WEBVTT 00:02.500 --> 00:07.130 WAI CHEE DIMOCK: OK, so I just want to go back very briefly 00:07.133 --> 00:10.533 to our approach to As I Lay Dying. 00:10.533 --> 00:14.133 Last time we talked about the importance of the epic 00:14.133 --> 00:21.233 tradition to the modernist novel, especially the way that 00:21.233 --> 00:25.203 the voice of the dead and certain boundaries between the 00:25.200 --> 00:29.770 human and the non-human are being reactivated and 00:29.767 --> 00:33.127 redeployed in As I Lay Dying. 00:33.133 --> 00:36.073 So today, we're going to move on to a 00:36.067 --> 00:37.227 somewhat different approach. 00:37.233 --> 00:39.333 This is really a different way to 00:39.333 --> 00:42.233 contextualize As I Lay Dying. 00:42.233 --> 00:45.103 And it's more of a kind of an American 00:45.100 --> 00:47.730 tradition for this novel. 00:47.733 --> 00:51.933 And in fact, we already begin to see a little of that in the 00:51.933 --> 00:56.873 person who is in one sense a key player but in another 00:56.867 --> 00:58.927 sense not-- 00:58.933 --> 01:02.973 Addie's partner in the adulterous affair. 01:02.967 --> 01:09.167 And Faulkner takes the name of that person from a historic 01:09.167 --> 01:13.127 figure, a very well known 18th century preacher, George 01:13.133 --> 01:16.733 Whitfield, someone who actually has a large presence 01:16.733 --> 01:20.233 in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. 01:20.233 --> 01:23.803 So this is the very dignified looking 01:23.800 --> 01:26.400 historical George Whitfield. 01:26.400 --> 01:30.970 And this is Faulkner's Whitfield. 01:30.967 --> 01:33.927 When he was on his horse, he was able to cross the river, 01:33.933 --> 01:35.503 as we know. 01:35.500 --> 01:37.400 And he's on his way. 01:37.400 --> 01:40.600 In fact, he's approaching us right at the house. 01:40.600 --> 01:47.630 So Whitfield has a lot to be thankful for. 01:47.633 --> 01:50.033 And he's expressing his gratitude 01:50.033 --> 01:52.833 to God at this moment. 01:52.833 --> 01:57.573 "It was He in His infinite wisdom that restrained the 01:57.567 --> 02:03.197 tale from her dying lips as she lay surrounded by those 02:03.200 --> 02:09.170 who loved and trusted her; mine the travail by water 02:09.167 --> 02:12.497 which I sustain by the strength of His hand. 02:12.500 --> 02:17.500 Praise to Thee in Thy bounteous and omnipotent love; 02:17.500 --> 02:19.770 O praise." 02:19.767 --> 02:24.027 Yes, he truly is a very lucky guy. 02:24.033 --> 02:26.503 She dies before she is able to give away his name. 02:26.500 --> 02:27.670 Maybe she never plans on it. 02:27.667 --> 02:31.967 She's too proud and never wanted to give away his name. 02:31.967 --> 02:34.527 So he's lucky in having chosen the right partner. 02:34.533 --> 02:39.373 Someone whose lips are sealed when it comes to his name. 02:39.367 --> 02:43.067 And he's also very lucky in the sense that this horse is 02:43.067 --> 02:46.067 such a good swimmer. 02:46.067 --> 02:48.867 The horse is able to cross the river when the mules drown. 02:52.233 --> 02:53.673 He's truly a blessed figure. 02:53.667 --> 02:58.627 But of course, I'm making fun of him as indeed I think 02:58.633 --> 03:01.803 Faulkner wants us to. 03:01.800 --> 03:06.130 The only way I think to take someone like Whitfield is to 03:06.133 --> 03:07.773 put him in one particular genre. 03:07.767 --> 03:11.597 And this is really what I'd like to argue today is the 03:11.600 --> 03:15.570 question of genre for As I Lay Dying. 03:15.567 --> 03:20.567 The only way to take Whitfield is to put him in 03:20.567 --> 03:21.727 the genre of comedy. 03:21.733 --> 03:24.433 And he's just a comic figure. 03:24.433 --> 03:26.473 He's totally serious himself. 03:26.467 --> 03:29.897 He's congratulating himself and he's praising the Lord. 03:29.900 --> 03:33.500 But all the time that he's doing that, he's firmly 03:33.500 --> 03:37.530 ensconced in the comic tradition. 03:37.533 --> 03:42.933 And it turns out that this self-congratulating 03:42.933 --> 03:48.173 self-dignifying kind of person actually has a precedent in 03:48.167 --> 03:51.797 America literature, a very prominent precedent. 03:51.800 --> 03:56.600 And it turns out that this predecessor is also a minister 03:56.600 --> 04:00.070 who has an affair with a woman. 04:00.067 --> 04:04.197 So there's only one novel in American literature 04:04.200 --> 04:06.500 that is like that. 04:06.500 --> 04:09.970 And not surprisingly, it's a novel that we all recognize, 04:09.967 --> 04:11.697 The Scarlet Letter. 04:11.700 --> 04:16.770 So this is Hawthorne's comic figure. 04:16.767 --> 04:19.167 The Scarlet Letter is not really usually 04:19.167 --> 04:21.667 read as a comic novel. 04:21.667 --> 04:24.197 Like do you think that Hawthorne has had more fun 04:24.200 --> 04:26.700 when he's portraying Arthur Dimmesdale? 04:26.700 --> 04:29.530 "God knows; and he is merciful! 04:29.533 --> 04:33.633 He hath proved his mercy most of all, in my afflictions. 