WEBVTT 00:10.600 --> 00:11.570 WAI CHEE DIMOCK: I'd like to refresh your 00:11.567 --> 00:14.427 memories by going back to talk 00:14.433 --> 00:19.273 briefly about the two classes last week on Faulkner. 00:19.267 --> 00:25.327 And we looked at Faulkner's remark at the Nagano Seminar 00:25.333 --> 00:30.773 in Japan, when he claimed that The Sound and the Fury is the 00:30.767 --> 00:34.067 same story told four times. 00:34.067 --> 00:38.727 So in light of that claim, we looked at the relation between 00:38.733 --> 00:42.973 Benjy and Quentin as a relation 00:42.967 --> 00:45.427 of kinship and variation. 00:45.433 --> 00:50.173 The two of them are obviously brothers, but they can also be 00:50.167 --> 00:55.767 seen as brothers in more than just a biological sense. 00:55.767 --> 01:01.467 So let's think about kinship and variation as the most 01:01.467 --> 01:06.167 fundamental structure of The Sound and the Fury. 01:06.167 --> 01:11.727 And so far, what we can see is that this structure of kinship 01:11.733 --> 01:17.273 and variation is pivoted on some kind of battle with time. 01:17.267 --> 01:23.327 As we know, Benjy wants Caddy never to grow up. 01:23.333 --> 01:28.103 He wants her always to be an innocent young girl, never to 01:28.100 --> 01:30.500 become a woman. 01:30.500 --> 01:33.270 He wants her always to "smell like trees." That's the 01:33.267 --> 01:36.397 signature line from Benjy. 01:36.400 --> 01:39.330 In many ways, it is a battle for an 01:39.333 --> 01:44.273 impossible, unchanging innocence. 01:44.267 --> 01:48.867 And we know that the nature of the battle is such that Benjy 01:48.867 --> 01:51.267 is destined to be a loser. 01:51.267 --> 01:54.627 There's no way he can win that battle. 01:54.633 --> 01:57.503 But we also know that the very fact that this is an 01:57.500 --> 02:02.330 impossible battle, that Benjy is destined to be a loser, 02:02.333 --> 02:04.873 also means that it's going to be a narrative 02:04.867 --> 02:06.467 challenge for Faulkner. 02:06.467 --> 02:08.967 He has to do something for the loser. 02:08.967 --> 02:11.267 If you are a good author, you want to do 02:11.267 --> 02:12.897 something for the loser. 02:12.900 --> 02:15.370 And so one of the challenges for Faulkner in The Sound and 02:15.367 --> 02:19.097 the Fury is to do something for Benjy. 02:19.100 --> 02:23.330 If we turn to Quentin, we see pretty much the same pattern 02:23.333 --> 02:26.573 repeated, the same battle with time. 02:26.567 --> 02:33.397 Quentin is exactly like Benjy in that he also wants Caddy 02:33.400 --> 02:34.570 never to grow up. 02:34.567 --> 02:37.267 He wants her always to be an innocent young girl, never to 02:37.267 --> 02:41.527 become a grown woman with her own sexuality. 02:41.533 --> 02:44.903 And so in that way, it's an almost complete replay of that 02:44.900 --> 02:48.330 impossible demand from Benjy. 02:48.333 --> 02:52.973 But Quentin has an additional battle with time, a more 02:52.967 --> 02:54.497 abstract battle. 02:54.500 --> 02:59.170 And we see that in the opening of the Quentin section, he 02:59.167 --> 03:04.927 takes out his watch, he smashes the crystal, and then 03:04.933 --> 03:11.133 he twists off the hands of the watch. 03:11.133 --> 03:14.103 And he injures his hand in the process. 03:14.100 --> 03:16.970 So right then, we know that it's a losing 03:16.967 --> 03:18.927 battle for him too. 03:18.933 --> 03:22.133 But he twists off the hands of the watch, and 03:22.133 --> 03:24.473 the watch ticks on. 03:24.467 --> 03:29.067 That's a little local allegory for the entire course of 03:29.067 --> 03:30.697 Quentin's section. 03:30.700 --> 03:34.430 So at the end of Quentin's section, we know that the most 03:34.433 --> 03:39.033 offending word, and that he calls the saddest word of all, 03:39.033 --> 03:44.103 is the word "temporary." And by "temporary," he has one 03:44.100 --> 03:46.930 particular context in mind. 03:46.933 --> 03:49.073 His tragedy, as we have seen, is basically 03:49.067 --> 03:50.567 a secondhand tragedy. 03:50.567 --> 03:52.527 It is not his own tragedy. 03:52.533 --> 03:57.533 It is the secondhand tragedy of Caddy losing her virginity. 03:57.533 --> 04:03.803 But Quentin is embracing it as his own tragedy and is 04:03.800 --> 04:10.070 basically finishing, wrapping up his life as a response to 04:10.067 --> 04:11.197 that tragedy. 04:11.200 --> 04:15.630 But the fear is that that tragedy is going to pass, that 04:15.633 --> 04:18.973 it's not going to be a permanent tragedy for him. 04:18.967 --> 04:20.667 Everything is temporary. 04:20.667 --> 04:24.027 Even the sense of devastation will go away. 04:24.033 --> 04:28.433 So because "temporary" is the saddest word of all, the only 04:28.433 --> 04:33.273 way Quentin can get around that word is to have a 04:33.267 --> 04:36.767 preemptive strike against that word. 04:36.767 --> 04:42.627 His suicide is a preemptive strike against the word 04:42.633 --> 04:46.333 "temporary," so that it will have an artificial permanence 04:46.333 --> 04:49.833 in his own life, because his life is ended at that moment, 04:49.833 --> 04:53.003 and there's no possibility for it to fade away, to become 04:53.000 --> 04:55.670 less devastating. 04:55.667 --> 05:03.397 So in those ways, Benjy and Quentin are very much brothers 05:03.400 --> 05:09.870 in a spiritual sense, a metaphoric battle with time. 05:09.867 --> 05:12.027 Today, we'll move on to Jason. 05:12.033 --> 05:15.933 And it's a bigger challenge to think of Jason as the brother 05:15.933 --> 05:19.373 to Quentin and Benjy. 05:19.367 --> 05:22.027 Jason seems very, very different on the face of it. 05:22.033 --> 05:28.673 But I'd like to suggest that in at least one way, Jason can 05:28.667 --> 05:34.727 be seen as a brother to Benjy and Quentin, in that he also 05:34.733 --> 05:37.873 has his own battle with time. 05:37.867 --> 05:42.327 And it is a battle with a larger 05:42.333 --> 05:44.003 constellation of forces. 05:44.000 --> 05:47.800 So we are seeing scale enlargement in a very 05:47.800 --> 05:52.530 significant way in the Jason section. 05:52.533 --> 05:56.303 We're seeing a much bigger picture of the United States. 05:56.300 --> 06:02.370 And that scale enlargement has to do with a tug of war 06:02.367 --> 06:07.227 between the yesterday of the United States and the tomorrow 06:07.233 --> 06:11.703 of the United States and Jason wanting very much to cling to 06:11.700 --> 06:13.130 the yesterday. 