William Faulkner reads "Darl" novel As I Lay Dying RARE AUDIO OF FAMOUS WRITER = ANALYSIS

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• published: 21 Dec 2014
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William Faulkner reads from a "Darl" section, starting with this: "Pa stands beside the bed. From behind his leg Vardaman peers, with his round head and his eyes round and his mouth beginning to open." This 1930 novel starts with the death of Addie Bundren--hence the title "As I Lay Dying." That phrase opens a speech by Agamemnon in Book XI of Homer's The Odyssey, so there are echoes of mythology in Faulkner's work about the poor Bundrens in rural Mississippi. Anse is Addie's lazy husband. He fears sweating--it will bring about his death, so he avoids work that may cause him to sweat. Anse is preoccupied with three thoughts: his wife dying, her wish to be buried 40 miles from home, and money. Readers learn of the family's efforts over eight days or so to honor Addie's wish to be buried in another place. Addie wants to be buried next to her parents in Jefferson, about 40 miles from the rural area where she lives. The family is poor, so satisfying that request becomes a hardship. Hauling a coffin for 40 miles in a wagon is not easy. By the 8th day, the smell of her corpse in a wagon is terrible. A marshal of Mottson heaps scorn on the family due to that stench. The novel has 59 sections instead of conventional chapters. In each section, a single character tells what is going on, Darl having the most statements. Readers are given that person's unique perspective--a new writing technique! Faulkner builds upon what James Joyce did in Ulysses. Readers must make sense of the various sections without the help of a third-person narrator. There is no objective commentary. Perhaps "objectivity" is a myth anyway. The "truth" or reality of any event or series of events resides in various perspectives. What year? There are no references to movie stars, popular songs, political figures--nothing to help us determine the year. Lack of references to popular culture may be a weakness. Any author aiming for realism would cite a popular song or refer to a magazine or movie title, but Faulkner was no realist. The novel does ends with references to a "graphophone"--the name used by Columbia for its talking machines or phonographs (the Victor Talking Machine Company used "Victrola"). The machine is described as closing up like a suitcase. This type was known as a "portable" to hobbyists--suitcase models were popular in the 1920s. There is a reference to new records bought through the mail. I view it as 1929, the year Faulkner wrote most of the book (he finished it in January 1930). The "graphophone" in a portable style makes 1929 plausible. The action covers several days. Readers also learn much through flashbook. The novel begins with Addie Bundren in bed, dying. She had been a strong woman, controlling, willlful. Her oldest son is Cash, who is in his late 20s. He is a carpenter (hints of Jesus?) and is making her coffin, showing her the work for her approval. Addie wants to be certain that her coffin will be solid, well-constructed. So she examines Cash's work through a window. The youngest Bundren son is Vardaman (age 10?). He is dim, possibly retarded. Two sons in the middle are Darl and Jewel. Darl is sensitive and introspective. After he burns down a barn (with the coffin in the barn--he wants to end this trip in a wagon), he is taken to an asylum. The alternative would be a lawsuit that the family cannot afford. Jewel, raised as just another son, was the product of Addie having an affair with Reverend Whitfield. Violent and impulsive, Jewel is in his late teens (19?). It seems Jewel was Addie's favorite. Addie's daughter is Dewey Dell--only a teen ("17" she says, and her father also says he has fed her for 17 years). A man named Lafe impregnated her and then told Dewey to buy something at any drugstore to end the pregnancy. Dewey wants to acquire pills that will abort the child, stupidly agreeing to have sex with a drugstore clerk who promises to give the needed pills. That cad, MacGowan, takes advantage of her dire situation. When Dewey tried to acquire pills earlier in a different town, she was run out of the drugstore. The Tulls are neighbors. Vernon Tull is the man of the Tull household. Cora, Vernon's wife and a mother (the Tulls have daughters), visits Addie as the latter is dying and tries to give comfort. The trip to Jefferson is complicated because of broken wagon wheels, a bridge washed out, a second bridge washed out, drowned mules, and so on. Anse wants to visit Jefferson mainly to acquire false teeth. At the novel's end, he has a new wife who holds a graphophone. Darl is in a Jackson asylum, but the novel ends optimistically with a new mother in the family. Anse is excited to have a second chance at life. Cash has the novel's last word. He seems satisfied that his new step-mother owns a graphophone. Before meeting the new Mrs. Bundren, he confessed to readers, "I don't know if a little music ain't about the nicest thing a fellow can have."