04:33.633 --> 04:35.973 By giving me this burning torture to 04:35.967 --> 04:37.667 bear upon my breast... 04:37.667 --> 04:38.727 Praised be his name! 04:38.733 --> 04:40.373 His will be done! 04:40.367 --> 04:42.197 Farewell." 04:42.200 --> 04:46.930 Exactly the same combination, a woman whose lips are sealed, 04:46.933 --> 04:50.873 would never give away the name of her partner. 04:50.867 --> 04:56.467 And the same kind of mercy in quotation marks from God. 04:56.467 --> 04:59.367 In this case, Arthur Dimmesdale is lucky. 04:59.367 --> 05:02.997 Not in the sense that he has a horse who's a good swimmer, 05:03.000 --> 05:06.800 but in a sense that he dies right at that moment. 05:10.600 --> 05:13.970 At the very moment when he's thanking God and he is 05:13.967 --> 05:16.567 forgiven, his sins are forgiven, he dies. 05:16.567 --> 05:20.297 So he is very lucky in that way. 05:20.300 --> 05:25.730 And it suggests that from the very beginning, from the 05:25.733 --> 05:30.373 nineteenth century on, a story that otherwise would have been 05:30.367 --> 05:36.567 taken as tragic actually has a comic dimension to it. 05:36.567 --> 05:42.827 It's just not very easy to roll our eyes when we listen 05:42.833 --> 05:46.573 to someone like Whitfield and when we listen to someone like 05:46.567 --> 05:48.567 Arthur Dimmesdale. 05:48.567 --> 05:53.727 But even as we're rolling our eyes, I think that there are 05:53.733 --> 05:56.933 other things in those two novels that is very hard to 05:56.933 --> 05:58.473 roll our eyes over. 05:58.467 --> 06:02.067 So I want to turn now to this other dimension. 06:02.067 --> 06:05.427 And I want to begin with Hawthorne by talking about, 06:05.433 --> 06:09.573 honestly, the much more important, tragic dimension in 06:09.567 --> 06:14.067 The Scarlet Letter and it's on Hester Prynne. 06:14.067 --> 06:16.167 "The fact of the symbol-- 06:16.167 --> 06:20.967 or rather, of the position in respect to society that was 06:20.967 --> 06:22.927 indicated by it-- 06:22.933 --> 06:25.633 on the mind of Hester Prynne herself was 06:25.633 --> 06:28.403 powerful and peculiar. 06:28.400 --> 06:32.570 All the light and graceful foliage of her character had 06:32.567 --> 06:36.497 been withered up by this red-hot brand, and had long 06:36.500 --> 06:42.130 ago fallen away, leaving a bare and harsh outline which 06:42.133 --> 06:46.633 might have been repulsive, had she possessed friends or 06:46.633 --> 06:50.373 companions to be repelled by it." 06:50.367 --> 06:56.997 So just as Dimmesdale and Whitfield are doubly lucky, 06:57.000 --> 07:00.170 Hester Prynne is doubly cursed. 07:00.167 --> 07:04.897 She's cursed both in the most obvious way, because she has 07:04.900 --> 07:08.700 to wear the scarlet letter for the rest of her life. 07:08.700 --> 07:10.670 And she's also cursed-- 07:10.667 --> 07:12.497 well, she's actually triply cursed. 07:12.500 --> 07:13.730 She has to wear the scarlet letter. 07:13.733 --> 07:15.603 Her whole being is transformed. 07:15.600 --> 07:21.430 So all the physical beauty or the beauty of her mind seemed 07:21.433 --> 07:23.133 to have gone away. 07:23.133 --> 07:27.533 And she's just this very harsh, forbidding character. 07:27.533 --> 07:30.603 And that other people might have found repulsive, if she 07:30.600 --> 07:33.030 had friends to be repelled by. 07:33.033 --> 07:37.433 So really, she's an absolute have not at this point. 07:37.433 --> 07:39.873 Although Hawthorne, as you guys know who've read The 07:39.867 --> 07:42.167 Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne actually qualifies that this 07:42.167 --> 07:44.227 isn't quite the absolute ending of The Scarlet Letter. 07:44.233 --> 07:45.833 It's quite early. 07:45.833 --> 07:49.703 So this is a kind of low point, absolute low point, the 07:49.700 --> 07:53.570 most tragic moment for Hester in The Scarlet Letter. 07:53.567 --> 08:00.767 And I want to turn now from Hester to the comparable 08:00.767 --> 08:04.197 figure in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. 08:04.200 --> 08:05.930 And obviously, it is Addie. 08:05.933 --> 08:09.203 And she's especially tragic in relation to the 08:09.200 --> 08:12.030 two men in her life. 08:12.033 --> 08:15.733 First of all, her relation to Whitfield. 08:15.733 --> 08:19.873 "While I waited for him in the woods, waiting for him before 08:19.867 --> 08:24.067 he saw me, I would think of him as dressed in sin. 08:24.067 --> 08:27.627 I would think of him as thinking of me as dressed also 08:27.633 --> 08:32.203 in sin, he the more beautiful since the garment in which he 08:32.200 --> 08:34.700 exchanged for sin was sanctified. 08:34.700 --> 08:39.730 I would think of the sin as garments which we would remove 08:39.733 --> 08:44.103 in order to shape and coerce the terrible blood to the 08:44.100 --> 08:49.470 forlorn echo of the dead word high in the air." 08:49.467 --> 08:54.697 This is about as joyless a description 08:54.700 --> 08:57.030 of any kind of romance. 