WEBVTT 00:01.167 --> 00:06.367 WAI CHEE DIMOCK: So we're going to get started on 00:06.367 --> 00:09.267 As I Lay Dying and, as with 00:09.267 --> 00:15.897 The Sound and the Fury, there's a very long genealogy 00:15.900 --> 00:19.130 behind the title of the novel. 00:19.133 --> 00:21.573 Once again, there's a very learned 00:21.567 --> 00:24.767 illusion behind the title. 00:24.767 --> 00:27.427 And it doesn't go back to Macbeth this time. 00:27.433 --> 00:30.103 It actually goes back father. 00:30.100 --> 00:32.570 It goes back to The Odyssey. 00:32.567 --> 00:34.767 And you guys might remember -- 00:34.767 --> 00:38.197 said in Book 11 of The Odyssey -- 00:38.200 --> 00:43.570 Odysseus goes down to the underworld and he sees his 00:43.567 --> 00:48.527 mother, but he also sees all the illustrious dead from the 00:48.533 --> 00:49.973 Trojan War. 00:49.967 --> 00:54.767 And among the dead that he talks to is Agamemnon. 00:54.767 --> 00:58.827 And we know that Agamemnon was killed when he got back from 00:58.833 --> 01:00.733 the Trojan War. 01:00.733 --> 01:03.933 And so, Odysseus wants to find out the 01:03.933 --> 01:06.133 circumstances of his death. 01:06.133 --> 01:08.133 And Agamemnon says -- obviously in translation -- 01:11.833 --> 01:16.933 "As I lay dying, the woman with the dog's eyes would not 01:16.933 --> 01:28.733 close my eyes as I descended into Hades." There's a very 01:28.733 --> 01:33.633 good record within the epic, it is also picked up in 01:33.633 --> 01:36.373 various Greek tragedies, because that's one of the 01:36.367 --> 01:42.527 central tragedies in classical world, is the killing of 01:42.533 --> 01:45.233 Agamemnon by his wife's lover. 01:45.233 --> 01:48.633 But there's a long story behind that, the reason that 01:48.633 --> 01:50.103 Clytemnestra-- 01:50.100 --> 01:53.000 and I went to remember that name, because Clytemnestra 01:53.000 --> 01:57.370 will come up again in Light in August. There's a very--- 01:57.367 --> 01:58.097 no, actually. 01:58.100 --> 01:59.070 Sorry. 01:59.067 --> 02:01.167 She doesn't come up in Light in August, she comes up in 02:01.167 --> 02:04.067 another novel, in Absalom, Absalom! 02:04.067 --> 02:07.397 So it's a name that is very important to Faulkner. 02:07.400 --> 02:13.800 But within the confines of As I Lay Dying, Clytemnestra 02:13.800 --> 02:17.500 actually didn't just want to kill her husband to have 02:17.500 --> 02:21.500 affair with Aegisthus, she was actually seeking revenge for 02:21.500 --> 02:25.270 the killing of her daughter, Iphigenia. 02:25.267 --> 02:31.397 When the Greek ships were not able to sail because there was 02:31.400 --> 02:33.130 a dead calm. 02:33.133 --> 02:36.273 Iphigenia was sacrificed by Agamemnon in 02:36.267 --> 02:38.667 order to get them going. 02:38.667 --> 02:41.697 And she nursed that grievance for 10 years. 02:41.700 --> 02:46.500 And so, when Agamemnon comes home, he was with his 02:46.500 --> 02:52.330 mistress, Cassandra from Troy, he was killed by Aegisthus 02:52.333 --> 02:55.473 with Clytemnestra egging him on. 02:55.467 --> 03:01.897 So this is, in many ways, the defining tragic moment in the 03:01.900 --> 03:03.500 classical world. 03:03.500 --> 03:07.700 And then numerous representations of that, of 03:07.700 --> 03:12.900 Aegisthus killing Agamemnon with Clytemnestra looking on. 03:12.900 --> 03:19.400 And this is a really handy identification illustration 03:19.400 --> 03:21.830 for all the names given to us. 03:21.833 --> 03:25.003 So Clytemnestra is there, Aegisthus is the one who 03:25.000 --> 03:27.400 actually does the killing, Agamemnon being killed. 03:27.400 --> 03:30.700 Electra is his daughter, and she will bring her brother 03:30.700 --> 03:33.900 back, Orestes, to kill Aegisthus. 03:33.900 --> 03:37.570 So it really is back and forth killing across many 03:37.567 --> 03:38.627 generations. 03:38.633 --> 03:40.903 And Cassandra will, in time-- 03:40.900 --> 03:42.330 well, actually right there-- 03:42.333 --> 03:44.233 be killed by Clytemnestra. 03:44.233 --> 03:47.603 So lots of violence, lots of hatred. 03:47.600 --> 03:52.800 And this is the defining future of the house of Atreus. 03:52.800 --> 03:57.330 So it's very important for Faulkner to be referring back 03:57.333 --> 04:02.833 to this ancient epic moment, because he's obviously talking 04:02.833 --> 04:07.203 about a family with very complicated emotional 04:07.200 --> 04:08.300 relationships, right? 04:08.300 --> 04:13.570 It's a family that is not entirely defined by love. 04:13.567 --> 04:16.267 We would like families to be defined by love, but usually 04:16.267 --> 04:20.467 most families are a little bit more complicated than this. 04:20.467 --> 04:27.097 And in this case, the house of the Bundrens, the family is 04:27.100 --> 04:30.000 infinitely more complicated than just being defined by 04:30.000 --> 04:32.770 love, even though it's on the other end 04:32.767 --> 04:34.667 of the social spectrum. 04:34.667 --> 04:39.297 So let's keep that epic tradition in mind. 04:39.300 --> 04:43.800 But I also want to, just to highlight the immediate 04:43.800 --> 04:47.830 chronology for the writing of As I Lay Dying. 04:47.833 --> 04:52.173 It's a very, very packed chronology, basically for six 04:52.167 --> 05:01.027 months, from the summer of 1929 to January, 1930-- 05:01.033 --> 05:03.533 less than six months, really -- 05:03.533 --> 05:05.103 a lot of things happen. 05:05.100 --> 05:12.300 So June 20, Faulkner married his childhood sweetheart, 05:12.300 --> 05:13.830 Estelle Oldham. 05:13.833 --> 05:17.103 And that was only two months after her divorce from her 05:17.100 --> 05:18.870 husband, Cornell Franklin. 05:22.300 --> 05:25.470 When something like that happens, you just wonder what 05:25.467 --> 05:29.827 the aftermath would be, or what led up to it. 05:29.833 --> 05:34.533 So anyway, two months-- it was a very hasty marriage, in many 05:34.533 --> 05:37.273 ways, unseemly marriage. 05:37.267 --> 05:41.297 And she brought to the marriage two children with 05:41.300 --> 05:46.300 Cornell Franklin, Malcolm and Victoria. 05:46.300 --> 05:50.070 Then October 7, 1929, The Sound and 05:50.067 --> 05:52.497 the Fury was published. 05:52.500 --> 05:57.330 And two weeks after that was the stock market crash that in 05:57.333 --> 06:01.803 many ways was anticipated by the Jason section in The Sound 06:01.800 --> 06:03.270 and the Fury. 06:03.267 --> 06:05.267 And a day after that-- 06:05.267 --> 06:07.267 I mean, that was still going on, because 06:07.267 --> 06:09.197 the 24th was a Thursday-- 06:09.200 --> 06:11.600 so Friday was actually the official day of the stock 06:11.600 --> 06:12.330 market crash. 06:12.333 --> 06:15.033 On that very day, Faulkner started 06:15.033 --> 06:16.673 writing As I Lay Dying. 06:16.667 --> 06:22.197 So we can't think of a better novel occasioned by the Great 06:22.200 --> 06:24.030 Depression. 