06:13.133 --> 06:16.273 It's more congenial to him in every way. 06:16.267 --> 06:17.997 But at the same time, he knows that the 06:18.000 --> 06:19.600 tomorrow is already here. 06:19.600 --> 06:23.730 In fact, the tomorrow is encroaching on the present. 06:23.733 --> 06:25.373 There's nothing he can do about it. 06:25.367 --> 06:28.597 He just has to learn to cope with that tomorrow, very 06:28.600 --> 06:31.930 uncongenial, very threatening tomorrow. 06:31.933 --> 06:34.233 He has to learn to come to terms with that. 06:34.233 --> 06:38.933 So the basic dynamic of Jason's section is the battle 06:38.933 --> 06:41.803 between yesterday and tomorrow. 06:41.800 --> 06:45.130 And I think that we know that it pretty much is a losing 06:45.133 --> 06:48.333 battle for Jason as well. 06:48.333 --> 06:51.503 Because we're talking so much about yesterday and tomorrow, 06:51.500 --> 06:55.000 I want to bring back that very important passage from 06:55.000 --> 07:00.570 Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5, that Faulkner took the phrase "the 07:00.567 --> 07:01.767 sound and the fury" from. 07:01.767 --> 07:06.397 "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty 07:06.400 --> 07:09.500 pace from day to day to the last 07:09.500 --> 07:12.430 syllable of recorded time. 07:12.433 --> 07:15.573 And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the 07:15.567 --> 07:17.367 way to dusty death. 07:17.367 --> 07:20.227 It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 07:20.233 --> 07:21.973 signifying nothing." 07:21.967 --> 07:24.167 So Faulkner is really getting the maximum 07:24.167 --> 07:26.797 mileage from that passage. 07:26.800 --> 07:30.530 He's really taking out the entire scaffolding of his 07:30.533 --> 07:34.773 novel from that Shakespeare passage. 07:34.767 --> 07:38.597 And I'd like to give you a brief overview of the basic 07:38.600 --> 07:43.500 structure of today's lecture, the various terms that come 07:43.500 --> 07:45.970 into play in this tug of war between 07:45.967 --> 07:47.867 yesterday and tomorrow. 07:47.867 --> 07:52.967 We know that the horse is actually still a presence in 07:52.967 --> 07:54.027 The Sound and the Fury. 07:54.033 --> 07:58.103 Queenie, the horse, will have a starring role at the very 07:58.100 --> 07:59.470 end of the novel. 07:59.467 --> 08:02.397 We don't see her quite in the foreground yet, but I promise 08:02.400 --> 08:04.570 you she'll have a starring role. 08:04.567 --> 08:08.567 We know that the automobile is very much here. 08:08.567 --> 08:11.767 And I would like to think of those, the horse and the 08:11.767 --> 08:16.197 automobile, as two directional arrows. 08:16.200 --> 08:22.630 So the horse is a vector, is a directional arrow pointing 08:22.633 --> 08:27.073 back to the 19th century, a very genteel world where to 08:27.067 --> 08:31.897 own a horse makes you a part of the gentry as well as 08:31.900 --> 08:36.130 civility of social distinctions. 08:36.133 --> 08:40.103 The automobile, as we already have seen in The Great Gatsby, 08:40.100 --> 08:43.230 is a vehicle that to some extent breaks down or 08:43.233 --> 08:45.903 complicates social distinctions. 08:45.900 --> 08:48.070 It also brings in strangers. 08:48.067 --> 08:51.927 So the phrase that I would like to use to think about 08:51.933 --> 08:57.003 that transition from the past to the present is the concept 08:57.000 --> 09:01.000 that I'm taking from the literary and cultural critic 09:01.000 --> 09:05.330 Raymond Williams, the notion of the knowable community and 09:05.333 --> 09:08.703 how that's receding into the past, that's breaking down to 09:08.700 --> 09:12.730 be replaced by an unknowable world of strangers. 09:12.733 --> 09:18.473 And on that basis, I'll talk about the basic structure, 09:18.467 --> 09:22.027 really, in the Jason section as two patterns of grievances, 09:22.033 --> 09:23.633 two patterns of injury. 09:23.633 --> 09:26.473 As we know, Jason is someone who feels grief all the time. 09:26.467 --> 09:29.127 He feels that the whole world has done him an 09:29.133 --> 09:31.133 unpardonable wrong. 09:31.133 --> 09:32.833 So he's complaining all the time. 09:32.833 --> 09:34.673 That's his mode. 09:34.667 --> 09:39.027 But given that this is the baseline for Jason, he has two 09:39.033 --> 09:43.273 different parties, two different kinds of people, 09:43.267 --> 09:46.067 that he's complaining about. 09:46.067 --> 09:49.427 One is the known parties, people in his immediate 09:49.433 --> 09:52.073 environment, people he knows very well. 09:52.067 --> 09:54.297 And then there are total strangers who are also doing 09:54.300 --> 09:56.730 him a wrong, that he knows nothing about, but he's 09:56.733 --> 09:59.433 convinced are out to get him. 09:59.433 --> 10:03.773 So the notion that there are strangers somewhere to get you 10:03.767 --> 10:07.197 versus people right here who are doing you in 10:07.200 --> 10:09.300 right on the spot. 10:09.300 --> 10:13.130 And so the people who are right there are his family, 10:13.133 --> 10:16.833 his servants, his father, his niece, Quentin. 10:16.833 --> 10:20.403 And the unknown parties include the usual suspects, 10:20.400 --> 10:24.630 New York Jew, US government, Western Union Telegraph, and 10:24.633 --> 10:26.373 of course Wall Street. 10:26.367 --> 10:27.497 So very familiar. 10:27.500 --> 10:30.070 Again, very close to us, actually. 10:30.067 --> 10:36.497 But this is the image that I find in some sense is a 10:36.500 --> 10:41.000 capsule summary of the dynamics in the Jason section. 10:41.000 --> 10:45.170 You see the horse and cart, the nineteenth-century relic, 10:45.167 --> 10:48.927 and then the automobile coming right-- 10:48.933 --> 10:51.533 almost going to run it over, we fear. 10:51.533 --> 10:56.403 And that's the situation that we get in The Sound and the 10:56.400 --> 10:59.130 Fury in the Jason section. 10:59.133 --> 11:04.833 We know that Jason actually is part of the future, he's part 11:04.833 --> 11:08.073 of tomorrow, in the sense that he owns a car. 11:08.067 --> 11:09.367 And he's very proud. 11:09.367 --> 11:13.427 He's seen in his car a lot, and he's very proud that his 11:13.433 --> 11:16.403 is a relatively expensive car. 11:16.400 --> 11:16.970 It's not a Ford. 11:16.967 --> 11:19.567 He makes a point that there are people who own Fords, but 11:19.567 --> 11:20.467 his car is not a Ford. 11:20.467 --> 11:23.297 We don't know what kind of a car he has, but it's a car 11:23.300 --> 11:27.130 that he's proud of and he spends a lot of time in. 11:27.133 --> 11:32.973 But there's a basic incompatibility between Jason 11:32.967 --> 11:34.097 and his car. 11:34.100 --> 11:37.970 And this comes back to the Compson curse. 