08:57.033 --> 08:58.133 It's not even a romance. 08:58.133 --> 09:00.503 It's not adultery. 09:00.500 --> 09:04.330 There's no sex, obviously, in As I Lay Dying. 09:04.333 --> 09:07.303 There's almost no love. 09:07.300 --> 09:13.630 It is just the whole act itself is coercing "the 09:13.633 --> 09:21.433 terrible blood to a forlorn echo of the dead... air." 09:21.433 --> 09:23.803 It's hard to understand why anyone would even want to do 09:23.800 --> 09:26.300 that if that is the nature of the affair. 09:26.300 --> 09:30.170 But that's how Faulkner would like us to think of that 09:30.167 --> 09:34.527 affair between Addie and Whitfield. 09:34.533 --> 09:39.233 And we can almost sort of see why she would be so forlorn, 09:39.233 --> 09:42.433 because the fact that he's congratulating himself and 09:42.433 --> 09:45.303 because he's counting himself lucky at the moment of her 09:45.300 --> 09:48.630 death suggests what kind of a lover he has been. 09:48.633 --> 09:52.303 So maybe it's not surprising that she should have been 09:52.300 --> 09:54.970 forlorn all the way through. 09:54.967 --> 09:58.267 And it is also the case that she's 09:58.267 --> 10:01.727 forlorn for another reason. 10:01.733 --> 10:05.103 And maybe that's why she got into the affair to begin with. 10:05.100 --> 10:06.830 Her relation to her husband. 10:06.833 --> 10:09.803 "...and I would think, Anse. 10:09.800 --> 10:10.800 Why Anse. 10:10.800 --> 10:12.400 Why are you Anse. 10:12.400 --> 10:16.430 I would think about his name until after a while I could 10:16.433 --> 10:20.833 see the word as a shape, a vessel, and I would watch him 10:20.833 --> 10:26.133 liquefy and flow into it like cold molasses flowing out of 10:26.133 --> 10:31.073 the darkness into the vessel until the jar stood full and 10:31.067 --> 10:36.227 motionless, a significant shape profoundly without life 10:36.233 --> 10:39.773 like an empty door frame." 10:39.767 --> 10:45.027 It's one of the most memorable descriptions of a terrible 10:45.033 --> 10:47.873 marriage, unbearable marriage. 10:47.867 --> 10:51.667 And I think that that says it all. 10:51.667 --> 10:56.767 It doesn't exactly justify Addie's action if it needs 10:56.767 --> 10:58.127 justification. 10:58.133 --> 11:01.373 But it really explains a lot. 11:01.367 --> 11:07.897 And it's in contrast that to that cold molasses in a jar 11:07.900 --> 11:11.530 that all of a sudden, we see another marriage in 11:11.533 --> 11:11.933 perspective. 11:11.933 --> 11:16.073 So I just want to refresh your memory about what we saw last 11:16.067 --> 11:18.697 time about Tull and Cora. 11:18.700 --> 11:21.730 "...because it would take a tight house for Cora, to hold 11:21.733 --> 11:25.603 Cora like a jar of milk in the spring, you've got to have a 11:25.600 --> 11:28.370 tight jar or you need a powerful spring, so if you 11:28.367 --> 11:31.627 have a big spring, why then you have the incentive to have 11:31.633 --> 11:35.633 tight well made jars, because it is your milk, sour or not, 11:35.633 --> 11:38.203 because you would rather have milk that will sour than to 11:38.200 --> 11:41.170 have milk that won't, because you are a man..." 11:41.167 --> 11:44.027 So it's not a spectacular marriage 11:44.033 --> 11:45.773 or this good marriage. 11:45.767 --> 11:50.867 And it's a marriage that makes Tull feel like a man and 11:50.867 --> 11:53.067 probably Cora like a woman. 11:53.067 --> 11:59.197 I don't mean to be sexist. Just the general description 11:59.200 --> 12:00.730 of a good marriage. 12:00.733 --> 12:13.173 So here's Tull and Cora as a foil really to Addie and Anse. 12:13.167 --> 12:18.397 So it seems that right now we've seen Addie mostly as a 12:18.400 --> 12:24.630 tragic figure in relation to her two men and as a kind of a 12:24.633 --> 12:29.903 descendant, twentieth century descendant of Hester Prynne. 12:29.900 --> 12:33.430 But given the precedent of Hawthorne, given that there's 12:33.433 --> 12:39.273 really a comic dimension, even in the most tragic tale, we 12:39.267 --> 12:42.927 shouldn't be surprised that there would also be a 12:42.933 --> 12:47.903 comparable comic dimension in As I Lay Dying as well. 12:47.900 --> 12:51.170 So I like to read the whole novel as, in some sense, a 12:51.167 --> 12:56.367 kind of constant negotiation between those two poles, 12:56.367 --> 12:58.597 between the comic pole -- comedy on the one hand and 12:58.600 --> 13:00.670 tragedy on the other. 13:00.667 --> 13:06.697 And we can see the comedy coming in Addie's relation to 13:06.700 --> 13:10.300 her son, Vardaman, who's not quite fully 13:10.300 --> 13:12.700 retarded as Benjy is. 13:12.700 --> 13:16.070 But Faulkner is really interested in the slightly 13:16.067 --> 13:16.927 retarded mind. 13:16.933 --> 13:19.903 So Vardaman seems to be an instance of that. 13:19.900 --> 13:22.500 And it comes out in statements like "my mother is a fish." 13:22.500 --> 13:25.430 I think that along with "Call me Ishmael," "My mother is a 13:25.433 --> 13:27.603 fish " has got to be one of the most famous lines in 13:27.600 --> 13:28.870 American literature. 