Sorry for the trashy pun, but that's really what my reaction to "As I Lay Dying" is right now - like huhhhh?? That being said, it's not terrible to follow the general idea of whats going on once you get the characters down - everyone's waiting for Addie to die, Anse doesn't really have a good reputation with the people around him and doesn't really accept his wife's death until he put her in the coffin (I'd assume so), Cash is hard at work making the coffin, Dewey Dell wants to do something about her pregnancy without her mom knowing about it, Jewel who's kind of the odd ball due to his physical aspects (according to Darl he's HUGE) and his unusual anger (refer to page 14 when he narrates: "God what the hell is He for", and keeps on repeating "One lick less") and also his "idrc" attitude like what (we don't really get to see his reaction when Darl asks him about whether or not their mother will die or when he tells him his mother's dead, but I get the feeling that his reaction was cut off means that he really didn't care much - also his attitude in general like it's raining he's all soaked and he's shown to not really care - this is page 52 btw); the Tulls who are the Bundren's neighbor and helps out once in a while, and finally Vardaman who's trying to make sense of his mother's death by believing she's a fish because he's five and has little exposure to the concept of death (I'd hope so). Oh and then theres the doc Peabody who comes in and is straight up like "Help me move I'm obese and just so you know I'm only going in if she's about to die because I don't want to nurse him back to health" - by the way WHAT KIND OF DOCTOR IS THAT??? Did you really need to tell the audience that... literally the second line of his narration (on page 41). What an image.
It's the specifics that catch me off guard. A lot of you guys already mentioned this - why does Darl know so much... to be honest if it wasn't Faulkner I would've just disregarded that as bad story telling skills, but since he's so famous there's gotta be something about it that makes the book so popular.
Though most of us are either confused or straight up not like it, but I suppose a reason is that some people enjoy a character who also acts as a narrator? I guess I can kinda see it that way - it's untraditional, so maybe people wanted something new, and see what a character in the story would be like if he knew everything that was going on? I mean if I knew all the stuff that's going on with the people around me I'd - wait nvm I really don't want to know that details of some things.
At any rate, when Darl figures out about Dewey Dell's pregnancy (also anyone noticed that she's the only one with two parts to her first name? I wonder why - some of them have names related $$$ like Cash, Jewel, and then there's Darl that kinda is like darling I think? Those make sense, for a family who's stuggling on money and how to keep functioning. Dewey Dell just reminds me of pickles. Maybe it's a play on words about how her life sucks, but I can't really see anything? I mean being the only girl in the family now after your mom passes away and you have to take care of people esp. little Vardaman and then dealing with a pregnancy? Jeez) , I can't help but get that feeling of "oh damn you just got caught". We also get a special kind of interaction that we can't get without his omniscience, such as him telling Jewel about their mother's death, and how he sees the interactions going on at home - I'm assuming these are visions of the present time, and not hallucinations, but who knows.
And to much disappointment I can't really think up any other reasons as to why Faulkner gave Darl so much power. Any ideas? I feel like most of this post is going off on tangents, but usually my tangents are more fruitful than my actual point so I'll leave them there.
*UPDATE* for people who've already read this sry for this late thing but I take back about Jewel not caring cuz I read a part where he gets mad when yea I won't spoil it jic ur reading it rn but yea no he cares.
Oh just to add to my rants has anyone noticed how Cash is so technical? The way he went through explaining how he made the coffin then telling us he fell "twenty-eight foot, four and a half inches, about," I mean precision to sub-inch while falling? How can you even eyeball that? Does everyone in the story end up having a special ability? That would be cool tbh.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line: "Dewey Dell just reminds me of pickles." This post was absolutely hilarious! I had to stop myself from laughing out loud a bunch of times and could totally relate to what you're saying. Anyway, I get what you're saying - this book is super confusing. I'm pretty sure if we didn't have the discussion, I would be totally lost. The characters just annoy me for some reason, especially Anse. He keeps trying to force this mission but barely does anything to really help and is actually making things worse. It's not going to be easy to recover from being away from the farm for that long, especially if they're super poor as it it. It doesn't seem like anyone really wants to be there and while this book probably has something to say about the hero's journey, it usually leaves me saying, "what the Faulk?"
ReplyDeleteThe characters in this book are all peculiar in some way, as you mentioned in this post. However Darl seems to be different from the rest. He is not just a little strange or eccentric in terms of his personality like everyone else, but he is weird because sometimes he seems to be omniscient. He knows a lot of things without a clear explanation on how he knows such things, and this continues to be true throughout the book. I feel like there must be a secret about Darl that we'll find out by the end of the book. Although Darl's character (as well as Faulkner's writing style) is strange, I actually enjoy this because his character keeps me curious and wanting to know more.
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