11:37.967 --> 11:43.467 It turns out that Jason's faculty of smell is as highly 11:43.467 --> 11:45.827 developed as his two brothers'. 11:45.833 --> 11:49.703 In his case, the smell that gets to him isn't the smell of 11:49.700 --> 11:52.800 trees or the smell of honeysuckle but 11:52.800 --> 11:54.500 the smell of gasoline. 11:54.500 --> 11:57.370 He can't stand the smell of gasoline. 11:57.367 --> 11:59.567 It gives him a tremendous headache. 11:59.567 --> 12:04.467 The only way he can drive is by putting a handkerchief 12:04.467 --> 12:06.127 soaked in camphor over his nose. 12:06.133 --> 12:08.503 That's the only way he can drive his own car. 12:08.500 --> 12:15.900 So this is his complaint about this vehicle that belongs to 12:15.900 --> 12:19.870 him, that he wouldn't dream of getting rid of, but is a 12:19.867 --> 12:22.097 burden to him. 12:22.100 --> 12:26.330 "And now I reckon I'll get home just in time to take a 12:26.333 --> 12:31.273 nice long drive after a basket of tomatoes or something and 12:31.267 --> 12:34.167 then have to go back to town smelling like a camphor 12:34.167 --> 12:39.627 factory so my head won't explode right on my shoulders. 12:39.633 --> 12:42.603 I says, you don't know what a headache is. 12:42.600 --> 12:45.800 I says, you think I'd fool with that damn car at all if 12:45.800 --> 12:47.100 it depended on me?" 12:47.100 --> 12:51.030 Of course, he's complaining that it's not by choice that 12:51.033 --> 12:54.073 he's in this car, but we also know that he's 12:54.067 --> 12:55.497 proud of his car. 12:55.500 --> 12:59.270 So this is just to lay out a basic 12:59.267 --> 13:02.127 difficulty in Jason's situation. 13:02.133 --> 13:07.003 It's that there's a tension, a conflict between his own 13:07.000 --> 13:11.930 physical well being and the most basic ingredient of an 13:11.933 --> 13:17.173 automobile, of structural incompatibility between Jason 13:17.167 --> 13:20.897 as a biological human being and the mechanical 13:20.900 --> 13:23.370 workings of a car. 13:23.367 --> 13:27.367 But beyond that, there's also something else that makes the 13:27.367 --> 13:33.867 automobile a terrible threat to Jason, which is the kinds 13:33.867 --> 13:37.967 of people who come with automobiles. 13:37.967 --> 13:42.097 And already, we're beginning to see a world of strangers 13:42.100 --> 13:47.070 opening up right there in Jefferson, Mississippi. 13:47.067 --> 13:49.427 So here's Jason. 13:49.433 --> 13:54.403 "I had just turned onto the street when I saw a Ford 13:54.400 --> 13:57.200 coming helling toward me. 13:57.200 --> 13:59.630 All of a sudden, it stopped. 13:59.633 --> 14:02.733 I could hear the wheels sliding, and it slewed around 14:02.733 --> 14:04.833 and backed and whirled. 14:04.833 --> 14:08.503 And just as I was thinking what the hell they were up to, 14:08.500 --> 14:10.430 I saw that red tie. 14:10.433 --> 14:13.133 Then I recognized her face looking 14:13.133 --> 14:15.033 back through the window. 14:15.033 --> 14:16.303 I saw red. 14:16.300 --> 14:20.500 When I recognized that red tie, after all I had told her, 14:20.500 --> 14:22.070 I forgot about everything. 14:22.067 --> 14:24.997 I never thought about my head, even, until I came to the 14:25.000 --> 14:26.730 first forks and had to stop. 14:26.733 --> 14:29.773 Yet we spend money and spend money on roads, and damn if it 14:29.767 --> 14:33.027 isn't like trying to drive over a sheet of corrugated 14:33.033 --> 14:34.533 iron roofing. 14:34.533 --> 14:37.033 I would like to know how a man could be expected to keep up 14:37.033 --> 14:39.773 with even a wheelbarrow." 14:39.767 --> 14:45.167 In the space of two paragraphs, we see that Jason 14:45.167 --> 14:50.327 has shifted his attention from his niece, Quentin, to the 14:50.333 --> 14:53.603 government who's not keeping up the roads. 14:53.600 --> 14:58.070 So the first thing that we can say about this passage is that 14:58.067 --> 15:02.397 the word "temporary" isn't just a curse for Quentin. 15:02.400 --> 15:05.470 It is also a curse for Jason. 15:05.467 --> 15:08.527 He has a very short attention span. 15:08.533 --> 15:12.273 He can't really keep his mind fixed on the thing that he's 15:12.267 --> 15:15.197 going to complain against. 15:15.200 --> 15:17.530 And that's just a little aside. 15:17.533 --> 15:21.003 It's not something that Jason himself notices. 15:21.000 --> 15:24.430 But we can say that for him. 15:24.433 --> 15:28.203 That's one strike against him in his battle with time, that 15:28.200 --> 15:30.930 he has such a short attention span and that he can't hold 15:30.933 --> 15:34.173 onto what little time that he has, or that he can't make 15:34.167 --> 15:36.397 that time last longer, can't make his 15:36.400 --> 15:38.270 grievance last longer. 15:38.267 --> 15:41.567 So not being able to make something last longer is one 15:41.567 --> 15:45.967 of the problems with Jason. 15:45.967 --> 15:49.667 And that's a long-term, generic, constitutional 15:49.667 --> 15:51.467 problem for Jason. 15:51.467 --> 15:55.667 But the most immediate problem for him is that his niece, 15:55.667 --> 15:58.767 Quentin, the daughter of Caddy, is running around with 15:58.767 --> 16:00.767 total strangers. 16:00.767 --> 16:03.067 And we don't know who this man is. 16:03.067 --> 16:06.427 Jason is not telling us, because he doesn't know. 16:06.433 --> 16:10.533 All he can see is that this is a man with a red tie, and that 16:10.533 --> 16:13.973 tells him that this man is no good and that Quentin 16:13.967 --> 16:18.327 shouldn't be hanging out with this man wearing a red tie. 16:18.333 --> 16:21.503 And he comes with a car that's a relatively-- 16:21.500 --> 16:25.000 I don't myself consider a Ford a cheap car, but Jason 16:25.000 --> 16:27.170 considers it a cheap car, and therefore that's another 16:27.167 --> 16:29.867 strike against the stranger that he's no good. 16:29.867 --> 16:33.397 In the next-- so this is on Page 238-- 16:33.400 --> 16:37.070 next page, we know who this stranger is. 16:37.067 --> 16:40.797 Not really what kind of a person he is, but what kind of 16:40.800 --> 16:44.400 occupation he has. 16:44.400 --> 16:48.370 "I says, as far as I'm concerned, let her go to hell 16:48.367 --> 16:52.267 as fast as she pleases, and the sooner the better. 