13:31.300 --> 13:35.430 So this brings us back to the human and the non-human. 13:35.433 --> 13:40.073 But it also now suggests another dimension, a generic 13:40.067 --> 13:45.067 dimension, to Addie being a fish. 13:45.067 --> 13:49.767 And it turns out that she's not just any kind of a fish, 13:49.767 --> 13:53.797 but she's a fish out of water, which is, I guess, a comic 13:53.800 --> 13:58.800 restatement of the sense of desolation and the forlornness 13:58.800 --> 14:02.400 that she feels towards Whitfield and towards Anse. 14:02.400 --> 14:05.930 It is exactly the same thing, except that when we say that 14:05.933 --> 14:08.333 she's a fish out of water, there's a complete different 14:08.333 --> 14:09.973 set of connotations. 14:09.967 --> 14:15.927 So this is Vardaman reporting on this fish that he just 14:15.933 --> 14:19.703 picked up, dead fish already dead that he's chopping up. 14:27.500 --> 14:28.470 Oh, sorry. 14:28.467 --> 14:31.667 This is actually Darl reporting. 14:31.667 --> 14:33.227 "'You clean it,' Anse said. 14:33.233 --> 14:34.433 He don't look around. 14:34.433 --> 14:37.233 Vardaman comes back and picks up the fish. 14:37.233 --> 14:41.573 It slides out of his hands, smearing wet dirt on to him, 14:41.567 --> 14:45.567 and flops down, dirtying itself, gapmouthed, 14:45.567 --> 14:49.697 goggle-eyed, hiding into the dust like it was ashamed of 14:49.700 --> 14:55.600 being dead, like it was in a hurry to get back hid again." 14:55.600 --> 15:00.770 So along with the sense that Addie is a misfit that is 15:00.767 --> 15:05.997 completely alone and by herself, even in a marriage 15:06.000 --> 15:09.970 and even in an adulterous affair, there's this 15:09.967 --> 15:13.797 additional element that she's ashamed of all of it. 15:13.800 --> 15:21.700 And we can see that shame in her reaction to the horse that 15:21.700 --> 15:23.670 Jewel acquires. 15:23.667 --> 15:24.597 She's proud. 15:24.600 --> 15:27.700 She is proud, but she's also crying. 15:27.700 --> 15:31.270 And Darl realizes that she's ashamed of her 15:31.267 --> 15:33.397 deceit at that moment. 15:33.400 --> 15:40.370 So there's this terrible shame that's going to accompany her 15:40.367 --> 15:41.597 in her death. 15:41.600 --> 15:45.730 And in the fish, it comes out as the fish being ashamed of 15:45.733 --> 15:50.233 being dead, even though that's not a condition 15:50.233 --> 15:51.873 that we could help. 15:51.867 --> 15:55.297 But nonetheless, this fish seems really ashamed of this 15:55.300 --> 15:56.530 elemental fact. 16:01.100 --> 16:04.870 Actually, just to stop for a moment. 16:04.867 --> 16:09.597 The fish actually would be a great paper topic for your 16:09.600 --> 16:11.500 final paper. 16:11.500 --> 16:16.030 And it would bring Hemingway and Faulkner together in a 16:16.033 --> 16:18.173 really interesting way. 16:18.167 --> 16:22.767 So once again, I want to reemphasize how interesting it 16:22.767 --> 16:25.697 might be to pick something that is peripheral, not a key 16:25.700 --> 16:29.270 player, but interesting entry point into novels. 16:29.267 --> 16:34.067 So in thinking along those lines, we can go back to the 16:34.067 --> 16:36.997 fish in In Our Time. 16:37.000 --> 16:39.600 And it's a dead fish, two dead fish. 16:39.600 --> 16:44.230 But totally different set of connotations that Hemingway 16:44.233 --> 16:47.233 brings to the dead trout. 16:47.233 --> 16:51.803 "Nick cleaned them, slitting them from the vent to the tip 16:51.800 --> 16:52.930 of the jaw. 16:52.933 --> 16:56.573 All the insides and the gills and tongue 16:56.567 --> 16:58.667 came out in one piece. 16:58.667 --> 17:03.227 They were both males, long, gray-white strips of milt, 17:03.233 --> 17:05.033 smooth and clean. 17:05.033 --> 17:09.103 All the insides clean and compact, coming out all 17:09.100 --> 17:10.230 together." 17:10.233 --> 17:15.203 So this is Hemmingway's idea of a good death. 17:15.200 --> 17:20.430 It's the death of human beings being actually prefigured or 17:20.433 --> 17:26.033 maybe encoded into this very clean, very dignified 17:26.033 --> 17:26.733 death of the fish. 17:26.733 --> 17:30.003 There's no way we can avoid dying. 17:30.000 --> 17:34.900 But the least that we can ask for is that we should die in a 17:34.900 --> 17:41.430 manner that is fitting for men that is commensurate with the 17:41.433 --> 17:43.233 way that we've lived. 17:43.233 --> 17:47.873 And the trout has lived a very clean life -- it's an 17:47.867 --> 17:48.997 important word to Hemingway -- 17:49.000 --> 17:51.700 has lived a very clean life in the water. 17:51.700 --> 17:54.000 So it is fitting that the death should be 17:54.000 --> 17:56.130 commensurate with that. 17:56.133 --> 18:01.603 And that is really a kind of Utopian moment in Hemingway. 