Wednesday, April 2, 2014

A Treasure Trove of Information

Creative Commons license 2.0 / flickr

I emailed my high school English teacher last week because i knew that she liked Faulkner a lot, and within mere minutes, she emailed me back! What a gem! This is what she sent me:
Because I haven't specifically studied him for a long time, I'm not sure what to say but I do remember he grew up in a very strict southern household where he was sent to a corner of the parlor for punishment. His family owned slaves and became close their children--playing games with them. He played hokey when it came to go to church and often got in trouble for it. It was during his Parlour Punishment that he took out the dictionary and read it over and over--hence his love and mastery of words. I also know he was bitter about the U.S. army's rejection of his desire to serve in the military, saying he was too small--to short, only 5'6". He was not particularly close to his father--he was also alcoholic and tyrannical. He fought a great deal with Hollywood elites when he worked there briefly as a screenwriter. He drank a great deal, and the only person he ever really loved was his wife--who was forced to reject him as a young girl and even married someone else. She later divorced that man and married Faulkner. He was an extremely proud man and didn't take rejection kindly. He didn't like others telling him what to do and battled that all his life. He was extremely proud of his roots, even the distant grandfather/relative feud that he tells stories about in many of his novels--a recurring character, Colonel Satoris. He is based on a real character in Faulkner's family tree. I hope this helps.
This is definitely useful information, and a good way for me to understand one of the authors I'm studying and what he thinks about family. 

After my success with my teacher, my library visit, and the English Symposium, I am excited to dive into my books and write! 

4 comments:

  1. Good information to know :) the way he portrays family in As I Lay Dying does make more sense now, especially in terms of authority figures.

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  2. I'm glad you got some useful social proof from a prior teacher. It does sound like you are ready to draft now, so dive in!

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  3. Hey Sophie, I have no idea if you would be interested in this, but I know you're writing about Faulkner and I stumbled across this during my research, I thought you might like to see it! This is a link to a conference about Faulkner and his relation to print culture. http://pcaaca.org/2014/03/31/cfp-faulkner-and-print-culture-conference-july-19-23-2015-due-31jan2015/

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    1. Thanks, Kate! This looks super interesting!

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