16:52.267 --> 16:55.127 I says, what else do you expect except every damn 16:55.133 --> 17:00.333 drummer and cheap show that comes to town, because even 17:00.333 --> 17:04.103 those town jellybeans give her the go-by now." 17:04.100 --> 17:09.830 And that shows how far the Compson fortune has fallen 17:09.833 --> 17:13.473 from being the town gentry. 17:13.467 --> 17:16.427 Quentin has fallen so low that even the town 17:16.433 --> 17:19.533 jellybeans won't touch her. 17:19.533 --> 17:23.103 The only way she can have some company is to hang out with 17:23.100 --> 17:27.470 strangers coming to town for the first time. 17:27.467 --> 17:29.627 Cheap shows -- 17:29.633 --> 17:33.133 it's confusing to see the drummer in the context of a 17:33.133 --> 17:34.073 cheap show. 17:34.067 --> 17:36.867 We might think that the drummer is someone who plays 17:36.867 --> 17:42.227 the drums. But actually, no, this is a specialized, late 17:42.233 --> 17:44.403 nineteenth-century, turn of the century, early 17:44.400 --> 17:50.270 twentieth-century slang word for the traveling salesman. 17:50.267 --> 17:57.167 So Jason is using that very distinct period usage. 17:57.167 --> 17:57.867 The drummer -- 17:57.867 --> 17:59.827 this is a traveling salesman. 17:59.833 --> 18:04.033 We know that he's going to be there probably just for a day 18:04.033 --> 18:07.733 to keep Quentin company, and then he'll be gone. 18:07.733 --> 18:15.673 So Jason in that way is an entry point for us to that 18:15.667 --> 18:20.027 nineteenth-century world, the changing world of 18:20.033 --> 18:21.973 salesmanship, of marketing. 18:21.967 --> 18:26.127 That's very important, that we have traveling salesmen who 18:26.133 --> 18:29.103 drive around in cars, 18:29.100 --> 18:31.500 fast-living traveling salesmen. 18:31.500 --> 18:35.200 All of those are new developments. 18:35.200 --> 18:41.770 And the other thing we can say about this drummer is that 18:41.767 --> 18:45.967 he's known to Jason, to the extent that he is known at 18:45.967 --> 18:50.827 all, primarily because of two attributes. 18:50.833 --> 18:56.473 One is the thing that stands out from him, is the fact that 18:56.467 --> 18:58.297 he's wearing a red tie. 18:58.300 --> 19:00.730 That's a giveaway for Jason. 19:00.733 --> 19:05.273 And the other thing is that his occupation is 19:05.267 --> 19:07.397 written on his face. 19:07.400 --> 19:13.330 The fact that he's a traveling salesman is clear just from-- 19:13.333 --> 19:16.373 anyone can see that that's what he is. 19:16.367 --> 19:21.097 So Jason's knowledge of the drummer doesn't extend 19:21.100 --> 19:22.170 further than that. 19:22.167 --> 19:28.397 It is a very superficial knowledge of this man. 19:28.400 --> 19:31.370 Not because Jason doesn't want to know him-- well, maybe 19:31.367 --> 19:32.327 Jason doesn't-- 19:32.333 --> 19:37.703 in any case, that knowledge will never extend further than 19:37.700 --> 19:42.400 the color of his tie and occupational label that Jason 19:42.400 --> 19:44.230 can pin on him. 19:44.233 --> 19:49.203 It is a world that is by definition made up of our 19:49.200 --> 19:52.800 superficial knowledge of total strangers, people we see once 19:52.800 --> 19:54.300 and never again. 19:54.300 --> 19:59.530 That is the world that is opening up in front of Jason. 19:59.533 --> 20:02.833 We can decide whether or not this is a world 20:02.833 --> 20:05.073 that we like or not. 20:05.067 --> 20:06.067 We have no choice. 20:06.067 --> 20:08.767 I think that this is also the world that we are in. 20:08.767 --> 20:11.927 Quite often, most of the people that we meet actually 20:11.933 --> 20:15.133 are people we see once and never again, that we know just 20:15.133 --> 20:18.503 by those two attributes, what kind of clothes they wear and 20:18.500 --> 20:22.130 our surmises as to what kind of occupations they have. So 20:22.133 --> 20:25.533 Jason's tomorrow is in many ways our present. 20:25.533 --> 20:34.003 And here, I want to mention the work of one of my heroes, 20:34.000 --> 20:39.930 really, Raymond Williams, a very influential literary and 20:39.933 --> 20:41.703 cultural critic. 20:41.700 --> 20:44.800 He died some time ago. 20:44.800 --> 20:52.870 His classic work, The Country and the City, in that work, 20:52.867 --> 20:57.727 Raymond Williams coins the phrase "knowable communities." 20:57.733 --> 21:01.233 In fact, one of the chapters of the book is called 21:01.233 --> 21:02.903 "Knowable Communities." 21:02.900 --> 21:07.800 And this is what Raymond Williams says. 21:07.800 --> 21:13.470 "A country community, most typically a village, is an 21:13.467 --> 21:18.297 epitome of direct relationships, of face-to-face 21:18.300 --> 21:24.700 contacts within which we can find and value the substance 21:24.700 --> 21:27.730 of personal relationships. 21:27.733 --> 21:33.273 As the scale and complexity of the characteristic social 21:33.267 --> 21:38.027 organizations increase, a whole community, wholly 21:38.033 --> 21:43.033 knowable, becomes harder and harder to sustain." 21:43.033 --> 21:49.003 So Raymond Williams' idea is that modernity is defined by 21:49.000 --> 21:55.170 the breakdown of that unsustainable utopian ideal, 21:55.167 --> 21:57.767 knowable communities. 21:57.767 --> 22:02.127 And he really reads almost all-- 22:02.133 --> 22:05.773 he was English, so he reads almost all of English 22:05.767 --> 22:11.197 literature using that concept, and I'm extending his insight 22:11.200 --> 22:13.000 to American literature. 22:13.000 --> 22:15.800 And here I want to stop very briefly and say a word about 22:15.800 --> 22:16.530 plagiarism. 22:16.533 --> 22:20.673 I know that the first paper is coming up for you guys. 22:20.667 --> 22:24.367 And I just want to emphasize how important it is to 22:24.367 --> 22:28.527 acknowledge where you're getting your ideas, where 22:28.533 --> 22:30.773 you're getting your wording from. 22:30.767 --> 22:33.727 "Knowable community" is a phrase that I could have made 22:33.733 --> 22:40.373 up myself, but it is really important to acknowledge the 22:40.367 --> 22:44.567 book or the article that you got the concept from. 22:44.567 --> 22:47.027 Very, very important for two reasons. 22:47.033 --> 22:51.503 One is that it is just a courtesy, needed recognition 22:51.500 --> 22:54.000 to the person who came up with the idea. 22:54.000 --> 22:55.800 If you were to come up with a great phrase, you'd want 22:55.800 --> 22:57.730 people to acknowledge you. 22:57.733 --> 23:01.403 But I think that more than that, I think that citational 23:01.400 --> 23:04.800 practices are not just a technicality, are not just a 23:04.800 --> 23:06.470 way to get ourselves out of trouble. 