18:01.600 --> 18:08.000 And in contrast, this dirty fish out of water being 18:08.000 --> 18:14.100 ashamed unto death is a dystopian moment in Faulkner. 18:14.100 --> 18:16.400 But it's also a comic moment as well. 18:16.400 --> 18:19.730 So I wish to say that comedy's obviously a very complicated 18:19.733 --> 18:23.433 and packed and in many ways contradictory 18:23.433 --> 18:25.473 phenomenon in Faulkner. 18:28.500 --> 18:30.700 And it's with that understanding-- 18:30.700 --> 18:34.600 comedy in quotation marks-- in many ways, that I like to 18:34.600 --> 18:39.470 think about the whole structure of As I Lay Dying as 18:39.467 --> 18:42.997 negotiation between comedy and tragedy. 18:43.000 --> 18:46.330 And I like to bring up three sets of terms that we've been 18:46.333 --> 18:50.473 talking about all through the semester to see how comedy and 18:50.467 --> 18:53.427 tragedy get mapped onto these times. 18:53.433 --> 18:56.133 One is the human and non-human that we've been 18:56.133 --> 18:58.103 talking about last time. 18:58.100 --> 19:01.270 And then I want to bring Hemingway back. 19:01.267 --> 19:05.567 In turns out that the two categories, the have and have 19:05.567 --> 19:10.067 not, set up by Hemingway will be key actually, in the rest 19:10.067 --> 19:12.127 of the novels that we'll be reading. 19:12.133 --> 19:16.573 So we're using have and have not as key terms within there 19:16.567 --> 19:22.597 as a very useful analytic paradigm and related to those. 19:22.600 --> 19:25.600 Since we've been talking so much about kinship, beginning 19:25.600 --> 19:28.530 with The Sound and the Fury and also now As 19:28.533 --> 19:31.003 I Lay Dying, brothers. 19:31.000 --> 19:34.230 Who is a kin and who is a non-kin? 19:34.233 --> 19:38.203 Last time we saw that Jewel is in danger of being labeled 19:38.200 --> 19:43.430 non-kin by his brother Darl and by his sister, Dewey Dell. 19:43.433 --> 19:45.733 So who is going to be a non-kin at 19:45.733 --> 19:48.273 the end of this novel? 19:48.267 --> 19:53.997 But first, let's start out with the most obvious comic 19:54.000 --> 19:57.900 feature of As I Lay Dying, which is the most conventional 19:57.900 --> 20:02.100 ending, happy ending in marriage. 20:02.100 --> 20:04.900 And if you guys haven't gotten to that point, I apologize. 20:04.900 --> 20:07.930 But there's no way to talk about it as comedy without 20:07.933 --> 20:10.773 talking about the very last thing that we 20:10.767 --> 20:13.667 see in As I Lay Dying. 20:13.667 --> 20:18.397 "'It is Cash and Jewel and Vardaman and Dewey Dell, ' pa 20:18.400 --> 20:22.600 says, kind of hangdog and proud too, with his teeth and 20:22.600 --> 20:26.370 all, even as he wouldn't look at it. 20:26.367 --> 20:28.427 'Meet Mrs. Bundren.'" 20:28.433 --> 20:34.373 So his wife isn't quite in the ground. 20:34.367 --> 20:40.297 And this is a very fast mover, so he has acquired a new wife 20:40.300 --> 20:44.670 and other possessions, where he has teeth and so on. 20:44.667 --> 20:48.667 This is a new feature on Anse. 20:48.667 --> 20:53.597 So this is sort of the cliched ending for comedy. 20:53.600 --> 20:57.430 You've got to have a marriage and Faulkner very obligingly 20:57.433 --> 21:01.603 gives us a marriage at the end of As I Lay Dying. 21:01.600 --> 21:03.800 But we just know that he's going to 21:03.800 --> 21:05.630 qualify it in some fashion. 21:05.633 --> 21:12.903 So right before we see Anse with his new wife and his new 21:12.900 --> 21:16.330 teeth, we see something else and that is just 21:16.333 --> 21:18.703 taking one step back. 21:18.700 --> 21:23.170 "'Who's that? ' Then we see it wasn't the grip that made him 21:23.167 --> 21:27.167 look different; it was his face, and Jewel says, He got 21:27.167 --> 21:29.967 them teeth.' It was a fact. 21:29.967 --> 21:32.997 It made him look a foot taller, kind of holding his 21:33.000 --> 21:36.900 head up, hangdog and proud too, and then we see her 21:36.900 --> 21:39.930 behind him, carrying the other grip-- 21:39.933 --> 21:44.173 a kind of duck-shaped woman all dressed up. 21:44.167 --> 21:47.527 And then I see that the grip she was carrying was one of 21:47.533 --> 21:49.833 them little graphophones. 21:49.833 --> 21:56.133 It was a fact; all shut up and pretty as a picture, and every 21:56.133 --> 21:59.533 time a new record would come from the mail order and us 21:59.533 --> 22:03.503 sitting in the house in the window listening to it, I 22:03.500 --> 22:09.670 would think what a shame Darl couldn't be to enjoy it too." 22:09.667 --> 22:13.997 So a lot of information is coming at us at this moment. 22:14.000 --> 22:20.030 New teeth, another possession records for a gramophone. 22:20.033 --> 22:25.403 And the new phenomenon of records coming by mail order. 22:25.400 --> 22:28.600 This is truly the twentieth century. 22:28.600 --> 22:31.600 Even though there's still mules, we're firmly in the 22:31.600 --> 22:33.900 twentieth century. 