06:24.033 --> 06:28.373 To Have and Have Not, as title analysis, is very much a Great 06:28.367 --> 06:32.297 Depression novel, but As I Lay Dying is as well. 06:32.300 --> 06:34.730 So we have to keep that in mind. 06:34.733 --> 06:41.033 And it was finished really fast, in just a few weeks. 06:41.033 --> 06:45.333 January 12, 1930, As I Lay Dying was finished. 06:45.333 --> 06:48.873 And Faulkner talks about it, he makes a very emphatic point 06:48.867 --> 06:51.727 about how fast this was done. 06:51.733 --> 06:57.703 So in an interview with Marshall Smith, 1931, he said 06:57.700 --> 07:01.100 "Got a job rolling coal in a power plant. 07:01.100 --> 07:06.070 Found the sound of the dynamo very conducive to literature. 07:06.067 --> 07:10.727 Wrote As I Lay Dying in a coal bunker beside the dynamo 07:10.733 --> 07:14.373 between working spells on the night shift. 07:14.367 --> 07:16.697 Finished it in six weeks. 07:16.700 --> 07:18.430 Never changed a word. 07:18.433 --> 07:22.073 If I I ever got rich, I am going to buy a dynamo and put 07:22.067 --> 07:22.927 it in my house. 07:22.933 --> 07:24.873 I think that would make writing easier." 07:24.867 --> 07:27.527 So tongue in cheek, as always, you know, you should never 07:27.533 --> 07:30.403 trust a word that Faulker says. 07:30.400 --> 07:33.930 But I think that there's some things that are not to be 07:33.933 --> 07:36.403 disputed and not to be fabricated. 07:36.400 --> 07:41.500 And that was the fact that he was working in a power plant, 07:41.500 --> 07:42.300 working night shifts. 07:42.300 --> 07:47.630 So this is very different from the Faulkner that we might 07:47.633 --> 07:50.473 have imagined just by looking at his house. 07:50.467 --> 07:52.867 And I'm going to show you a picture of his 07:52.867 --> 07:55.197 house a little later. 07:55.200 --> 08:03.600 But it looks like a very stately house. 08:03.600 --> 08:08.600 But actually, when Faulkner first bought the house, it was 08:08.600 --> 08:12.870 decrepit and was deemed unfit for human habitation. 08:12.867 --> 08:17.327 So he really was someone, a writer, who was writing his 08:17.333 --> 08:20.433 great novels when he was working at a power plant, 08:20.433 --> 08:22.303 doing night shifts. 08:22.300 --> 08:24.500 And that's the world that he knew very well. 08:24.500 --> 08:28.200 So his circumstances were actually not that far removed 08:28.200 --> 08:31.070 from the circumstances of the Bundren family-- 08:31.067 --> 08:33.167 poor whites, obviously. 08:33.167 --> 08:38.997 So this is a picture of the house 25 years 08:39.000 --> 08:41.100 after he bought it. 08:41.100 --> 08:43.100 And we can see that it actually still 08:43.100 --> 08:44.530 looks a little decrepit. 08:44.533 --> 08:46.903 It's a very stately shape. 08:46.900 --> 08:50.670 Used to be very grand house, but it's unpainted. 08:50.667 --> 08:53.497 And actually, not in very-- 08:53.500 --> 08:58.070 even 25 years after he started owning the house, it was still 08:58.067 --> 08:59.497 not repaired. 08:59.500 --> 09:01.970 So basically, he spent the rest of his life trying to fix 09:01.967 --> 09:03.097 up that house. 09:03.100 --> 09:06.830 What we also see there is his wife, Estelle. 09:06.833 --> 09:09.273 And it turned out it was a very good marriage, in spite 09:09.267 --> 09:14.497 of the haze, it lasted for the rest of his life. 09:14.500 --> 09:18.570 And here's the picture of the two of them side by side. 09:18.567 --> 09:22.797 And so, it's kind of an unexpected trajectory for that 09:22.800 --> 09:27.200 unseemly marriage back in 1929. 09:27.200 --> 09:30.170 And so that's the family situation. 09:30.167 --> 09:33.097 And his probably very complicated relation to his 09:33.100 --> 09:38.070 two stepchildren, probably wasn't exactly what 09:38.067 --> 09:39.767 constitutes a family. 09:39.767 --> 09:42.567 Those questions would have been front and center for 09:42.567 --> 09:47.667 Faulkner in 1929 when he was writing this novel about 09:47.667 --> 09:51.567 families in general, about a generic poor white family. 09:51.567 --> 09:55.097 Since the depression was right there in the middle of August, 09:55.100 --> 09:59.170 I thought that I would show you a very iconic picture by 09:59.167 --> 10:03.927 Dorothea Lange, "Migrant Mother," 1936. 10:03.933 --> 10:06.073 This is an image that's reproduced 10:06.067 --> 10:07.097 over and over again. 10:07.100 --> 10:11.270 It's the defining image of the Great Depression. 10:11.267 --> 10:16.827 And it actually is quite different from the spirit in 10:16.833 --> 10:19.673 which As I Lay Dying was written. 10:19.667 --> 10:22.597 So I think that this represents one way to think 10:22.600 --> 10:24.300 about the Great Depression. 10:24.300 --> 10:27.100 But actually, the way that Faulkner thinks about the 10:27.100 --> 10:32.030 Great Depression, I argue, is closer to another classic work 10:32.033 --> 10:36.773 about the rural south, James Agee and Walker Evans's 10:36.767 --> 10:41.097 collaboration is a text with lots of photographs. 10:41.100 --> 10:43.800 It's a collaboration between the two of them called Let Us 10:43.800 --> 10:45.730 Now Praise Famous Men. 10:45.733 --> 10:49.633 I'll just show you a few pictures, Walker Evans' 10:49.633 --> 10:56.133 pictures of how it feels to be a poor white in also the same 10:56.133 --> 11:01.003 year as the Dorothea Lange picture, 1936. 11:01.000 --> 11:04.900 So this is a little later, after Faulkner had already 11:04.900 --> 11:06.430 finished As I Lay Dying. 11:06.433 --> 11:10.933 But this is what the house of a sharecropper would have 11:10.933 --> 11:11.433 looked like. 11:11.433 --> 11:15.733 And I think the common estimate was that 80%, maybe 11:15.733 --> 11:20.773 more than 80%, of farm laborers in the south were 11:20.767 --> 11:21.667 sharecroppers. 11:21.667 --> 11:23.797 The didn't own the land. 11:23.800 --> 11:30.130 So this is the interior of the house of the poor whites. 11:30.133 --> 11:32.873 And another interior bedroom. 11:32.867 --> 11:33.997 And I love this picture. 11:34.000 --> 11:36.270 It's Allie Mae. 11:36.267 --> 11:37.927 Beautiful face. 11:37.933 --> 11:41.433 Very proud and very sad and very resigned, but not giving 11:41.433 --> 11:44.673 up, and that's exactly my image of 11:44.667 --> 11:48.327 Addie, as a poor white. 11:48.333 --> 11:54.033 So anyway, that is the background to As I Lay Dying. 11:54.033 --> 11:59.503 I think that we just need to read about two pages, two or 11:59.500 --> 12:04.830 three pages into the novel to say this is another highly 12:04.833 --> 12:09.203 experimental novel, experimenting in different 12:09.200 --> 12:12.000 points of views, and this is really a 12:12.000 --> 12:15.000 dazzling array of narrators. 12:15.000 --> 12:19.570 So in the first 18 chapters, these are the narrators. 12:19.567 --> 12:24.327 And nobody has to keep track of them, just pick the ones 12:24.333 --> 12:26.133 that you can remember. 