23:06.467 --> 23:09.797 It is a way to show that we're in dialogue with someone else. 23:09.800 --> 23:13.470 And because Raymond Williams is such a hero for me, I 23:13.467 --> 23:17.627 actually take a lot of pleasure in thinking that even 23:17.633 --> 23:21.103 though he didn't write about Faulkner, that actually his 23:21.100 --> 23:23.730 insights apply so well to Faulkner. 23:23.733 --> 23:29.733 So it is the pleasure of having a long and extended 23:29.733 --> 23:35.373 conversation with people that you admire, whose work you 23:35.367 --> 23:36.697 enjoy reading. 23:36.700 --> 23:41.870 So for both those two reasons, please acknowledge where 23:41.867 --> 23:44.497 you're getting your ideas from. 23:44.500 --> 23:48.800 So using Raymond Williams' idea of the knowable 23:48.800 --> 23:57.470 community, I want to think about Jason's structure of 23:57.467 --> 24:00.767 injury, his pattern of injury. 24:00.767 --> 24:04.467 And I'll be looking at two passages that suggest that 24:04.467 --> 24:08.827 he's still in a knowable community, and then we'll move 24:08.833 --> 24:13.573 on to that much more pressing, the world is going to win out, 24:13.567 --> 24:16.897 the world that is made up of unknowable strangers. 24:16.900 --> 24:20.570 But first, knowable community based on Jefferson, 24:20.567 --> 24:21.827 Mississippi. 24:23.567 --> 24:25.997 This is Jason at breakfast. 24:26.000 --> 24:29.970 "Once a bitch, always a bitch, what I say. 24:29.967 --> 24:34.197 I says, you're lucky if her playing out of school is all 24:34.200 --> 24:35.800 that worries you. 24:35.800 --> 24:40.330 I says, she ought to be down there in that kitchen right 24:40.333 --> 24:43.973 now instead of up there in her room, gobbing paint on her 24:43.967 --> 24:47.527 face, and waiting for six niggers that can't even stand 24:47.533 --> 24:51.003 up out of a chair unless they've got a pan full of 24:51.000 --> 24:54.070 bread and meat to balance them, to fix breakfast for 24:54.067 --> 24:54.627 her." 24:54.633 --> 24:59.073 So one of the basic problems for Jason that we noticed 24:59.067 --> 25:03.327 earlier, the very short attention span, is very much 25:03.333 --> 25:04.833 in evidence here. 25:04.833 --> 25:09.133 He starts off complaining against his niece, Quentin. 25:09.133 --> 25:11.273 By the end of that passage, he's complaining about the 25:11.267 --> 25:13.427 "niggers" in his household. 25:13.433 --> 25:16.303 So he can't hold onto a grievance for very long. 25:16.300 --> 25:20.070 The word "temporary" is definitely a curse for him. 25:20.067 --> 25:24.497 But even though the word "temporary" is a curse for 25:24.500 --> 25:28.030 Jason, he actually aspires to permanence. 25:28.033 --> 25:32.303 And we see that in the opening line of that passage, "Once a 25:32.300 --> 25:35.830 bitch, always a a bitch." It is not a proverb. 25:35.833 --> 25:39.203 There's no such proverb in the world. 25:39.200 --> 25:43.270 But it has the feel of a proverb. 25:43.267 --> 25:47.167 It has the feel of a proverb-like permanence. 25:47.167 --> 25:52.567 And this is the small-town Jason who is speaking, finding 25:52.567 --> 25:56.427 enormous satisfaction from making pronouncements that 25:56.433 --> 25:58.673 sound like proverbs. 25:58.667 --> 26:03.667 This is his take on the world, and he's able to sum up the 26:03.667 --> 26:09.467 entire world just using seven words. 26:09.467 --> 26:12.097 You can't really do better than that, a seven-word 26:12.100 --> 26:13.930 summation of the entire world. 26:13.933 --> 26:15.773 So just enormous satisfaction. 26:15.767 --> 26:19.967 So we can say that even though Jason is complaining nonstop, 26:19.967 --> 26:25.097 even though that's his mode, this is one instance where 26:25.100 --> 26:29.470 complaining is actually a very pleasurable 26:29.467 --> 26:31.827 activity for Jason. 26:31.833 --> 26:34.603 He's getting a kick being able to say that his niece is a 26:34.600 --> 26:37.330 bitch, and she'll always be one. 26:37.333 --> 26:41.173 And he's getting a kick out of talking about the thickness of 26:41.167 --> 26:45.897 her makeup, and everything that is objectionable about 26:45.900 --> 26:48.800 her gives him enormous pleasure. 26:48.800 --> 26:56.130 So complaining in a world of known quantities-- 26:56.133 --> 27:01.433 and Quentin is very much a known quantity to Jason-- 27:01.433 --> 27:04.673 complaining about people right around you, people in your 27:04.667 --> 27:07.467 immediate family, that's a really fun thing to do. 27:07.467 --> 27:09.627 And Jason is having fun doing that. 27:09.633 --> 27:13.103 He's having fun complaining about the black servants. 27:13.100 --> 27:19.300 And in his mind, as far as he's concerned, Quentin, his 27:19.300 --> 27:23.070 niece, and those black servants are exactly alike. 27:23.067 --> 27:24.867 They are all good for nothing. 27:24.867 --> 27:27.567 They are all a trial for him. 27:27.567 --> 27:30.597 They're all wronging him in some fashion. 27:30.600 --> 27:33.670 They're a drain on his financial resources, a drain 27:33.667 --> 27:35.527 on his patience. 27:35.533 --> 27:37.973 It's just a burden that he has to carry through life, that he 27:37.967 --> 27:41.227 happens to have a niece like that and to have 27:41.233 --> 27:41.773 servants like that. 27:41.767 --> 27:43.197 And he can go on and on. 27:43.200 --> 27:45.170 He can go on all day like this. 27:45.167 --> 27:48.327 And it would be a very happy life for him to be able to go 27:48.333 --> 27:49.633 on like that. 27:49.633 --> 27:52.373 So this is the pleasure that one gets 27:52.367 --> 27:54.897 from a knowable community. 27:54.900 --> 27:59.400 And I'll just give you another instance of that, very much in 27:59.400 --> 28:00.700 the same vein. 28:02.933 --> 28:07.773 "Like I say, if he had to sell something to send Quentin to 28:07.767 --> 28:12.327 Harvard, we'd all be a damn sight better off if he'd sold 28:12.333 --> 28:16.103 that sideboard and bought himself a one-armed 28:16.100 --> 28:19.230 straitjacket with part of the money. 28:19.233 --> 28:23.203 I reckon the reason all the Compson gave out before it got 28:23.200 --> 28:27.930 to me, like Mother says, is that he drank it up. 28:27.933 --> 28:31.133 At least I never heard of him offering to sell anything to 28:31.133 --> 28:33.833 send me to Harvard." 