22:33.900 --> 22:39.600 And the crucial little detail at the end that Darl won't be 22:39.600 --> 22:42.870 there to enjoy the records. 22:42.867 --> 22:47.367 So we know right there-- this is the very end, this is 260-- 22:47.367 --> 22:50.467 so we know already what has happened to Darl. 22:50.467 --> 22:53.597 But it's just repeating what -- we have no pride 22:53.600 --> 22:55.470 in this moment -- 22:55.467 --> 23:00.427 that this is reconstituting of the Bundren family. 23:00.433 --> 23:07.703 That one person is no longer kin, no longer in that family. 23:07.700 --> 23:11.430 So how does this happen is what we need to find out. and 23:11.433 --> 23:16.003 we have to go back a few steps to find out how it is that 23:16.000 --> 23:21.670 Darl gets excluded from that family circle. 23:21.667 --> 23:23.927 But I just want to give you a couple of images why the 23:23.933 --> 23:27.373 gramophone would be such a desirable object, just like 23:27.367 --> 23:28.497 the telephone. 23:28.500 --> 23:32.800 All this new equipment is just incredibly glamorous when they 23:32.800 --> 23:34.270 first appear. 23:34.267 --> 23:36.497 So this is Columbia gramophone. 23:36.500 --> 23:41.470 And I'd like to, since we have all these desirable objects 23:41.467 --> 23:49.027 here, is obviously As I Lay Dying is Faulkner's version of 23:49.033 --> 23:51.303 To Have and Have Not. 23:51.300 --> 23:57.070 And right there we know that Anse has three very prized 23:57.067 --> 24:02.097 possessions, teeth, wife and gramophone. 24:02.100 --> 24:05.230 And it seems that in contrast, other people 24:05.233 --> 24:07.803 have all lost something. 24:07.800 --> 24:14.100 They all have been reclassified in some sense as 24:14.100 --> 24:14.870 "have nots." 24:14.867 --> 24:20.267 So in many ways, this is a zero sum game in As I Lay 24:20.267 --> 24:25.367 Dying that one person gets a lot of stuff at the expense of 24:25.367 --> 24:26.027 someone else. 24:26.033 --> 24:31.773 It's a very austere economic model that there's no pure 24:31.767 --> 24:33.367 gain in this world. 24:33.367 --> 24:37.197 Someone gains something, someone loses something. 24:37.200 --> 24:41.570 And the three people who lose something in the course of 24:41.567 --> 24:44.767 Anse acquiring so much are his three sons, 24:44.767 --> 24:47.497 Cash, Jewel and Darl. 24:47.500 --> 24:50.430 So let's just look at Cash. 24:50.433 --> 24:55.503 And this is not really related to anything that I've been 24:55.500 --> 24:56.330 saying so far. 24:56.333 --> 24:58.633 But it's clearly Cash and Jewel. 24:58.633 --> 25:02.703 Cash is the petty cash, and Jewel is the one whose value 25:02.700 --> 25:05.400 cannot be reckoned by cash. 25:05.400 --> 25:08.330 So Faulkner's really playing with the economic 25:08.333 --> 25:09.273 model in a big way. 25:09.267 --> 25:12.627 So maybe it's not surprising that it would also be a kind 25:12.633 --> 25:17.073 of economic logic that's determining the narrative 25:17.067 --> 25:19.397 logic in As I Lay Dying as well. 25:19.400 --> 25:24.630 But Cash being named after petty cash, he's one who would 25:24.633 --> 25:30.503 go try to make $3 at the risk of not seeing his mother when 25:30.500 --> 25:33.600 she dies, not being with his mother when she dies. 25:33.600 --> 25:34.970 So petty cash. 25:34.967 --> 25:42.827 But even though his being is measured by petty cash, even 25:42.833 --> 25:47.633 in spite of that, he can't always hold on to what he 25:47.633 --> 25:53.773 has-- the little he does have initially starting out. 25:53.767 --> 25:57.397 "His face turned up a second when he was sliding 25:57.400 --> 25:59.470 back into the water. 25:59.467 --> 26:03.897 It was gray, with his eyes closed and a long swipe of mud 26:03.900 --> 26:06.000 across his face. 26:06.000 --> 26:09.600 Then he let go and turned over in the water. 26:09.600 --> 26:14.500 He looked just like an old bundle of clothes kind of 26:14.500 --> 26:17.800 washing up and down against the bank. 26:17.800 --> 26:20.300 He looked like he was still laying there in water on his 26:20.300 --> 26:24.470 face, rocking up and down a little, looking at something 26:24.467 --> 26:27.397 at the bottom." 26:27.400 --> 26:31.070 So Cash is momentarily non-human. 26:31.067 --> 26:33.127 He's lost his humanity. 26:33.133 --> 26:37.073 He looks like a bundle of old clothes. 26:37.067 --> 26:40.327 And we can all do that. 26:40.333 --> 26:46.233 If we're floating the river unconscious, we can look like 26:46.233 --> 26:49.403 we're inanimate matter, which is what 26:49.400 --> 26:52.000 Cash is at this moment. 26:52.000 --> 26:56.300 He could be inanimate matter, like a bundle of old clothes. 26:56.300 --> 27:00.470 Or we can also think about different kind of a kinship 27:00.467 --> 27:02.027 that is snapping in place. 27:02.033 --> 27:06.603 Because actually Faulkner makes sure that we have a 27:06.600 --> 27:10.170 vivid memory of something else that also floated before 27:10.167 --> 27:12.627 lifeless in the water. 