William Faulkner on Hockey

[fallen627]

Hey Everyone,

 

Given last night's loss, I thought this would make for an interesting post and might get a few people's minds off of our current situation. I stumbled across this article from a 1955 copy of Sports Illustrated . It contains a piece William Faulkner wrote after seeing his first hockey game. For those who may not know, William Faulkner is one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century and the vast majority of his works are set in a small imaginary Southern community known as Yoknapatawpha County, which was based on the communities in and around the Mississippi delta. Faulkner is known for his unique style of writing, especially his utilization of stream of consciousness, and this uniqueness is on full view in his piece. I could go on about Faulkner, but it isn't necessary and will probably put everyone to sleep, assuming it already hasn't. Anyway, this article is probably one of the most unique takes on the sport that you will ever come across. I hope that you find it to be interesting/worthwhile.

 

Enjoy!

 

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...x.htm?eref=sibn

[evil_otto]

Thanks for the link. Reading that gem was definitely worthwhile.

[Knightrider]

Hey Everyone,

 

Given last night's loss, I thought this would make for an interesting post and might get a few people's minds off of our current situation. I stumbled across this article from a 1955 copy of Sports Illustrated . It contains a piece William Faulkner wrote after seeing his first hockey game. For those who may not know, William Faulkner is one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century and the vast majority of his works are set in a small imaginary Southern community known as Yoknapatawpha County, which was based on the communities in and around the Mississippi delta. Faulkner is known for his unique style of writing, especially is utilization of stream of consciousness, and this uniqueness is on full view in his piece. I could go on about Faulkner, but it isn't necessary and will probably put everyone to sleep, assuming it already hasn't. Anyway, this article is probably one of the most unique takes on the sport that you will ever come across. I hope that you find it to be interesting/worthwhile.

 

Enjoy!

 

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...x.htm?eref=sibn

 

In high school, we read The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying. Well, we might have been exageration. I was supposed to read it. I just couldn't. Well ~5 years after graduation, I decided, I'm going to read one of the two Faukner books. As I Lay Dying was the one I read, and it is absolute garbage IMHO. (I tend to hate new classical music, too.) I can't think of a prolific 20th century author I think is Twain class. London might be a 20th century version of Poe? They were both pretty dark...

[darksabre]

I'm reading the Sound and The Fury right now, or at least attempting to. I wanted something a little out there, but this has been a bit much. It should be making it's way back to the library soon.

[fallen627]

In high school, we read The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying. Well, we might have been exageration. I was supposed to read it. I just couldn't. Well ~5 years after graduation, I decided, I'm going to read one of the two Faukner books. As I Lay Dying was the one I read, and it is absolute garbage IMHO. (I tend to hate new classical music, too.) I can't think of a prolific 20th century author I think is Twain class. London might be a 20th century version of Poe? They were both pretty dark...

 

I hear that a lot. Faulkner can be really difficult to understand, but once you get it down, his books are amazing. The key is to start with his easier books and work your way up. Those two books are pretty difficult, and while they are good, it takes a lot of effort to fully grasp them. Try reading Intruder in the Dust, Sanctuary, The Hamlet, or Absalom, Absalom!. They are much easier to follow. They are listed in order, from easiest to hardest. The first two are especially easy to read and are more mystery novels. The first one deals with race in the South, and there is a really good movie version of it, which stays pretty true to the book. The second novel focuses on the abduction of a the daughter of a rich family and a lawyer's attempts to save his client, who has been wrongly accused of kidnapping and raping the woman. The third deals with the rise of modernity in the South, which is embodied by the unscrupulous Snopes family, who infiltrate a peaceful southern town (or hamlet) and completely shake up the society. The last one is a bit more difficult to read, but consists of a series of stories that center around the rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen, a mysterious stranger who shows up in a pre-Civil War community and quickly establishes himself as one of the more dominant citizens. The novel uses the various narratives to investigate the reliability of historical narratives and what we commonly accept as truth. In short, if you are willing to give it a shot again, go with one of the first two, and you should be fine.

[fallen627]

"he thought how perhaps something is happening to sport in America (assuming that by definition sport is something you do yourself, in solitude or not, because it is fun), and that something is the roof we are putting over it and them. Skating, basketball, tennis, track meets and even steeplechasing have moved indoors; football and baseball function beneath covers of arc lights and in time will be rain-and coldproofed too."

 

Interesting prediction about football and baseball, very insightful for someone writing in 1955.