28:33.833 --> 28:36.273 So two complaints here, both centered on 28:36.267 --> 28:38.697 his father, Mr. Compson. 28:38.700 --> 28:40.400 One is that his father drinks. 28:40.400 --> 28:51.200 And in fact it is true that one of the many metaphoric 28:51.200 --> 28:55.170 punctuation marks in The Sound and the Fury, Mr. Compson 28:55.167 --> 29:00.397 making the trips to the sideboard to get the booze, 29:00.400 --> 29:03.400 that's one of the punctuation marks in The 29:03.400 --> 29:04.600 Sound and the Fury. 29:04.600 --> 29:08.770 So Jason isn't wrong that his father drinks and probably is 29:08.767 --> 29:12.897 squandering away the whole Compson fortune, to the extent 29:12.900 --> 29:14.730 that there is one now. 29:14.733 --> 29:18.073 He's squandering away the whole fortune by drinking, so 29:18.067 --> 29:20.927 Jason has a legitimate complaint. 29:20.933 --> 29:26.603 But a deeper complaint that goes along with the fact that 29:26.600 --> 29:32.630 his father drinks is that Quentin, his brother, was his 29:32.633 --> 29:39.233 father's favorite, that his father, as much as he loves 29:39.233 --> 29:45.333 drinking, he probably loved Quentin better 29:45.333 --> 29:47.203 than he loved alcohol. 29:47.200 --> 29:50.930 And he would go so far as to sell the pastures, Benjy's 29:50.933 --> 29:54.033 pastures, so that Quentin would go to Harvard. 29:54.033 --> 29:56.233 Of course, he killed himself after one year, so all of the 29:56.233 --> 30:01.073 money was wasted, and that is just even more grounds for 30:01.067 --> 30:05.127 complaint for Jason. 30:05.133 --> 30:10.333 Once again, I have to say, it's a very understandable 30:10.333 --> 30:14.473 grievance, the sense of not being loved, the sense that 30:14.467 --> 30:17.797 nobody has ever done anything for him, that everything that 30:17.800 --> 30:22.730 could be done in that family was being done for Quentin, 30:22.733 --> 30:23.973 who wasted everything. 30:27.067 --> 30:29.427 I wouldn't say it's a completely legitimate 30:29.433 --> 30:33.333 grievance, but it's a very understandable grievance of 30:33.333 --> 30:36.233 why he's someone that nobody thinks about. 30:36.233 --> 30:41.033 Nobody ever gives a thought to the well-being of Jason. 30:41.033 --> 30:44.103 And what kind of a monster do you get when nobody ever gives 30:44.100 --> 30:46.400 a thought to his well-being? 30:46.400 --> 30:49.470 So in many ways, Faulkner-- 30:49.467 --> 30:52.097 and I'm just preparing you for the ending of The Sound and 30:52.100 --> 30:54.530 the Fury, where I do think that even though Jason is a 30:54.533 --> 30:59.203 loser, once again, Faulkner does something for that loser. 30:59.200 --> 31:01.070 He's a very sad loser. 31:01.067 --> 31:06.427 And here we see some of the reason for that sadness. 31:06.433 --> 31:09.033 It's that people turn into monsters when they feel that 31:09.033 --> 31:10.303 they're completely unloved. 31:12.867 --> 31:17.527 But still, right now, along with the self-pity, along with 31:17.533 --> 31:21.203 the constant complaining, Jason is getting some 31:21.200 --> 31:24.500 satisfaction from the fact that he's complaining against 31:24.500 --> 31:29.230 his father, once again, a known quantity to him, known 31:29.233 --> 31:32.473 all too well in this instance. 31:32.467 --> 31:39.827 So let's look at the breakdown of that knowable world, 31:39.833 --> 31:42.473 because it's satisfying to Jason. 31:42.467 --> 31:46.327 That's the thing that's going to be taken away from him. 31:46.333 --> 31:50.333 The last thing that gives him satisfaction is going to be 31:50.333 --> 31:51.673 taken away from him. 31:51.667 --> 31:55.667 And the breakdown of the knowable community comes with 31:55.667 --> 32:00.597 the automobile, as we have seen, and all those things 32:00.600 --> 32:05.300 that are intimated by the arrival of the automobile-- 32:05.300 --> 32:09.430 the New York Jew, the US government, Western Union, and 32:09.433 --> 32:10.733 Wall Street. 32:10.733 --> 32:15.673 So let's look at one instance of Jason's sense that he's 32:15.667 --> 32:19.567 wronged by unknown parties. 32:19.567 --> 32:22.967 And all of a sudden, we see that the world has expanded 32:22.967 --> 32:27.267 tremendously, that even though Jason is still in Jefferson, 32:27.267 --> 32:30.367 Mississippi, that all of a sudden, New York City becomes 32:30.367 --> 32:33.597 his horizon, becomes his reference point. 32:33.600 --> 32:37.930 "I don't see how a city no bigger than New York can hold 32:37.933 --> 32:40.173 enough people to take the money away 32:40.167 --> 32:42.367 from us country suckers. 32:42.367 --> 32:43.997 Well, I'm done with them. 32:44.000 --> 32:46.470 They've sucked me in for the last time. 32:46.467 --> 32:50.697 Any fool except a fellow that hasn't got any more sense than 32:50.700 --> 32:55.030 to take a Jew's word for anything could tell the market 32:55.033 --> 32:58.333 was going up all the time, with the whole damn delta 32:58.333 --> 33:02.103 about to be flooded again and the cotton washed right out of 33:02.100 --> 33:04.830 the ground like it was last year. 33:04.833 --> 33:08.603 Let it wash a man's crop out of the ground year after year, 33:08.600 --> 33:14.030 and then up there in Washington, spending $50,000 a 33:14.033 --> 33:19.073 year keeping an army in Nicaragua or some place." 33:19.067 --> 33:23.297 Incredible scale enlargement in the world of Jason, not 33:23.300 --> 33:27.070 only New York City, but Central America as well. 33:27.067 --> 33:30.027 So we have to figure out why it is that the world is 33:30.033 --> 33:33.203 suddenly opening up in this drastic fashion. 33:33.200 --> 33:37.770 And it turns out that actually closer to home, there's 33:37.767 --> 33:44.367 actually a significant Jewish population, Jewish community, 33:44.367 --> 33:46.567 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. 33:46.567 --> 33:49.097 So Jason could have seen these people, he could have 33:49.100 --> 33:52.930 socialized with his Jewish neighbors, but he's not 33:52.933 --> 33:54.503 thinking about his Jewish neighbors. 33:57.400 --> 34:00.570 Because he's talking about New York City, he also could have 34:00.567 --> 34:04.197 been talking about Lower East Side and Hester Street. 34:04.200 --> 34:05.970 And this is a picture of Hester 34:05.967 --> 34:08.497 Street, turn of the century. 34:08.500 --> 34:11.070 These are not very threatening people. 