# Should I read William Faulkner? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 25, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-william-faulkner/482858 "2009-01-25T01:20:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-william-faulkner/482858/41 "2009-02-01T00:11:54Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > Since this is a website ostensibly about fighting ignorance, I feel compelled to point out that much of what Faulkner writes is written in standard English. When it’s not, it’s deliberate and purposeful. You make it sound like he hasn’t written a coherent sentence in his life. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t doubt it. I did say upthread that my only experience was one time nearly 20 years ago and that what I mostly remember is my reaction to it at the time. I made quite sure to phrase my opinion in such a way to emphasize that this was a limited opinion formed years ago. My more recent post was simply a clarification about why I disliked him the time (long ago) that I did read him. I didn’t like the implication that not liking Faulkner = not liking challenging writing. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-william-faulkner/482858/42 "2009-02-01T00:12:04Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > Did I accidentally wander into the Pit? Feel free to report the post. Yours to lissener was rather more inappropriate. > [@](#): > > So far, lissener, Knorf, and you all have taken pot shots at me because I think Faulkner is a horrible writer, and expressed it in a hyperbolic way. Luckily, I’m a big boy and can suffer the slings and arrows of the likes of you … posters. But your inanities still don’t make Faulkner a good writer. The fact that you don’t like him doesn’t make him a horrible writer. By several standards, including the Nobel committee, you are wrong. Your hyperbole in condemning him doesn’t make you particularly credible as a critic in this case, nor does your entirely gratuitous personal insult to lissener. I have to wonder if you really think your bad experience reading one Faulkner novel qualifies you to tell someone that reading him is like eating broken glass. To the OP: forget the haters. Give Faulkner a shot. You’ll be glad you did. > [@OpalCat](#): > > My more recent post was simply a clarification about why I disliked him the time (long ago) that I did read him. I didn’t like the implication that not liking Faulkner = not liking challenging writing. It = not liking this particular kind of challenging writing. Using non-standard grammar to portray a disorganized, emotional, or mentally ill mind is a technique that he uses to great effect if you can get into the spirit of it and experience it as it is intended. If you dismiss out of hand that technique as something you don’t like, then you are rejecting Faulkner’s style in certain books. It’s by no means true of all his work, so stating that as a reason for the OP not to read him isn’t a completely valid point. My comment not a condemnation of you as a reader or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-william-faulkner/482858/43 "2009-02-01T00:14:27Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > Feel free to report the post. Yours to lissener was rather more inappropriate. I might… if I actually cared what you had to say. Luckily, I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-william-faulkner/482858/44 "2009-02-01T00:17:07Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > I might… if I actually cared what you had to say. Luckily, I don’t. Is that why you keep replying to me? ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-william-faulkner/482858/45 "2009-02-01T00:32:23Z")
His mother is a fish. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-william-faulkner/482858/46 "2009-02-01T01:36:33Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > Is that why you keep replying to me? I also respond to dog crap on my shoe, skin rashes, and the flu, so you’re in good company. If it helps for you to understand, think of yourself as a template. You type what you want, and, if I see something in there that I can use to make a funny, or a point, I’ll use it. That doesn’t mean I think you have anything worthwhile to say. Only that I can use your posts to let my genius spring forth, like a beautiful orchid from the dung. You take me, yourself, and my comments on Faulkner, way to seriously. You’ll give yourself an ulcer. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-william-faulkner/482858/47 "2009-02-01T01:38:39Z")
> [@elelle](#): > > His mother is a fish. Actually, she’s a hamster. And my father smells of elderberries. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-william-faulkner/482858/48 "2009-02-01T01:46:19Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > I also respond to dog crap on my shoe, skin rashes, and the flu, so you’re in good company. Rimshot. Applause, applause. > [@](#): > > You take me, yourself, and my comments on Faulkner, way to seriously. You’ll give yourself an ulcer. No, I think the real problem for you is that I don’t take them seriously at all. You’re the one insulting lissener and getting all upset that we don’t take your literary criticism of Faulkner with the consideration you think it deserves. Chill out. Go read some Danielle Steele in the bubble bath or something. ---
**Author:** ![XaMcQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/f9ae1b/32.png) [@XaMcQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XaMcQ)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-william-faulkner/482858/49 "2009-02-01T03:36:54Z")
Reading Faulkner gave me a much greater appreciation of Hemmingway. Make of that what you will. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-william-faulkner/482858/50 "2009-02-01T05:49:09Z")
He obviously incites passion, whichever way you feel about him afterward. I suggest Sanctuary as a first read, simply because it was mine. You do have to go into reading him kind of like wading into a lake - take it slow and enjoy the acclimation to the climate. Drink in the imagery. A glass of bourbon helps. When I was at work the other night one of the regulars was well into his second or tenth drink and was talking about his uncle and telling stories from a while ago. His uncle spoke of riding out to the “middle of no-goddam-where” and talking to Uncle Bill. It was kind of surreal for me. But hell, I’m in MS. It’s not like there are enough people here to not run into a connection sooner or later… Of course, he could have been lying. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-william-faulkner/482858/51 "2009-02-01T09:10:09Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > There is no literature so well written, no painting so inspired, no music so well crafted, no cuisine so delicious, as to prevent some dilettante from having the kind of reaction this thread has provoked from the likes of **Hamlet** and **Hometownboy**. > > In a nutshell: _The greater the work of art, the more vehemently some people will hate it._ > > Faulkner is worth reading. > > That doesn’t mean you’ll like it. My apologies. i can see how from my post, you could conclude I was a dilettante. I should clarify that Sound and Fury was the only Faulkner I was able to complete, and that only because it was required reading. I have tried multiple times with multiple works of his and given up in disgust. Your mileage of course may vary. I still believe the gentleman was laughing at us when he took the title from Macbeth: “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” Act 5, Scene 5 How very apt, from my point of view. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-william-faulkner/482858.md?page=2)