Classics Considered

This summer, I've been getting to know Southern Gothic author Flannery O'Connor through a collection of her short stories. In this "First Impressions" episode, I chat about her life, her writing, and the themes in her stories which grabbed my attention. Sources / Further Reading: "This Lonesome Place: Flannery O’Connor on race and religion in the unreconstructed South." - The New Yorker article Flannery O'Connor biography - New Georgia Encyclopedia The Presence of Grace and Other Book Reviews by Flannery O'Connor (Google Books page)

Faulkner's portable typewriter - Gary Bridgman [ GFDL , CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons Every so often (e.g. while watching Jeopardy! ), I get a reality check and remember there are so many classics I haven't yet read.  As with geography, there are whole regions of classics that are entirely unfamiliar to me, or only half-explored.  This year I've taken a step in the right direction by reading an author brand-new to me, and that author is William Faulkner. Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury is one of his most beloved novels, and it seemed like a good choice for a newbie.  The story describes the decaying fortunes of the Compson family, once prestigious Southern landowners who now live in dwindling esteem in the 1920s.  What they have left to their name is essentially a whole lot of problems: a sickly, haughty mother, an aloof father, and four children with varying degrees of affection for each other and their parents.  Intermingle...

In this episode, we meet William Faulkner through one of his most famous novels, The Sound and the Fury . Resources: Faulkner Pronouncing "Yoknapatawpha"

Friday Thoughts... a new weekly feature where I talk about stuff.  Excited yet? I don't know exactly where this series will take us.  Per my blogging goals for this year , I want to share more candid thoughts about reading - reading as an experience and as a part of life.  Friday, as the week winds down, seems like a good time to reflect. This week I have been reading The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, as well as listening to The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli.  Both of these are new authors and new books to me, perhaps an over-ambitious start to the year. As I get further and further into The Sound , I seem to be learning more about myself than Faulkner, which was not at all the intent.  For example, more than ever do I dislike reading dismal fiction, a la Thomas Hardy and, in a certain sense, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (though the latter wins me over every time).  The real world is gloomy enough; why should I read novels that hit me over the head wit...