27:12.633 --> 27:16.333 "Between the two hills, I see the mules once more. 27:16.333 --> 27:19.603 They roll up out of the water in succession turning 27:19.600 --> 27:24.430 completely over, their legs stiffly extended as when they 27:24.433 --> 27:26.633 had lost contact with the earth." 27:26.633 --> 27:29.203 So the mules are floating belly-up, their 27:29.200 --> 27:32.070 legs stiffly extended. 27:32.067 --> 27:35.667 That's a kind of a natural posture for them. 27:35.667 --> 27:38.997 And Cash is floating face down where he's looking at 27:39.000 --> 27:41.630 something at the bottom of the river. 27:41.633 --> 27:45.373 But either way, the two postures are almost 27:45.367 --> 27:50.167 symmetrical in a sense that both the mules and Cash are 27:50.167 --> 27:56.327 reduced to inanimate matter in that kind of posture. 27:56.333 --> 28:01.803 And we know that the mules are emblems for Tull. 28:01.800 --> 28:05.430 And they're also emblems for-- 28:05.433 --> 28:07.503 it's not cow, it's Cash-- 28:07.500 --> 28:14.370 it's for Cash's kinship, that he too is a creature 28:14.367 --> 28:16.097 with feet of clay. 28:16.100 --> 28:22.300 So this is reaffirming the fact that he's not capable of 28:22.300 --> 28:22.900 lots of things. 28:22.900 --> 28:26.400 He's a very good carpenter, but he's not capable of 28:26.400 --> 28:30.000 surviving in hostile environment, and the water is 28:30.000 --> 28:31.430 one of them. 28:31.433 --> 28:36.803 So right there is just that kinship has been reaffirmed. 28:36.800 --> 28:41.300 But we can also see Cash as an ironic instance 28:41.300 --> 28:42.870 of a have as well. 28:42.867 --> 28:46.197 And this is something that would actually come into play 28:46.200 --> 28:52.130 in a big way in the last Hemingway novel that-- 28:52.133 --> 28:55.903 in fact, it comes into play in two Hemingway novels. 28:55.900 --> 29:01.330 I promise you that this ironic use of the have will be a 29:01.333 --> 29:06.233 central moment in For Whom the Bell Tolls. 29:06.233 --> 29:08.673 So we have that to look forward to. 29:08.667 --> 29:12.067 But we can also look back to an earlier moment in To Have 29:12.067 --> 29:13.267 and Have Not. 29:13.267 --> 29:17.867 When Harry Morgan is dying, he's unconscious. 29:17.867 --> 29:21.767 And he feels there's rubber hose inside of him. 29:21.767 --> 29:26.597 So when we're talking about that moment, I was 29:26.600 --> 29:29.800 suggesting-- although I wasn't pushing very hard on that-- 29:29.800 --> 29:33.270 that there was a moment of an ironic have. We don't actually 29:33.267 --> 29:35.667 rubber hoses inside our bellies. 29:35.667 --> 29:38.027 But it can sometimes feel that way. 29:38.033 --> 29:42.203 And so it's an ironic possession, a very negative 29:42.200 --> 29:45.800 possession ironically invested in us. 29:45.800 --> 29:51.670 And here, it's the same idea in Faulkner. 29:51.667 --> 29:57.267 Cash as having an ironic possession that turns him into 29:57.267 --> 30:00.867 a casualty as it did Harry Morgan in To 30:00.867 --> 30:02.197 Have and Have Not. 30:02.200 --> 30:05.300 "Cash has a broken leg. 30:05.300 --> 30:07.870 He has had two broken legs. 30:07.867 --> 30:11.297 He lies on the box with a quilt rolled under his head 30:11.300 --> 30:14.070 and a piece of wood under his knee. 30:14.067 --> 30:17.227 'I reckon we ought to left him at Armstid's,' pa says. 30:17.233 --> 30:23.203 I haven't got a broken leg and pa hasn't and Darl hasn't and 30:23.200 --> 30:26.170 "It's just the bumps,' Cash says. "It kind of grinds 30:26.167 --> 30:27.927 together a little on a bump. 30:27.933 --> 30:30.373 It don't bother none.'" 30:30.367 --> 30:34.097 So Vardaman is the one who's speaking here. 30:34.100 --> 30:39.700 Vardaman is really rubbing it in that Cash has a broken leg. 30:39.700 --> 30:42.200 He has had two in his life. 30:42.200 --> 30:46.700 He's managed to break both his legs in his occupation as a 30:46.700 --> 30:50.100 carpenter falling down from some height. 30:50.100 --> 30:57.970 In this case, just his leg is broken actually by the horse 30:57.967 --> 31:00.427 and the log. 31:00.433 --> 31:05.103 So that's what he has. 31:05.100 --> 31:07.270 He's lost his tools at this point. 31:07.267 --> 31:10.267 He's lost his consciousness. 31:10.267 --> 31:11.627 He's lost his leg. 31:11.633 --> 31:14.803 But what he has instead of a good leg is a broken leg. 31:14.800 --> 31:17.330 That is what is in his possession now. 31:17.333 --> 31:22.133 So it's definitely an ironic instance of a have. And 31:22.133 --> 31:24.233 Vardaman is very, very glad he doesn't have that. 31:24.233 --> 31:25.403 I don't have that. 31:25.400 --> 31:26.600 Pa doesn't have that. 31:26.600 --> 31:28.100 Darl doesn't have that. 31:28.100 --> 31:33.230 So definitely it is the verb to "have" is a liability. 