Faulkner, was Re: [lbo-talk] Re: Night Watch

[Jerry Monaco]

On 9/29/06, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
>
>
>
> I mean in a good way. Every word is right -- every sentence rhythm. It
> is achingly beautiful.
>
> Carrol
>
> I think that "Absalom, Absalom" is one of the 5 greatest novels ever
written --  ( "Anna Karenina", "Lolita", "Pride and Prejudice", "Absalom,
Absalom", "Bleak House" and my inner argument about Ulysses / Berlin,
Alexanderplatz / Swan's Way / Madame Bovary / Pale Fire / and Wuthering
Heights in sixth place place....)  The only other novel I have read more
often if "Anna K."

But if you'll notice I respect Nabokov greatly ...  having included him
twice on this list....  So I have tried to comprehend his hatred of Faulkner
and Dostoevsky....

And in truth Faulkner can be inelegant at times.  He does feel drunk on his
own words and unable to make distinctions.

This is only to say that in trying hard to understand Nabokov's haughty
dismissal of Faulkner I have again come to the conclusion that there is no
way we can argue over art -- we can explicate, praise, react, hope to
reveal, and help to experience but rarely if ever convince someone out of
their own confirmed taste.

Jerry
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