Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Jewel's mother is a horse/Hollywood

years ago an english teacher said to me, "what? You've never read 'As I Lay Dying'? Oh, you should really do that as soon as possible. Here, borrow my copy." i didnt take his advice until recently, after a fun library adventure with socksnrobbers. it's a fantastic book, the first full novel of Faulkner's that i've ever read, and a good experience.
it's the horribly tragic story of the Bundren family trying to bury their mother in a town 40 miles from where they live. waiting, holes in the coffin, bridges washed out, the coffin loose in the river, broken legs, barnburnings, a stinking corpse no one wants in their town, tragedy upon tragedy as this poor family falls apart. totally awesome.
told through 15 or so perspectives this book is superb. am definitely going to check out more Faulkner. i highly suggest this book and want to talk about it with you if you've already read it.

was watching the film of Hemingway's 'To Have and Have Not' and noticed Faulkner cowrote the screenplay. what other authors went to Hollywood and why? what were their reactions?
so far as i understand Faulkner couldnt support his booze and had to make quick cash, hated Hollywood. Steinbeck worked on a few things, 'the Forgotten Village' and 'the Red Pony' and there was the movies of 'the Grapes of Wrath', how did he dig it? does anyone like John Fante? he wrote one great novel, 'Ask the Dust', the his others werent so good. i've only seen one movie he wrote, it was somewhere between mediocre and bad. just wondering

2 Comments:

Blogger Josh said...

When I was in high school, I would only pick books with good titles, since I knew nothing about books. So I really wanted to read As I Lay Dying because of its fine title, but got ahold of a copy of William Styron's Lie Down in Darkness, so read that instead (they sound similiar, one can probably replace the other, right?) and it was the most depressing book I've possibly ever read. I wonder what I would have thought if I'd have read As I lay Dying instead. I tried Sactuary around that time and was like "this Faulkner guy doesn't know how to write at all!", so maybe I wouldn't have been ready for As I Lay, either.

1:49 AM  
Blogger Josh said...

yeah, it's a downer. vague memory of it, suicidal guy trying to get along with a daughter and a wife...snobby parties, something about photography...hmm, this might not be completely accurate, i didn't actually get all the way through it.

10:33 PM  

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