoiler)[ of the men as boys, and how they spent time together, and how that changed as they got older (hide spoiler)] was very moving.

[Gill]

I've got more comments to make on The fire and the hearth, but I'll leave them till you've read that one, Leslie.

[Leslie]

Gill wrote: "I've got more comments to make on The fire and the hearth, but I'll leave them till you've read that one, Leslie."

I have finished that - it was considerably longer than the first one! Almost a novella in itself!

I agree with your second spoiler - the intertwining of the families both by blood and by emotional ties was so well described. I especially liked the part where Roth is asked by Molly to help her and he responds as her de facto son.

I found this genealogy chart of the McCaslin and Beauchamp families on the Ole Miss website (Faulkner's alma mater):

http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/fa...

[Gill]

Thanks for the diagram, Leslie. It'll be good to be able to refer to it, I'll have a look at the rest of the site as well.

I thought The fire and the hearth was a great story. I loved all the toing and froing over the hidden still. I wonder whether the search for the money will continue in the other stories?

I thought Molly was written in such an understated way, and yet what an important character she was. She was so dignified.

[Gill]

I just wanted to put a quote from 'The Old People', it's not a spoiler:

"That although it had been his grandfather’s and then his father’s and uncle’s and was now his cousin’s and someday would be his own land which he and Sam hunted over, their hold upon it actually was as trivial and without reality as the now faded and archaic script in the chancery book in Jefferson which allocated it to them and that it was he, the boy, who was the guest here and Sam Fathers’ voice the mouthpiece of the host.”

I just thought it epitomises Faulkner's writing, and sums up so well the relationship of any group of conquerors/settlers to the land they have taken over.

[Leslie]

I guess that the boy in "The Old People" is Ike (old Isaac McCaslin). There are elements & characters in this one that are familiar to me from some other short story of Faulkner's -- "A Justice" I think.

I think this passage from "Pantaloon in Black" shows why I like Faulkner so much:

"It was middle dusk when he emerged from them and crossed the last field, stepping over that fence too in one stride, into the lane. It was empty at this hour of Sunday evening -- no family in wagon, no rider, no walkers churchward to speak to him and carefully refrain from looking after him when he had passed -- the pale, powder-light, powder-dry dust of August from which the long week's marks of hoof and wheel had been blotted by the strolling and unhurried Sunday shoes, with somewhere beneath them, vanished but not gone, fixed and held in the annealing dust, the narrow, splay-toed prints of his wife's bare feet where on Saturday afternoons she would walk to the commissary to buy their next week's supplies while he took his bath; himself, his own prints, setting the period now as he strode on, moving almost as fast as a smaller man could have trotted, his body breasting the air her body had vacated, his eyes touching the objects --- post and tree and field and house and hill - her eyes had lost."

That description of the prints in the dirt road is so marvelous!

[Gill]

That's a lovely quote, Leslie. Thanks!

I've started 'The Bear' now, which follows on nicely in storyline from 'The Old People'.

[Gill]

I've just finished Chapter 3 of 'The Bear'. What brilliant writing. I was almost in tears by the end of the chapter. The thing I'm really marvelling at, is that Faulkner can get me completely enthralled by subject matter that I am quite averse to.

[Leslie]

Oh, I have almost caught up with you - I am in Chap. 2 of "The Bear" :)

I have read this novella/long short story before (back in the early 1980s) but am finding I don't recall much so I am glad to be reading it again. There is a nice passage in the beginning which is similar to the quote you posted from "The Old People"; funny thing is that this attitude seems so contemporary to me that I keep being surprised to find it in a book from the early 1940s!

Is the subject matter you dislike the hunting? I am not in favor of hunting for sport (especially for 10-year-olds!!) but I do love the descriptions of the wilderness.

[Gill]

Yes, the hunting, Leslie. The wilderness descriptions are great.

[Gill]

I've just finished 'The Bear', wow! I thought it was wonderful. I found the lack of punctuation in Chapter 4 a bit of overkill for me, as I'm faced with something similar in Ulysses currently. But still wonderful!

[Leslie]

Gill wrote: "I've just finished 'The Bear', wow! I thought it was wonderful. I found the lack of punctuation in Chapter 4 a bit of overkill for me, as I'm faced with something similar in Ulysses currently. But ..."

I should finish it tomorrow -- only 2 more stories after that, I think, and not nearly as long as "The Bear"!

I am very glad that I am reading this with you Gill :)

[Gill]

Leslie wrote: "Gill wrote: "I've just finished 'The Bear', wow! I thought it was wonderful. I found the lack of punctuation in Chapter 4 a bit of overkill for me, as I'm faced with something similar in Ulysses cu..."

Yes, I'm also glad to have read this with you, Leslie. Thanks!
I'm hoping to finish the book this evening.