[X. Benedict]

The language soars. Although I wonder if he would have written the same piece if he had attended a Vietnamese water puppet show.

[Chief Enabler]

Interesting prediction about football and baseball, very insightful for someone writing in 1955.

Verbage could lend itself more towards 1915, we all know Biff had the sports almanac and it was rigged.

[chileanseabass]

i was forced to "read" faulkner in both high school and college. i would have been better off without it.

[Knightrider]

I hear that a lot. Faulkner can be really difficult to understand, but once you get it down, his books are amazing. The key is to start with his easier books and work your way up. Those two books are pretty difficult, and while they are good, it takes a lot of effort to fully grasp them. Try reading Intruder in the Dust, Sanctuary, The Hamlet, or Absalom, Absalom!. They are much easier to follow. They are listed in order, from easiest to hardest. The first two are especially easy to read and are more mystery novels. The first one deals with race in the South, and there is a really good movie version of it, which stays pretty true to the book. The second novel focuses on the abduction of a the daughter of a rich family and a lawyer's attempts to save his client, who has been wrongly accused of kidnapping and raping the woman. The third deals with the rise of modernity in the South, which is embodied by the unscrupulous Snopes family, who infiltrate a peaceful southern town (or hamlet) and completely shake up the society. The last one is a bit more difficult to read, but consists of a series of stories that center around the rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen, a mysterious stranger who shows up in a pre-Civil War community and quickly establishes himself as one of the more dominant citizens. The novel uses the various narratives to investigate the reliability of historical narratives and what we commonly accept as truth. In short, if you are willing to give it a shot again, go with one of the first two, and you should be fine.

 

Maybe... But to me, good writing ought not to feel like a chore to read. It's been over 15 years since I read it, but it seems to me that by the end of the book, I hated just about every character. I felt it was basically an indictment of the American Dream.

 

If I want to read a story about carrying a casket a long distance, I'd go for McMurtry's Lonesome Dove.

 

I will try Intruder in the Dust, though.

[fallen627]

I will try Intruder in the Dust, though.

 

You won't be disappointed

[Eleven]

My favorite author of all time. I actually "wasted" time in New Orleans one summer touring the house in which he wrote his first novel. (I've since caught up on the drinks I missed.)

 

Faulkner was f'ed up, to be sure, but he was a trooper. He enlisted in the RCAF when the US wouldn't enter WWI, and that's probably how he discovered hockey.

 

The Sound and the Fury is a kickass novel, but without a professor, it's very tough the first read through. I mean, it's tough like Pynchon or Joyce. It's tough to "get it" without a guide. To add to the problem, the first of the four sections is narrated through the eyes of a mentally disabled person, which throws everybody off.

 

The best part is that ninety percent of his works are interconnected, with characters popping up in one short story, laying dormant for years, and then appearing in a novel. An excellent Internet resource to track the people of his "Yoknapatawpha" is here .

 

The best resource, though, if you can afford a used copy (it's been out of print forever) or find it in a library, is Faulkner's People, by Robert Kirk and Marvin Klotz. It tracks even the most minor of Faulkner's characters, across every novel and short story, and adds incredibly to the experience of reading his works.

 

Awesome that there's a conversation about my favorite author on my favorite hockey board.

[bob_sauve28]

I read A light in August All I remember is the house fire, a pregnant girl walking across the country looking for the father and a guy meeting a server girl in a restaurant and knowing immediatly that he could control her. Something about Easter and Christmas, too.

 

Is that the right name? Pretty good book, I thought. I really can't read him, though. My mom loves him. She is from the south and I think that is the difference. As I lay dying bored me to no end.

[fallen627]

Faulkner was f'ed up, to be sure, but he was a trooper. He enlisted in the RCAF when the US wouldn't enter WWI, and that's probably how he discovered hockey.

 

That's a good point. He definitely could have come into contact with it then. However, unlike Baseball and Football, it doesn't have a presence in his novels, even when it comes to Canadian characters like Shreve. So, if he did come into direct contact with hockey before this point, it doesn't seem like it had a great impact on him.

 

I think the greatest thing about this piece is that it can bring anyone back to his or her first experience at a hockey game. It seems like he was just swept up in the atmosphere of being rinkside for an NHL game for the first time. The mock incredulatiy with which he addresses the ice is classic, but I remember having similar thoughts as a youngster when I saw my first NHL game. You are basically reading the thoughts of "an innocent at rink side." In typical Faulkner fashion, he has found a way to tap into the universal experience.