12:26.133 --> 12:30.073 But they also tend to have very distinctive voices. 12:30.067 --> 12:31.997 They actually are very easily recognizable. 12:32.000 --> 12:33.830 So don't worry. 12:33.833 --> 12:37.073 In fact, there's no danger that you'll get them mixed up. 12:37.067 --> 12:45.197 So in order to talk about this very rich assembly of points 12:45.200 --> 12:49.730 of views, and styles of speaking, and speaking voices, 12:49.733 --> 12:53.303 I thought that I would introduce two other critics or 12:53.300 --> 12:56.230 theorists about the novel. 12:56.233 --> 12:58.633 About narrative in general, actually, not just about the 12:58.633 --> 13:01.573 novel, because narrative goes much further 13:01.567 --> 13:03.827 back than the novel. 13:03.833 --> 13:07.473 So the epic, The Odyssey, would be one 13:07.467 --> 13:09.567 kind of ancient narrative. 13:09.567 --> 13:13.497 Although Bahktin, a very celebrated Russian theorist of 13:13.500 --> 13:16.500 the novel, doesn't like the epic all that much. 13:16.500 --> 13:18.530 He thinks the novel is really the greatest thing 13:18.533 --> 13:20.503 replacing the epic. 13:20.500 --> 13:24.200 But in any case, that's what he says about the novel. 13:24.200 --> 13:29.200 And what makes the novel so great is that, even though 13:29.200 --> 13:31.830 there's this illusion when we just see words on the page, 13:31.833 --> 13:36.533 then everything seems unified, that the novel is actually a 13:36.533 --> 13:41.333 highly diversified genre with lots of internal fractures. 13:41.333 --> 13:45.973 And what generates those internal fractures is that 13:45.967 --> 13:48.767 there are multiple languages in the novel. 13:48.767 --> 13:50.167 That's what he says. 13:50.167 --> 13:55.367 The novel is made of "social dialects, characteristic group 13:55.367 --> 14:01.397 behavior professional jargons, generic languages, languages 14:01.400 --> 14:07.730 of generations and age groups, tendentious languages, 14:07.733 --> 14:11.533 languages of the authorities, of various circles and of 14:11.533 --> 14:13.533 passing fashions... 14:13.533 --> 14:17.703 serving to express authorial intentions, but in a 14:17.700 --> 14:19.630 refractive way." 14:19.633 --> 14:23.503 So we all know that novels actually do register passing 14:23.500 --> 14:25.030 fashions very well, right? 14:25.033 --> 14:30.433 So a novel about a valley girl would have the word "like," 14:30.433 --> 14:32.973 the word "like" would be repeated constantly. 14:32.967 --> 14:35.597 It wouldn't be realistic if it weren't. 14:35.600 --> 14:41.000 So that is the nature of the novel, is to 14:41.000 --> 14:43.400 mimic current speech. 14:43.400 --> 14:48.830 And so, Bakhtin is very, very accurate in his description of 14:48.833 --> 14:54.433 the currency, and the way that the novel is always up to date 14:54.433 --> 14:59.103 on the language that people are using, actual living 14:59.100 --> 15:00.100 people are using. 15:00.100 --> 15:04.030 Although novels can also choose to be historic novels, 15:04.033 --> 15:06.633 in which case, they would be trying to mimic the language 15:06.633 --> 15:09.833 of the eighteenth century, or whatever, as Pynchon sometimes 15:09.833 --> 15:15.403 does, and is a master at doing that. 15:15.400 --> 15:20.830 So Bakhtin is great in terms of talking about the social 15:20.833 --> 15:22.633 dimension of language. 15:22.633 --> 15:24.973 And I don't think that you guys need to be reminded that 15:24.967 --> 15:27.567 this is directly related to a discussion of 15:27.567 --> 15:28.727 social types, right? 15:28.733 --> 15:31.603 And Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. 15:31.600 --> 15:35.970 So basically, this is the social dialects of various 15:35.967 --> 15:38.927 labelable social groups. 15:38.933 --> 15:43.003 But I think as we read As I Lay Dying, we can also see 15:43.000 --> 15:46.570 that there's something else going on other than social 15:46.567 --> 15:51.697 dialects, that Bahktin's theory actually is inadequate 15:51.700 --> 15:54.830 to describing the spectrum of linguistic 15:54.833 --> 15:57.503 phenomena in As I Lay Dying. 15:57.500 --> 16:01.670 So to supplement Bakhtin, I would like to introduce one 16:01.667 --> 16:07.167 other critic, distinguished British critic who died in 16:07.167 --> 16:09.827 2010, Frank Kermode. 16:09.833 --> 16:14.003 And this is actually in a book that he wrote earlier, quite 16:14.000 --> 16:17.900 early in his career, called The Genesis of Secrecy Through 16:17.900 --> 16:20.300 Interpretation of Narrative. 16:20.300 --> 16:27.230 And Bakhtin's theory is that, yes, we tend to interpret 16:27.233 --> 16:27.533 narratives. 16:27.533 --> 16:31.633 When we're given a narrative, most of us tended to interpret 16:31.633 --> 16:33.273 it in some fashion. 16:33.267 --> 16:36.727 But his argument is also that narratives themselves are 16:36.733 --> 16:38.803 interpretations of reality. 16:38.800 --> 16:43.270 So when we actually try to interpret a narrative, we're 16:43.267 --> 16:46.767 actually doing a kind of meta-interpretation, in the 16:46.767 --> 16:49.027 sense that the narrative itself is an 16:49.033 --> 16:52.433 interpretation of reality. 16:52.433 --> 16:59.173 And not only that, but that secrecy, secrets emerge in the 16:59.167 --> 17:00.667 course of that interpretation. 17:00.667 --> 17:05.197 Which is a fascinating notion of how secrets are generated, 17:05.200 --> 17:08.570 not when we're trying to hide something from other people, 17:08.567 --> 17:12.467 but when we go about interpreting reality, that is 17:12.467 --> 17:19.227 when secrets become a recognizable reality. 17:19.233 --> 17:23.433 Maybe not measurable, but they become registered as a 17:23.433 --> 17:24.933 dimension of reality. 17:24.933 --> 17:26.833 So, very, very interesting idea. 17:26.833 --> 17:32.873 And Kermode, basically, is interested in the Bible as his 17:32.867 --> 17:36.997 reading of the Gospel of St. Mark. 17:37.000 --> 17:38.900 But he's also interested in narrative in general. 17:38.900 --> 17:47.630 So let's think about how his idea could be incorporated or 17:47.633 --> 17:53.733 combined with Bakhtin's theory of social dialects to think 17:53.733 --> 17:57.833 about the basic linguistic paradigm in As I Lay Dying. 17:57.833 --> 18:04.103 So what I'd like to suggest is that we can very schematically 18:04.100 --> 18:08.670 classify speech in As I Lay Dying under two headings. 18:08.667 --> 18:12.227 One is the social dialect, and it has to do with functionally 18:12.233 --> 18:13.733 coded speech. 18:13.733 --> 18:18.033 When you are within a particular group, generic 18:18.033 --> 18:22.103 group, because there's so much commonality among that group, 18:22.100 --> 18:25.700 quite often you would just use a shorthand. 18:25.700 --> 18:28.800 So, for Liberals, Sarah Palin would be one 18:28.800 --> 18:29.800 such shorthand, right? 