The Noise and the Anger

Citation:
Stacy Burton
Modern Philology, Vol. 98, No. 4 (May, 2001), pp. 604-628
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/439123

There were two passages of this article that I found interesting, the first of which applied to the influence of Faulkner's re readings of The Sound and The Fury. The author claims that due to how obscure the original work is, "In over half a century of criticism since the Anthology first appeared... most of the best known phrases and lines of interpretation in The Sound and the Fury criticism come from Faulkner's retrospective comments rather than from the novel itself."

That major claim! For if a work is so complex that only the author makes significant commentary on it, is it perhaps too complex? It also seems to me that in class we have realized several of the main themes of the book, even if we are still puzzled by sections here or there. For instance the overarching theme of a Caddy-centric existence is something that our class has been talking about. So far, the first three sections of the book have covered the three brothers, two of which are obsessed with Caddy, the third of which is obsessed with deceiving her.

I guess that means I disagree with the author's claim, despite the fact that he admits that, "His own re readings of the novel did not in fact quickly become accepted as basic premises in Faulkner commentary." Though I must plead ignorance about the majority of the literary criticism on the novel, I still disagree with the author's claim.

The second passage I found simply puzzling. Here, the author is giving a direct example about how influential Faulkner's re readings were, "the claim that Quentin loved not his sister's body but some concept of Compson honor precariously (and he knew well) only temporarily supported by the minute fragile membrane of her maidenhood."

My conjecture is that the author is discussing how even though Quentin and Benjy both wish for their sister's body to be more pure, Quentin actually does not care about her body, only of her virginity, which no longer exists, hence the word, "temporary." His wording confuses me, and the only reason I am able to put together that much is because he is talking about what Quentin loved and that, chances are, is Caddy.

The article simply reinforced the belief that The Sound and The Fury is very difficult to read, which surprisingly I was already familiar with. More importantly though, it spoke of how the only person who truly has complete understanding of any work of fiction is the author themselves, which I guess, really makes sense.