34:11.067 --> 34:14.197 Jason could have been talking about those Jews, 34:14.200 --> 34:15.130 those New York Jews. 34:15.133 --> 34:17.903 He's not thinking about those. 34:17.900 --> 34:24.230 Instead, the New York Jew that he has in mind is very 34:24.233 --> 34:28.203 similar, is a kind of transnational Jew. 34:28.200 --> 34:32.000 This is a picture by the French painter Degas. 34:32.000 --> 34:36.470 I think that we know him probably from all his 34:36.467 --> 34:39.027 paintings of the ballet dancers. 34:39.033 --> 34:43.103 So we think of him as a painter of very graceful 34:43.100 --> 34:44.430 bodies in motion. 34:44.433 --> 34:48.933 But he actually also has a whole range of paintings about 34:48.933 --> 34:50.703 social portraits. 34:50.700 --> 34:56.530 And this is a painting of a French Jewish banker at the 34:56.533 --> 34:58.303 French Bourse-- 34:58.300 --> 34:59.170 stock exchange -- 34:59.167 --> 35:09.627 in Paris and the machinations engaged in by the proverbial, 35:09.633 --> 35:14.533 I guess, transnational Jew, always scheming and conspiring 35:14.533 --> 35:16.233 for no good. 35:16.233 --> 35:20.273 Jason's image of the New York Jew has everything in common 35:20.267 --> 35:24.897 with this anti-Semitic image in Degas' painting. 35:24.900 --> 35:31.170 And so we can see that really the whole financial world is 35:31.167 --> 35:33.827 really opening up in the Jason section. 35:33.833 --> 35:36.233 But there's one other detail that we get. 35:36.233 --> 35:40.233 And in this way, Jason's also a guide for us to the world of 35:40.233 --> 35:43.033 the 1920s, basically the whole of the early twentieth 35:43.033 --> 35:47.073 century, because of his mention to Nicaragua. 35:47.067 --> 35:50.697 And it turns out that that's actually an accurate mention. 35:50.700 --> 35:57.670 The United States was in Nicaragua from 1909 to 1933. 35:57.667 --> 36:02.327 In 1916, getting closer to the date of The 36:02.333 --> 36:02.903 Sound and the Fury-- 36:02.900 --> 36:04.500 The Sound and the Fury, let me just say, was 36:04.500 --> 36:07.430 published in 1929. 36:07.433 --> 36:10.373 So keep that date in your mind, 1929. 36:10.367 --> 36:14.227 But in any case, in 1916, there was the 36:14.233 --> 36:16.203 Chamorro-Bryan Treaty. 36:16.200 --> 36:21.700 It was ratified by the US Senate in 1916, and it gave 36:21.700 --> 36:25.870 the United States exclusive rights to build an 36:25.867 --> 36:30.567 inter-oceanic canal across Nicaragua. 36:30.567 --> 36:33.897 The Panama Canal was already in existence, but there was 36:33.900 --> 36:37.370 some thought that maybe another canal might be useful. 36:37.367 --> 36:40.527 And the United States was claiming exclusive rights to 36:40.533 --> 36:42.803 build that canal. 36:42.800 --> 36:49.330 And that treaty also turned Nicaragua into a near US 36:49.333 --> 36:52.303 protectorate, so that's Jason's complaint about the 36:52.300 --> 36:56.870 $50,000 every day spent to keep an army in Nicaragua. 36:56.867 --> 37:00.727 So Jason is someone who reads the newspapers, clearly. 37:00.733 --> 37:02.703 He's a good newspaper reader. 37:02.700 --> 37:04.470 He's up on the news. 37:04.467 --> 37:09.627 He has almost legitimate complaints against the US 37:09.633 --> 37:12.873 government and the foreign intervention of the US 37:12.867 --> 37:15.767 government and the drain on the finances 37:15.767 --> 37:17.927 of the United States. 37:17.933 --> 37:22.373 And so all of a sudden, there's a conflation of the 37:22.367 --> 37:26.297 New York Jew, the US government, strangers at a 37:26.300 --> 37:28.670 distance, up to no good. 37:28.667 --> 37:33.067 So people who are far away, you never set sight on them, 37:33.067 --> 37:36.267 they are harming you in some fashion. 37:36.267 --> 37:41.667 Let's look at another way in which-- 37:41.667 --> 37:44.927 and here, in the earlier passage, when the US 37:44.933 --> 37:49.673 government is just spending $50,000 a day in Nicaragua, 37:49.667 --> 37:52.097 Jason himself claims to be completely innocent. 37:52.100 --> 37:55.830 He's just harmed by the foreign policy of the United 37:55.833 --> 37:57.173 States government. 37:57.167 --> 38:02.967 But in the next passage, we see that actually Jason is in 38:02.967 --> 38:08.967 some sense a willing party to the harm that is coming to him 38:08.967 --> 38:12.197 in the sense that he is complicitous in the world that 38:12.200 --> 38:14.900 he's complaining about. 38:14.900 --> 38:19.170 And this is also the second instance of injury from 38:19.167 --> 38:20.697 unknown parties. 38:20.700 --> 38:24.270 "Damn if I believe anybody knows anything about the damn 38:24.267 --> 38:28.927 thing except the ones that sit back in those New York offices 38:28.933 --> 38:33.403 and watch the country suckers come up and beg them to take 38:33.400 --> 38:34.500 their money. 38:34.500 --> 38:38.330 Only be damned if it doesn't look like a company as big and 38:38.333 --> 38:43.073 rich as Western Union could get a market report out on 38:43.067 --> 38:47.997 time half as quick as they'll get a wire to you saying your 38:48.000 --> 38:49.530 account closed out. 38:49.533 --> 38:52.403 But what the hell do care about the people? 38:52.400 --> 38:55.130 They're hand in glove with the New York crowd. 38:55.133 --> 38:57.803 Anybody could see that." 38:57.800 --> 39:04.170 Why is Jason so obsessed with Western Union and with the 39:04.167 --> 39:08.697 telegraph as a newly developed instrumentality of 39:08.700 --> 39:10.400 communication? 39:10.400 --> 39:15.200 Well, it turns out that he's a small investor, and he wants 39:15.200 --> 39:17.730 to find out exactly how his stocks are doing. 39:17.733 --> 39:20.973 He wants to be able to invest or withdraw his money. 39:20.967 --> 39:23.327 So the Western Union is crucial. 39:23.333 --> 39:27.503 His relation to Wall Street is crucial, but the Western Union 39:27.500 --> 39:31.670 is crucial in getting those reports to him on time and 39:31.667 --> 39:35.627 allowing him to change his investments on time. 39:35.633 --> 39:40.133 And it turns out that the Western Union was in fact a 39:40.133 --> 39:44.573 very common sight in the South. 39:44.567 --> 39:48.797 There were many telegraph offices in the South. 39:48.800 --> 39:55.930 And this is the main Western Union office in New York City. 39:55.933 --> 39:58.833 So once again, Jason really knows what he's talking about. 39:58.833 --> 40:02.733 He's naming entities that actually were 40:02.733 --> 40:06.133 real historical entities. 