18:29.800 --> 18:32.000 You don't need to say anything more. 18:32.000 --> 18:35.700 Just reference Sara Palin and that's enough. 18:35.700 --> 18:38.470 So that's one example of a currently 18:38.467 --> 18:40.797 functionally coded speech. 18:40.800 --> 18:43.100 It, obviously, is a dialect subgroup, it's not 18:43.100 --> 18:46.230 representative of the entire population. 18:46.233 --> 18:52.303 And because it is so intimately formative of that 18:52.300 --> 18:58.200 subgroup, the very use of language can function as a 18:58.200 --> 19:02.730 socioeconomic and psychological portrait of that 19:02.733 --> 19:06.103 subset as a population. 19:06.100 --> 19:08.800 All those concepts are very important to Bakhtin, that a 19:08.800 --> 19:13.170 population is made up of various subsets and there are 19:13.167 --> 19:15.597 lines of division among those subsets based on the 19:15.600 --> 19:16.930 linguistic usage. 19:16.933 --> 19:20.033 So this is the social dimension, and we'll think, 19:20.033 --> 19:22.373 obviously, about how poor whites would 19:22.367 --> 19:24.697 use the English language. 19:24.700 --> 19:28.270 But almost from the very beginning, we also see that 19:28.267 --> 19:29.827 the English language is used in a different 19:29.833 --> 19:32.003 way in As I Lay Dying. 19:32.000 --> 19:34.970 So those are the words with secrets, and it's very, very 19:34.967 --> 19:40.267 hard not to read As I Lay Dying without sensing that 19:40.267 --> 19:42.527 those words are pregnant with meaning. 19:42.533 --> 19:46.233 Quite often we're denied access to those meanings. 19:46.233 --> 19:51.933 They sort of taunt us with meaning that is not 19:51.933 --> 19:53.573 available to us. 19:53.567 --> 19:56.127 And that's part of the attraction and 19:56.133 --> 19:57.873 power of those words. 19:57.867 --> 19:59.627 So I like to think about those words with 19:59.633 --> 20:02.033 secrets along two lines. 20:02.033 --> 20:06.903 One is relatively short term, and relatively transparent in 20:06.900 --> 20:10.470 the sense that we can get to them sooner or later. 20:10.467 --> 20:15.067 And the other would be long running words with secrets 20:15.067 --> 20:18.927 that are very resistant to our investigation. 20:18.933 --> 20:22.173 Words that hold on to the secrets for a long time, and 20:22.167 --> 20:24.167 maybe never giving up the secret. 20:24.167 --> 20:26.727 Never yielding anything to the reader. 20:26.733 --> 20:32.433 So let's start with an easier part of the spectrum, which is 20:32.433 --> 20:35.373 the very recognizable speech. 20:35.367 --> 20:39.997 And I'm taking both of those examples from Cora, who is, I 20:40.000 --> 20:42.600 think it's fair to say, is a very good 20:42.600 --> 20:44.630 example of a poor white. 20:47.133 --> 20:51.503 "So I saved out the eggs and baked yesterday. 20:51.500 --> 20:53.970 The cakes turned out real well. 20:53.967 --> 20:56.597 We depend a lot on our chickens. 20:56.600 --> 21:00.470 They're good layers, what few we have left after 21:00.467 --> 21:02.227 the possums and such. 21:02.233 --> 21:04.233 Snakes, too, in the summer. 21:04.233 --> 21:07.233 I had to be more careful than ever, because it was on my 21:07.233 --> 21:10.033 final say-so we took them. 21:10.033 --> 21:12.003 We could have stocked cheaper chickens, 21:12.000 --> 21:13.900 but I gave my promise. 21:13.900 --> 21:17.070 And as Miss Lawington said when she advised me to get a 21:17.067 --> 21:21.067 good breed, because Mr. Tull himself admits that a good 21:21.067 --> 21:24.367 breed of cows or hogs pays in the long run. 21:24.367 --> 21:27.497 So when we lost so many of them, we couldn't afford to 21:27.500 --> 21:31.370 use the eggs ourselves, because I could not have had 21:31.367 --> 21:38.167 Mr. Tull chide me when it was on my say-so we took them." 21:38.167 --> 21:42.527 So a very proud woman, but obviously, under very 21:42.533 --> 21:43.973 difficult circumstances. 21:43.967 --> 21:46.927 These are the people who cannot afford to eat the eggs 21:46.933 --> 21:50.273 laid by their own chickens. 21:50.267 --> 21:59.367 And it is because they lose so many chickens just from the 21:59.367 --> 22:02.667 possums and the snakes, and because those chickens are so 22:02.667 --> 22:07.867 expensive, losing one means a lot to them. 22:07.867 --> 22:12.797 So all that would seem to be Cora's responsibility. 22:12.800 --> 22:16.830 And I think that this is really Faulkner's basic 22:16.833 --> 22:19.733 portrait of the poor whites. 22:19.733 --> 22:24.973 Very, very proud people in spite of the poverty, with 22:24.967 --> 22:29.967 lots of moral rectitude, in the sense that they're willing 22:29.967 --> 22:34.427 to take all responsibility upon themselves, without 22:34.433 --> 22:38.973 recognizing that, actually, someone else should also be 22:38.967 --> 22:41.727 held responsible; the person who advises them to buy all 22:41.733 --> 22:44.203 these expensive chickens, which turns out to be very, 22:44.200 --> 22:49.370 very bad advice, but not a word of complaint from Cora. 22:49.367 --> 22:53.367 So what we can say about this world is that this is a world 22:53.367 --> 22:59.097 in which moral responsibility is tightly encapsulated within 22:59.100 --> 23:02.200 the compass of the speaking voice. 23:02.200 --> 23:05.900 That there's a basic coincidence between the 23:05.900 --> 23:10.530 boundaries of the self and the circumference of 23:10.533 --> 23:11.373 accountability. 23:11.367 --> 23:15.297 So that you are completely responsible, accountable, 23:15.300 --> 23:17.700 answerable, to anything that happens to you. 23:17.700 --> 23:21.100 It is truly unfortunate that your chickens get taken by the 23:21.100 --> 23:24.730 possums and the snakes, but it is your responsibility. 23:24.733 --> 23:29.203 So Miss Lawington is referenced, is alluded to, but 23:29.200 --> 23:31.300 no blame is attached to her. 23:31.300 --> 23:34.470 And I would say this is really the defining feature, 23:34.467 --> 23:37.697 according to Faulkner, of the mentality of the poor whites. 23:37.700 --> 23:42.300 And we can see one other instance of that. 23:42.300 --> 23:45.370 "So I baked carefully", Cora has been told by Miss 23:45.367 --> 23:47.197 Lawington again to do something. 23:47.200 --> 23:51.430 "So I baked carefully, more careful than ever I baked in 23:51.433 --> 23:52.803 my life, And. 23:52.800 --> 23:56.100 The cakes turned out right well. 23:56.100 --> 23:59.030 But when we got the town this morning, Miss Lawington told 23:59.033 --> 24:02.573 me the lady had changed her mind and was not going to have 24:02.567 --> 24:04.797 the party after all. 24:04.800 --> 24:08.030 'She ought to have taken those cakes anyway,' Kate said. 24:08.033 --> 24:11.303 'Well,' I say, 'I reckon she never had no use for them 24:11.300 --> 24:14.070 now.' 