As I Lay Dying: Initial Response

For me, my appreciation of modernist works increses with each piece read. I like each piece more and more (well, sorta. I think I liked The Wastland more than Mrs. D. but whatever). I like As I Lay Dying, which is interesting because I don't think that it is something that I would normally have read. Also, I have a confession to make...I think Oprah has good taste...this is, afterall, An O Book Club novel...

I have always really liked books that focus on several different narrations, so that you are able to learn what each of the different characters are thinking. Even though William Faukner is classified as a different form than Virginia Woolf, there are several similarities in their writing. Both contain narration from several different characters, and both contain stream of conciousness that can be hard to follow at times. Readesr are allowed a view into the mind of th characters, but it still is impossible to understand completely these complex characters that Faulkner has created, and so at times I stopped myself while reading and said, "What?" Ok actually I found myself stopping, puzzled, quite a lot. There are a lot of bizarre things going on, and for me, it can be hard to catch-up to speed with all that is happening. Another thing about this novel that is hard for me to follow is the subject-verb agreement. At certain times, so many different characters are piping in their own thoughts, that it is hard to remember who the main narrator is, and who is saying what about what. Cetain sentences get me all befuddled and even a bit annoyed, like this section from Darl on page 40 "She wouldn't say what we both knew. 'The reason you will not say it is, when you say it, even to yourself, you will know it is true: is that it? But you know it is true now. I can almost tell you the day when you knew it is true. Why won't you say it, even to yourself?" I've never been a fan of grammar, and anayzing sentences. It all just gets too analytical and math-y for me. I love words, and I want words to just be, not classified. But I'm wishing I had paid attention more to all of my English classes, because I don't know how to classify all of the 'its' in this section. I think that 'it' is used here as a noun, and also a subject, and a direct object, and an indirect object..AHH! I really have no idea. But I know it's confusing to me. And, similar to Mrs. Dalloway, I find myself once again comparing this writing to Hemingway's. I can't help it, I just like his writing, and seeing as how he was a modernist author too, I guess it makes sense that I would find correlations. When reading Hemingway, it can be hard to distinguish which subject he is referring to with his use of nouns and propositions. Similarily, when Faulkner's characters ramble on about this or that, their thoughts quickly shifting through their stream of conciousness, it can be hard to follow them as a reader.

So far I really like this story, and it has been the easiest for me to read out of any of the other pieces we have looked at. I flew through the short sections, completing the assigned reading in two brief sittings. Each character is very developed by Faulkner, and I am interested to see what happens to this broken, lonely family. The family is very much messed up, and each of them are handling their bizarre life in their own way. Right now, the two characters I am most interested in are Dewey Dell, who I suspect was raped by this Lafe fellow and is now pregnant and wants an abortion from Dr. Peabody; Darl is the only one who knows this, due to some odd connection they have. I could be throwing darts in the dark though, that's just an initial guess. Vardaman I also love, and I want to adopt and feed. I am fascinated by each of the characters, but these two in particular I am interested in right now.