40:06.133 --> 40:09.133 And here's a bank. 40:09.133 --> 40:16.133 This is a historic bank on the historic Oxford Square in 40:16.133 --> 40:17.373 Oxford, Mississippi-- 40:17.367 --> 40:19.827 that is Jefferson, Mississippi-- 40:19.833 --> 40:25.003 and this is the main square in town, so banks were also a 40:25.000 --> 40:28.900 very important presence in Oxford, Mississippi. 40:28.900 --> 40:36.970 And it's really Jason's relationship to the banks, 40:36.967 --> 40:40.467 both the local banks and also the national banks on Wall 40:40.467 --> 40:45.797 Street by way of the mediator, by the Western Union, that 40:45.800 --> 40:48.870 really is the main relation in his life. 40:48.867 --> 40:51.767 Yes, he has a relation to his niece, Quentin. 40:51.767 --> 40:53.697 He has a relation to his mother. 40:53.700 --> 40:55.330 He has a relation to his black servants. 40:55.333 --> 40:57.403 He hates them all. 40:57.400 --> 41:02.200 And the most significant relation that he has is to his 41:02.200 --> 41:07.770 money, held in jeopardy now by the national 41:07.767 --> 41:12.567 banks on Wall Street. 41:12.567 --> 41:15.967 And it is in that context that all of a sudden the 41:15.967 --> 41:23.227 proverb-like phrase reappears, but in a very sad, almost a 41:23.233 --> 41:26.473 plea from Jason. 41:26.467 --> 41:31.027 "Like I say, once a bitch, always a bitch. 41:31.033 --> 41:36.073 And just let me have 24 hours without any damn New York Jew 41:36.067 --> 41:38.867 to advise me what it's going to do. 41:38.867 --> 41:40.767 I don't want to make a killing. 41:40.767 --> 41:44.827 Save that to suck in the smart gamblers with. 41:44.833 --> 41:50.373 I just want an even chance to get my money back." 41:50.367 --> 41:55.397 I think that that is the very small hope 41:55.400 --> 41:56.900 on the part of Jason. 41:56.900 --> 42:00.530 He's not asking to make a huge sum of money. 42:00.533 --> 42:05.133 He just doesn't want to lose all his money. 42:05.133 --> 42:07.303 And it's such a modest hope that we know 42:07.300 --> 42:09.300 it's bound to be defeated. 42:09.300 --> 42:14.230 Because of course, in such a world of long-distance action 42:14.233 --> 42:18.833 and a world operated by total strangers with huge, 42:18.833 --> 42:23.073 large-scale, impersonal institutions, small investors 42:23.067 --> 42:25.327 are the ones who lose out. 42:25.333 --> 42:30.273 So it's a phenomenon that we recognize very well. 42:30.267 --> 42:34.567 In that way, I think that we shouldn't forget that just as 42:34.567 --> 42:39.997 Faulkner has a lot of sympathy for Benjy, Faulkner also has a 42:40.000 --> 42:42.130 lot of sympathy for Jason. 42:42.133 --> 42:45.773 It's very hard for us as readers to have any sympathy 42:45.767 --> 42:46.627 for Jason at all. 42:46.633 --> 42:51.703 He's just such an offensive, off-putting character. 42:51.700 --> 42:55.800 But I think that that very resonant, small plea-- "I just 42:55.800 --> 42:59.500 want an even chance to get my money back"-- 42:59.500 --> 43:01.670 in that one phrase, Jason in many ways 43:01.667 --> 43:04.527 speaks for all of us. 43:04.533 --> 43:09.333 And Faulkner knows it, that that is in many ways the most 43:09.333 --> 43:13.203 important phrase in the Jason section. 43:13.200 --> 43:19.300 And as it turns out, the irony of history is such that the 43:19.300 --> 43:24.000 history of the United States turns out to be a corridor to 43:24.000 --> 43:24.900 The Sound and the Fury. 43:24.900 --> 43:28.900 Because the same year that The Sound and the Fury came out 43:28.900 --> 43:30.970 was also the year of the crash. 43:30.967 --> 43:34.627 And here is an image of the trading floor of the New York 43:34.633 --> 43:40.133 Stock Exchange and two more images, the crowds outside the 43:40.133 --> 43:43.373 New York Stock Exchange. 43:43.367 --> 43:45.997 All those people are probably much bigger 43:46.000 --> 43:47.970 investors than Jason. 43:47.967 --> 43:49.467 They're right there on the spot. 43:49.467 --> 43:50.697 They're probably big investors. 43:53.400 --> 43:54.700 They're the traders, actually. 43:54.700 --> 43:56.300 A lot of them were traders. 43:56.300 --> 43:59.670 So they were insiders on Wall Street. 43:59.667 --> 44:04.797 But even the insiders had the illusory sense that if you 44:04.800 --> 44:08.370 could just be there physically, that that would 44:08.367 --> 44:09.867 make a difference. 44:09.867 --> 44:15.997 So this proves that Raymond Williams' idea of the knowable 44:16.000 --> 44:19.570 community is actually a psychological 44:19.567 --> 44:21.667 demand from all of us. 44:21.667 --> 44:24.767 All of us want to know the people we're having 44:24.767 --> 44:25.997 transactions with. 44:26.000 --> 44:29.930 All of us are creating knowable communities right 44:29.933 --> 44:32.803 around us, even though the actual, historical 44:32.800 --> 44:37.330 circumstances are making those knowable communities an 44:37.333 --> 44:39.903 impossible ideal in the present. 44:39.900 --> 44:44.100 So we know that those people are there on the spot trying 44:44.100 --> 44:49.270 to recreate in vain a utopian ideal from the past. And even 44:49.267 --> 44:53.727 though they're not country suckers like Jason, in the 44:53.733 --> 44:57.773 sense that they are not from Mississippi, they resemble him 44:57.767 --> 44:59.667 in more ways than one. 44:59.667 --> 45:05.597 So in that sense, the Jason section represents the largest 45:05.600 --> 45:09.530 possible scale for Faulkner. 45:09.533 --> 45:14.833 It really is about the entire world captured by Jason's 45:14.833 --> 45:19.073 dealings and his failed attempt to come to terms with 45:19.067 --> 45:20.097 the future. 45:20.100 --> 45:25.170 The tomorrow that he's guiding us to is really no place to 45:25.167 --> 45:28.827 be, but I think that for him and for lots of other people, 45:28.833 --> 45:30.503 that is the present. 45:30.500 --> 45:35.900 But for Jason, it's the problem of trying to find a 45:35.900 --> 45:40.230 resting place, a sustainable or some kind of bearable place 45:40.233 --> 45:41.203 in that tomorrow. 45:41.200 --> 45:44.530 That's going to be the challenge for Faulkner in the 45:44.533 --> 45:46.473 last section of The Sound and the Fury. 45:46.467 --> 45:51.727 So we'll come back to an alternative to the automobile 45:51.733 --> 45:56.373 at the very end of The Sound and the Fury and Jason's 45:56.367 --> 45:57.597 satisfaction with that.