'She ought to taken them,' Kate says. 24:14.067 --> 24:17.027 'But those rich town ladies can change their minds. 24:17.033 --> 24:20.703 Poor folks can't.' Riches is nothing in the face of the 24:20.700 --> 24:23.700 Lord, for He can see into the heart. 24:23.700 --> 24:27.100 'Maybe I can tell them at the bazaar Saturday,' I say. 24:27.100 --> 24:29.570 They turned out real well." 24:29.567 --> 24:35.197 Once again, the same mentality that we saw just in the 24:35.200 --> 24:36.570 earlier passage. 24:36.567 --> 24:39.927 The full encapsulation of responsibility within the 24:39.933 --> 24:42.233 compass of a single person. 24:42.233 --> 24:48.133 And that coupled with a certain kind of 24:48.133 --> 24:53.503 psychologically redeeming piety that, even though 24:53.500 --> 24:58.500 something unfortunate is befalling me right now, that 24:58.500 --> 25:01.500 God is the ultimate judge of everything. 25:01.500 --> 25:06.500 And once again, the deep reluctance to extend the blame 25:06.500 --> 25:09.900 to anyone else, either Miss Lawington, or the rich town 25:09.900 --> 25:12.700 lady who changes her mind about the cakes. 25:12.700 --> 25:17.930 So, this is, I would say, a very sympathetic, although 25:17.933 --> 25:19.833 obviously critical-- 25:19.833 --> 25:23.733 both sympathetic and critical portrait of the poor white. 25:23.733 --> 25:27.503 And it's the baseline -- 25:27.500 --> 25:31.670 that is the given, linguistic given, psychological given, 25:31.667 --> 25:36.197 social given in the world of As I Lay Dying. 25:36.200 --> 25:40.130 And just about everything else that we see in the rest of the 25:40.133 --> 25:44.833 novel is a departure, is a deviation from that given. 25:44.833 --> 25:52.473 So Cora is the starting point and everyone else moves away a 25:52.467 --> 25:54.467 bit from that starting point. 25:54.467 --> 25:58.997 And we can measure the degree of deviation, or maybe a 25:59.000 --> 26:00.770 degree of deviance. 26:00.767 --> 26:04.027 Because As I Lay Dying is also about deviance and the 26:04.033 --> 26:07.773 consequences of deviance of any novel that we see. 26:07.767 --> 26:12.067 But this is a very important starting point for Faulkner. 26:12.067 --> 26:17.367 So let's look at the various points of departure and most 26:17.367 --> 26:20.667 of departure from that linguistic baseline. 26:20.667 --> 26:24.567 And move on now to talk about the various kinds of words 26:24.567 --> 26:25.797 with secrets. 26:25.800 --> 26:28.630 One is very short term, and I think that you guys know what 26:28.633 --> 26:31.033 I'm talking about, Dewey Dell's secret. 26:31.033 --> 26:34.673 And then the long running secret in the Bundren family 26:34.667 --> 26:37.027 coming to us from Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell. 26:37.033 --> 26:40.633 And actually, I've added one other, Vardaman. 26:40.633 --> 26:45.973 So let's look at the short term secret, Dewey Dell. 26:45.967 --> 26:49.427 And she's picking cotton with Lafe, right? 26:49.433 --> 26:55.133 And she's decided in her own mind that if her bag is full 26:55.133 --> 26:57.433 then she will do something. 26:57.433 --> 27:01.633 So this decision is hinging strictly on whether or not the 27:01.633 --> 27:03.833 bag is full. 27:03.833 --> 27:07.633 And it turns out that Lafe has been picking into her bag. 27:07.633 --> 27:12.733 "So it was full when we came to end of the row and I could 27:12.733 --> 27:14.403 not help it. 27:14.400 --> 27:17.330 And so it was I could not help it. 27:17.333 --> 27:21.903 It was then, and then I saw Darl and he knew. 27:21.900 --> 27:25.430 He said he knew without the words, like he told me that ma 27:25.433 --> 27:28.073 is going to die without words. 27:28.067 --> 27:31.967 And I knew he knew because if he said he knew with the words 27:31.967 --> 27:37.127 I would not have believed that he had been there and saw us. 27:37.133 --> 27:39.803 But he said he did know and I said, 'Are you going to tell 27:39.800 --> 27:42.730 pa, are you going to kill him?' Without the words I said 27:42.733 --> 27:45.773 it, and he said 'Why?' without the words. 27:45.767 --> 27:49.827 And that's why I can talk to him with knowing with hating 27:49.833 --> 27:51.733 because he knows." 27:51.733 --> 27:55.133 So this is the first indication that the Bundren 27:55.133 --> 27:57.803 family might have something in common with the house of 27:57.800 --> 28:04.000 Atreus, is the importance of the word hate in that family. 28:04.000 --> 28:09.800 And it seems that hatreds can come about because someone 28:09.800 --> 28:11.230 knows something about you. 28:11.233 --> 28:17.903 And all of this very intense exchange is 28:17.900 --> 28:20.100 conducted without words. 28:20.100 --> 28:22.130 So in many ways, this is-- 28:22.133 --> 28:25.333 Faulkner, obviously, is not responding to Bakhtin, he 28:25.333 --> 28:28.403 wouldn't have been thinking about Bakhtin. 28:28.400 --> 28:33.530 But he's obviously thinking of a dimension of language that 28:33.533 --> 28:38.303 is not covered, that is not encompassed by social dialect. 28:38.300 --> 28:43.800 And that is not encompassed by actually spoken words, 28:43.800 --> 28:47.530 although in order to tell us that those emotions are going 28:47.533 --> 28:50.833 through Dewey Dell, Faulkner has to use words to convey 28:50.833 --> 28:55.233 that experience to us. 28:55.233 --> 28:58.373 So Faulkner's using words, but Dewey Dell is not using words, 28:58.367 --> 29:00.297 and Darl is not using words either. 29:00.300 --> 29:04.470 And we know exactly what it is that Darl knows, that Dewey 29:04.467 --> 29:07.197 Dell is not going to town, because she's in such a 29:07.200 --> 29:10.430 condition that she needs to do something about herself. 29:10.433 --> 29:14.403 And it all comes from Lafe picking the cotton into her 29:14.400 --> 29:18.270 bag, and what happens when her bag is full. 29:18.267 --> 29:22.627 So it really is a pretty transparent secret. 29:22.633 --> 29:27.373 And I think that all of us are in the know 29:27.367 --> 29:29.067 almost right there. 29:29.067 --> 29:34.467 There are not that many secrets that a young girl in 29:34.467 --> 29:39.767 her circumstances could have. So this is almost the only 29:39.767 --> 29:44.267 secret that she could have and she does have it. 29:44.267 --> 29:51.197 So that in itself is not surprising, that she would get 29:51.200 --> 29:54.200 pregnant out of wedlock, that's not surprising. 29:54.200 --> 29:58.530 It is surprising that she would hate Darl so much 29:58.533 --> 30:01.033 because of that. 30:01.033 --> 30:06.733 So let's turn now to the more deep seeded, deep rooted kind 30:06.733 --> 30:12.073 of secret that is not always disclosed to us as the words 30:12.067 --> 30:13.197 are spoken. 30:13.200 --> 30:16.900 Maybe not disclosed to us as the narrative unfolds. 30:16.900 --> 30:20.070 And maybe never disclosed to us, ever. 30:20.067 --> 30:25.027 So Darl, it turns out, is, in fact -- as soon as the novel 30:25.033 --> 30:28.773 opens, this is the opening paragraph of As I Lay Dying. 30:28.767 --> 30:33.697 Right there in this very neutral looking statement from 30:33.700 --> 30:36.500 Darl there's a little secret. 30:36.500 --> 30:41.370 "Jewel and I come up from the field, following the path in 30:41.367 --> 30:43.197 single file. 30:43.200 --> 30:47.170 Although I am fifteen feet ahead of him, anyone watching 30:47.167 --> 30:51.827 us from the cottonhouse can see Jewel's frayed and broken 30:51.833 --> 30:55.633 straw hat a full head above my own." 30:55.633 --> 31:00.973 So it seems a kind of odd kind of emphasis on the spatial 31:00.967 --> 31:05.197 orientation of the Bundren house, the cottonhouse, and 31:05.200 --> 31:09.000 what anyone in the cottonhouse would be able to see, and the 31:09.000 --> 31:13.500 difference in height between Darl and Jewel. 31:13.500 --> 31:17.500 Well, difference in height is probably not the most 31:17.500 --> 31:21.600 significant thing in the world for most people, but within 31:21.600 --> 31:25.900 the family, difference in height actually is kind of 31:25.900 --> 31:28.830 interesting and potentially significant. 31:28.833 --> 31:33.573 So let's just keep that in mind, what seems to be a kind 31:33.567 --> 31:38.397 of a telling difference in height between Darl and Jewel. 31:38.400 --> 31:41.630 And just leave that secret right there, 31:41.633 --> 31:44.173 because Darl is not-- 31:44.167 --> 31:46.597 maybe Darl doesn't even know himself. 31:46.600 --> 31:53.070 But he's certainly the carrier of a secret that is sort of 31:53.067 --> 31:58.297 given to us, or flung at us that we are just meant to 31:58.300 --> 32:00.600 receive this thing that we don't fully 32:00.600 --> 32:03.970 understand at this moment. 32:03.967 --> 32:07.997 But this passage is, in many ways, deceptive, in the sense 32:08.000 --> 32:10.400 that there's not any complicated language and 32:10.400 --> 32:12.370 there's nothing that we obviously don't 32:12.367 --> 32:16.097 understand about it. 32:16.100 --> 32:19.700 So I would still classify this as being fairly close to the 32:19.700 --> 32:21.500 Dewey Dell kind of secret. 32:21.500 --> 32:24.470 It is long running, relatively long running. 32:24.467 --> 32:27.467 But it potentially could have the same kind of transparency 32:27.467 --> 32:30.027 as Dewey Dell's secret. 32:30.033 --> 32:34.803 But, let's look at something else where the language itself 32:34.800 --> 32:36.500 becomes very different. 32:36.500 --> 32:39.700 This is coming from Jewel himself, and I really don't 32:39.700 --> 32:41.530 actually think I can read this very well. 32:41.533 --> 32:42.873 So I will try. 32:42.867 --> 32:45.767 But Faulkner certainly is not making it easy for anyone who 32:45.767 --> 32:46.997 tries to read this. 32:47.000 --> 32:50.930 "If it had just been me when Cash fell off of that church 32:50.933 --> 32:55.233 and if it had just been meet when Pa laid sick with that 32:55.233 --> 32:58.533 load of wood fell on him, it would not be happening with 32:58.533 --> 33:02.073 every bastard in the country coming in to stare at her 33:02.067 --> 33:06.297 because if there is a God what the hell is He for. 33:06.300 --> 33:10.400 It would just be me and her on a high hill and me rolling the 33:10.400 --> 33:14.200 rocks down the hill at the faces, picking them up and 33:14.200 --> 33:18.030 throwing them down the hill at faces and teeth and all by God 33:18.033 --> 33:21.473 until she was quiet and not that goddamn adze 33:21.467 --> 33:22.997 going one lick less. 33:23.000 --> 33:27.630 One lick less and we could be quiet." 33:27.633 --> 33:32.773 I truly don't know what to say about this passage, other than 33:32.767 --> 33:35.727 that there's a lot of hatred in there, just like Dewey 33:35.733 --> 33:37.133 Dell's passage. 33:37.133 --> 33:41.973 And it seems that, for some reason, hatred is the most 33:41.967 --> 33:45.067 powerful bond in this family. 33:45.067 --> 33:47.397 And Jewel seems -- 33:47.400 --> 33:51.700 at least one conjecture that we could have about this 33:51.700 --> 33:56.300 passage, is that he wants to throw stones 33:56.300 --> 33:58.470 down the hill at someone. 33:58.467 --> 34:02.397 And it appears that he wants to throw stones at the rest of 34:02.400 --> 34:04.530 his family. 34:04.533 --> 34:08.433 And we have no reason to understand, it's not just that 34:08.433 --> 34:11.273 we are not good enough readers that we don't understand. 34:11.267 --> 34:14.367 We actually have no reason to understand what's going on 34:14.367 --> 34:18.267 here, because Faulkner does not want us to understand at 34:18.267 --> 34:19.297 this point. 34:19.300 --> 34:25.030 So all we know is that Jewel is furious about something. 34:25.033 --> 34:32.303 He is furious that Cash is making a coffin for Addie for 34:32.300 --> 34:33.170 some reason. 34:33.167 --> 34:36.127 And he can't stand that adze going one lick less. 34:36.133 --> 34:39.273 That is the sound that he can't stand. 34:39.267 --> 34:43.197 As well as the fact that Addie is on this full display for 34:43.200 --> 34:46.930 the entire neighborhood to come and look at her when Cash 34:46.933 --> 34:48.933 is trying to get that coffin ready. 34:48.933 --> 34:52.573 So these are the immediate circumstances that he really 34:52.567 --> 34:57.097 hates, that she is in disgrace, because everyone, 34:57.100 --> 35:00.070 every bastard in the country can come in and look at her 35:00.067 --> 35:02.367 when she's waiting for her coffin. 35:02.367 --> 35:04.667 And that Cash seems to be taking his time making the 35:04.667 --> 35:07.297 coffin, but not maliciously, we would think. 35:07.300 --> 35:09.700 Because he's a very good carpenter and he wants to be 35:09.700 --> 35:11.270 thorough in making a very good coffin. 35:14.600 --> 35:17.270 But for some reason, Jewel's hatred also 35:17.267 --> 35:18.827 extends to his father. 35:18.833 --> 35:26.933 And if it had been him when that load of wood fell on him, 35:26.933 --> 35:28.133 that would have been good, too. 35:28.133 --> 35:32.503 So it's very peculiar. 35:32.500 --> 35:37.570 We don't know the long history, the long, emotional 35:37.567 --> 35:40.097 history behind all those people. 35:40.100 --> 35:45.770 They obviously are a very close-knit family, because 35:45.767 --> 35:49.827 there are so few people around, that there's just not 35:49.833 --> 35:51.533 enough distance separating them. 35:51.533 --> 35:55.073 They're really basically all stuck in the same place. 35:55.067 --> 36:02.667 And that creates kind of the ideal condition to maximize 36:02.667 --> 36:05.897 any kind of hostility among the family members. 36:05.900 --> 36:10.000 That seems to be one of the consequences of poor whites in 36:10.000 --> 36:14.730 a very small town with very few neighbors. 36:14.733 --> 36:20.103 So it seems, at the very least, that Jewel, as he 36:20.100 --> 36:23.930 imagines himself, or as he experiences himself in 36:23.933 --> 36:27.273 relation to the rest of his family, that he sees himself 36:27.267 --> 36:29.167 very much as an outsider. 36:29.167 --> 36:32.727 So Jewel sees himself as an outsider, that he would like 36:32.733 --> 36:36.933 to do something, he would like to throw stones at the rest of 36:36.933 --> 36:38.773 this family. 36:38.767 --> 36:47.467 And combine that with the fact that Darl seems to be really 36:47.467 --> 36:54.827 fixated on that otherwise innocent fact that Jewel is a 36:54.833 --> 36:57.273 whole head taller than he is. 36:57.267 --> 36:59.627 That those two seem linked in some fashion. 36:59.633 --> 37:05.373 There's kind a very deep seeded and violent and always 37:05.367 --> 37:08.697 explosive kind of hatred coming from Jewel. 37:08.700 --> 37:13.830 And a neutral observation from Darl, that those two, they are 37:13.833 --> 37:16.973 pieces of some kind of jigsaw puzzle that we have to figure 37:16.967 --> 37:19.797 out in the course of As I Lay Dying. 37:19.800 --> 37:29.300 So let me just give one more addition to that kind of 37:29.300 --> 37:35.470 configuration based on what seems to be unmotivated or 37:35.467 --> 37:38.197 unaccounted for hatred. 37:38.200 --> 37:40.400 The hatred is undeniable. 37:40.400 --> 37:42.900 The violence is undeniable. 37:42.900 --> 37:45.930 It's just that we're not be able to read them very well. 37:45.933 --> 37:50.533 So Frank Kermode is actually right that this is a narrative 37:50.533 --> 37:56.903 that, in the course of making us, compelling us to come up 37:56.900 --> 38:01.400 with interpretations, it's also generating secrets in 38:01.400 --> 38:03.030 that very act. 38:03.033 --> 38:05.633 That the fact that we have to interpret the words that are 38:05.633 --> 38:07.933 given to us also generates secrets 38:07.933 --> 38:09.633 about the Bundren family. 38:09.633 --> 38:11.833 And here is Dewey Dell, back again. 38:11.833 --> 38:17.233 And we know the she's already been the carrier of one kind 38:17.233 --> 38:18.703 of secret about herself. 38:18.700 --> 38:20.900 That seems pretty transparent. 38:20.900 --> 38:27.230 But this seems to be a secret of a somewhat different order. 38:27.233 --> 38:32.273 "And Jewel don't care about anything he is not kin to us 38:32.267 --> 38:35.567 in caring, not care-kin. 38:35.567 --> 38:39.927 And Cash like sawing the long hot yellow days up into planks 38:39.933 --> 38:42.573 and nailing them to something. 38:42.567 --> 38:45.827 And I did not think that Darl would, that sits at the supper 38:45.833 --> 38:49.573 table with his eyes gone further than the food and the 38:49.567 --> 38:54.897 lamp, full of the land dug out of his skull and the holes 38:54.900 --> 38:59.670 filled with distance beyond the land." 38:59.667 --> 39:05.697 I think this is actually Faulkner's belated attempt to 39:05.700 --> 39:09.000 write what he doesn't write in The Sound and the Fury, which 39:09.000 --> 39:11.530 is the portrait of three brothers told from the 39:11.533 --> 39:14.173 standpoint of the sister. 39:14.167 --> 39:18.167 Dewey Dell is nothing like Caddy, but it's almost as if 39:18.167 --> 39:22.467 Faulkner is showing us that, yes, he can certainly capture 39:22.467 --> 39:25.067 a young girl's point of view, and maybe this 39:25.067 --> 39:25.927 is what comes out. 39:25.933 --> 39:31.203 So not exactly flattering or very-- 39:31.200 --> 39:35.400 it's a very intimate portrait of the three brothers, but 39:35.400 --> 39:37.400 it's not one that they would especially like 39:37.400 --> 39:40.030 to see or hear about. 39:40.033 --> 39:44.503 So something about Jewel seems to be emerging, just in the 39:44.500 --> 39:47.370 course of what Darl is saying, what Jewel himself is say, and 39:47.367 --> 39:49.797 what Dewey Dell is saying. 39:49.800 --> 39:51.330 It's a common pattern. 39:51.333 --> 39:55.303 That Jewel is not kin to us, he's not care-kin, he doesn't 39:55.300 --> 39:57.570 care for the rest of us. 39:57.567 --> 40:00.527 His interests seem to lie somewhere else. 40:00.533 --> 40:06.803 So that fact is fairly straightforward. 40:06.800 --> 40:12.830 The little bit of observation about Cash is interesting. 40:12.833 --> 40:15.273 We know that Cash is a good carpenter. 40:15.267 --> 40:17.997 And Faulkner really wanted to highlight that fact. 40:18.000 --> 40:20.800 But basically he's the one who brings in money to the family. 40:20.800 --> 40:23.470 He's the one who's always hired by other people. 40:23.467 --> 40:25.767 He's the only one who's capable of bringing in real 40:25.767 --> 40:27.497 income into the family. 40:27.500 --> 40:30.700 And he really wants to make a good coffin for Addie. 40:30.700 --> 40:34.270 So all that is not in dispute. 40:34.267 --> 40:39.127 But the way in which Dewey Dell looks at Darl, that he's 40:39.133 --> 40:44.203 sawing up the long hot sad yellow days into planks, 40:44.200 --> 40:47.030 suggests that maybe there's some kinds of metaphoric and 40:47.033 --> 40:50.503 psychological dimension to carpentry as well. 40:50.500 --> 40:53.900 That even though Darl is a very skilled laborer, there's 40:53.900 --> 40:54.900 also something-- 40:54.900 --> 40:56.270 very skilled workman. 40:56.267 --> 40:57.567 He's more than just a laborer. 40:57.567 --> 40:58.667 Actually, he's an artisan. 40:58.667 --> 41:00.997 He's a very skilled artisan. 41:01.000 --> 41:06.470 There is something about that act of very methodically 41:06.467 --> 41:09.667 sawing the wood, that says something about 41:09.667 --> 41:12.297 the mindset of Cash. 41:12.300 --> 41:16.900 And so, that is what Dewey Dell is noticing. 41:16.900 --> 41:20.500 That as if, even though, now matter how good an artisan he 41:20.500 --> 41:24.230 is, there's something maybe just a little disturbing or 41:24.233 --> 41:30.303 worrisome about the fact that he's so much into carpentry. 41:30.300 --> 41:33.670 And then, the portrait of Darl is-- 41:33.667 --> 41:36.697 truly, I don't know what to make of that. 41:36.700 --> 41:40.600 It is very surprising coming from Dewey Dell, who, so far, 41:40.600 --> 41:43.970 has not been a very deep thinker, or someone with very 41:43.967 --> 41:46.067 deep emotions, actually. 41:46.067 --> 41:48.927 She's worried about something very immediate and very 41:48.933 --> 41:50.773 simple, really. 41:50.767 --> 41:57.397 But this portrait of Darl that his eyes have "gone further 41:57.400 --> 42:00.700 than the food and the lamp." He's obviously not just 42:00.700 --> 42:02.770 registering the food and the lamp. 42:02.767 --> 42:06.497 There's a different degree of depth between what his eyes 42:06.500 --> 42:10.370 register and the quite surface phenomenon of the 42:10.367 --> 42:11.427 food and the lamp. 42:11.433 --> 42:17.403 So there's a difference in just the radius of perception 42:17.400 --> 42:20.400 between what Darl is registering and the most 42:20.400 --> 42:23.500 immediate physical world of food and lamp. 42:23.500 --> 42:25.970 And I think that it is because of that difference in the 42:25.967 --> 42:31.767 radius of perception, that the whole land seems to be 42:31.767 --> 42:36.527 embedded in his skull, or dug out of the skull, and then 42:36.533 --> 42:41.073 their holes filled with distance, that in some sense, 42:41.067 --> 42:45.267 both the vastness of the land, the enormous distance, but 42:45.267 --> 42:49.427 also the holes, the gaps in that distance, all of those 42:49.433 --> 42:52.533 are packed into Darl's skull. 42:52.533 --> 42:55.473 I mean, I'm just paraphrasing Faulkner, not really 42:55.467 --> 42:57.727 elucidating that passage. 42:57.733 --> 43:00.803 And I think that that's all we can do at this moment. 43:00.800 --> 43:03.000 That there's something special about Darl. 43:03.000 --> 43:05.400 That he's not so easily 43:05.400 --> 43:07.800 describable in everyday language. 43:07.800 --> 43:12.000 So this is almost a direct refutation of Bakhtin that 43:12.000 --> 43:16.400 social dialect quite often cannot capture the 43:16.400 --> 43:20.070 psychological reality, even of what appears to be the most 43:20.067 --> 43:24.367 simple deprived person -- 43:24.367 --> 43:26.897 disadvantaged person. 43:26.900 --> 43:31.600 So I want to give you one more example 43:31.600 --> 43:36.800 of linguistic specimen. 43:36.800 --> 43:38.800 And specimen isn't the right word. 43:38.800 --> 43:41.530 Specimen would have been the right word for Hemingway, 43:41.533 --> 43:45.233 would have been right word for Fitzgerald in the short 43:45.233 --> 43:48.273 stories, but it's strictly ironic in this sense. 43:48.267 --> 43:48.727 but. 43:48.733 --> 43:49.803 I'll use that word anyway. 43:49.800 --> 43:54.170 So this one instance of language that is also 43:54.167 --> 43:56.897 completely incomprehensible to us, coming from 43:56.900 --> 43:58.830 a child, from Vardaman. 43:58.833 --> 44:00.203 "It is dark. 44:00.200 --> 44:03.830 I can hear wood, silence: I know them. 44:03.833 --> 44:07.473 But not living sounds, not even him. 44:07.467 --> 44:11.527 It is as though the dark were resolving him out of his 44:11.533 --> 44:16.403 integrity, into an unrelated scattering of components-- 44:16.400 --> 44:21.630 snuffings and stamping; smells of cooling flesh and ammoniac 44:21.633 --> 44:25.573 hair; an illusion of a co-ordinated whole of 44:25.567 --> 44:29.897 splotched hide and strong bones within which, detached 44:29.900 --> 44:36.200 and secret familiar, an is different from my is. 44:36.200 --> 44:37.800 I see him dissolve-- 44:37.800 --> 44:43.430 legs, a rolling eye, a gaudy splotching like cold flames 44:43.433 --> 44:48.633 and float upon the dark in fading solution; All one, yet 44:48.633 --> 44:52.003 neither; all either yet none. 44:52.000 --> 44:55.830 I can see hearing coil toward him, caressing, shaping his 44:55.833 --> 44:57.373 hard shape-- 44:57.367 --> 45:02.027 fetlock, hip, shoulder, and head; smell and sound. 45:02.033 --> 45:04.273 I am not afraid." 45:04.267 --> 45:08.067 This comes right after two very dramatic moments. 45:08.067 --> 45:11.367 The chapter before the Vardaman chapter is when we 45:11.367 --> 45:14.067 know that Addie is dead, that Addie Bundren is dead. 45:14.067 --> 45:17.327 That is announced to us at the very end of that chapter. 45:17.333 --> 45:20.833 And then the chapter that is Vardaman's chapter, right 45:20.833 --> 45:25.333 after that, is when he actually goes into Peabody's 45:25.333 --> 45:29.703 barn, the barn of the neighbor, and uses a stake to 45:29.700 --> 45:32.200 beat on the horses so that they all run away. 45:32.200 --> 45:37.530 And most of that chapter is devoted to Vardaman beating on 45:37.533 --> 45:40.803 the horses and saying that they-- 45:40.800 --> 45:44.500 not even that they, but that you killed my mom. 45:44.500 --> 45:47.270 So that in itself is kind of, you know, sort of 45:47.267 --> 45:52.327 understandable but strange in that he would pin, unlike 45:52.333 --> 45:56.873 Cora, who would pin the responsibility on herself, 45:56.867 --> 45:59.597 Vardaman pins the responsibility for 45:59.600 --> 46:01.800 killing Addie on-- 46:01.800 --> 46:03.770 it appears, on Peabody. 46:03.767 --> 46:09.167 And that's why he's beating on his horses, and in fact, just 46:09.167 --> 46:13.427 destroying the whole team, that the horses run away. 46:13.433 --> 46:19.233 And then, after Peabody's horses run away, Vardaman 46:19.233 --> 46:21.873 seems to be preoccupied with something else. 46:21.867 --> 46:25.797 And this is a moment where Faulkner really is having a 46:25.800 --> 46:29.100 great time with his pronouns. 46:29.100 --> 46:30.570 Who is this he? 46:30.567 --> 46:30.727 OK. 46:30.733 --> 46:32.473 I think there are at least two candidates. 46:32.467 --> 46:37.067 I think it possibly is Jewel's horse, this horse 46:37.067 --> 46:38.067 that doesn't run away. 46:38.067 --> 46:41.197 And there's something about the snuffings and stampings, 46:41.200 --> 46:44.670 and the splotched hide that suggest that it is the horse 46:44.667 --> 46:47.097 that Vardaman is talking about. 46:47.100 --> 46:49.830 This is the one thing that's remaining, this horse that 46:49.833 --> 46:50.733 doesn't run away. 46:50.733 --> 46:54.103 But there's also a possibility that-- 46:54.100 --> 46:56.630 and is different from my-- 46:56.633 --> 47:00.233 is just because of the syntactical construction of 47:00.233 --> 47:03.803 this sentence, suggests that it might not be an animal but 47:03.800 --> 47:05.270 a human being. 47:05.267 --> 47:09.427 A human being who is different from Vardaman, is, in which 47:09.433 --> 47:13.233 case, that human being could only be Jewel, right? 47:13.233 --> 47:17.833 So I think that this passage is meant to be deliberately 47:17.833 --> 47:28.603 misleading, in the sense that we can't tell exactly where 47:28.600 --> 47:31.400 Jewel ends and where his horse begins. 47:31.400 --> 47:35.730 The boundaries between the human being and the horse are 47:35.733 --> 47:36.733 not so clear-cut. 47:36.733 --> 47:42.773 And in fact, the identities of the two seem to be interfused. 47:42.767 --> 47:46.497 And that is one of the great innovations in As, I Lay 47:46.500 --> 47:51.630 Dying, those very ambiguous and uncertain boundaries 47:51.633 --> 47:56.133 between the human and the non-human, which actually is 47:56.133 --> 48:01.503 also one of the great defining attributes of the classical 48:01.500 --> 48:03.500 epic tradition. 48:03.500 --> 48:06.530 So we'll come back to this and talk about the uncertain 48:06.533 --> 48:09.803 boundaries between human and non-human both by going back 48:09.800 --> 48:13.030 to Homer and Dante and so on, but talking about the 48:13.033 --> 48:14.933 implications in As I Lay Dying.