31:36.200 --> 31:39.900 So that is an instance of ironizing that verb. 31:39.900 --> 31:43.100 But there's also kind of a straightforward instance of 31:43.100 --> 31:49.430 Cash as a have not in a very simple, quantifiable way. 31:49.433 --> 31:52.673 And actually, quantification is kind of interesting in 31:52.667 --> 31:53.927 Faulkner as well. 31:53.933 --> 31:56.433 If we think of the entire novel, the whole narrative 31:56.433 --> 31:58.703 economy is kind of zero sum game. 31:58.700 --> 32:02.630 They're actually quantifying who gets what and measuring 32:02.633 --> 32:04.303 that against who loses what. 32:04.300 --> 32:07.870 Actually, there's kind of quantifying logic going on in 32:07.867 --> 32:09.297 As I Lay Dying. 32:09.300 --> 32:14.400 So this is a quantifying moment in As I Lay Dying. 32:14.400 --> 32:17.970 We know that the mules have drowned, so they have to get 32:17.967 --> 32:19.497 another team of mules. 32:19.500 --> 32:21.870 These are very, very poor people. 32:21.867 --> 32:27.197 A team of mules would cost $40. 32:27.200 --> 32:30.900 And it seems that Anse actually has managed to come 32:30.900 --> 32:33.770 up with the $40. 32:33.767 --> 32:39.967 So Darl is trying to figure out where he got the $40 from. 32:39.967 --> 32:44.027 "'So that's what you were doing in Cash's clothes last 32:44.033 --> 32:45.973 night, ' Darl said... 32:45.967 --> 32:49.167 'Cash aimed to buy that talking machine from Surratt 32:49.167 --> 32:51.697 with that money, ' Darl said. 32:51.700 --> 32:54.370 Anse stood there mumbling his mouth. 32:54.367 --> 32:55.367 Jewel watched him. 32:55.367 --> 32:57.867 He ain't never blinked yet. 32:57.867 --> 33:02.367 'But that's just $8 more,' Darl said, in that voice like 33:02.367 --> 33:06.097 he was just listening and never give a durn himself. 33:06.100 --> 33:10.500 'That still won't buy a team.' Anse looked at Jewel, quick, 33:10.500 --> 33:13.400 kind of sliding his eyes that way, then 33:13.400 --> 33:14.870 he looked down again. 33:14.867 --> 33:17.597 'God knows, if there were ere a man, ' he says. 33:17.600 --> 33:18.730 Still they didn't say nothing. 33:18.733 --> 33:22.633 The just watched him, waiting, and him sliding his eyes 33:22.633 --> 33:26.733 toward their feet and up their legs but no higher. 33:26.733 --> 33:30.273 'And the horse,' he says." 33:30.267 --> 33:38.797 So we know exactly what it takes to reach that $40 mark. 33:38.800 --> 33:42.170 He has to get $10 from Dewey Dell. 33:42.167 --> 33:44.227 There's no time to talk about that. 33:44.233 --> 33:44.833 It's just straightforward. 33:44.833 --> 33:49.233 She owes $10 from Rafe for the abortion. 33:49.233 --> 33:52.273 And he got the $10 from her. 33:52.267 --> 33:57.697 And he gets $8 from Cash. 33:57.700 --> 34:01.300 Cash was going to use that to buy a telephone. 34:01.300 --> 34:06.000 That's very far from that goal of $40. 34:06.000 --> 34:11.400 So one very valuable thing has to be traded in order for him 34:11.400 --> 34:13.700 to get the $40. 34:13.700 --> 34:16.130 And there's just one thing left. 34:16.133 --> 34:19.533 It's the most obvious item that is in anyone's 34:19.533 --> 34:21.373 possession. 34:21.367 --> 34:24.097 So we can turn now to-- 34:24.100 --> 34:29.400 Jewel's horse obviously is key from beginning to end. 34:29.400 --> 34:33.230 But since we've been talking about kinship between humans 34:33.233 --> 34:38.473 and animals, I just wanted to stop very briefly and once 34:38.467 --> 34:40.897 again, hold down the conjecture that I think that 34:40.900 --> 34:45.630 what Faulkner here is, in some ways, taking us back to the 34:45.633 --> 34:50.873 moment when Jewel is both a horse and a snake. 34:50.867 --> 34:53.727 We talked about that last time that he's 34:53.733 --> 34:55.373 caught between two poles. 34:55.367 --> 35:00.097 He's both a horse, but also there's something snake-like 35:00.100 --> 35:01.570 about his movement. 35:01.567 --> 35:07.067 And it seems that that association with the snake has 35:07.067 --> 35:10.227 been reinvested in Anse. 35:10.233 --> 35:14.703 So we have the image of him repeated twice as sliding his 35:14.700 --> 35:16.000 eyes towards Jewel. 35:16.000 --> 35:19.470 Sliding his eyes toward their feet and up their 35:19.467 --> 35:21.767 legs, but no higher. 35:21.767 --> 35:26.667 It is that sliding motion that realized the human, non-human 35:26.667 --> 35:32.167 configuration in As I Lay Dying so that it is Anse who 35:32.167 --> 35:35.097 is the snake in the family. 35:35.100 --> 35:40.770 And it's as if Jewel has suddenly been freed from his 35:40.767 --> 35:43.097 kinship with the snake. 35:43.100 --> 35:45.800 Maybe this is also a zero sum game. 35:45.800 --> 35:51.200 There's only one person in the family who could claim kinship 35:51.200 --> 35:52.930 with a snake, Anse. 35:52.933 --> 35:56.873 Anse right here is claiming kinship with the snake. 35:56.867 --> 36:01.597 So Jewel is going to relinquish his kinship and be 36:01.600 --> 36:04.800 redefined in a different way. 36:04.800 --> 36:08.830 But just to wrap up with Cash he's lost $8. 36:08.833 --> 36:10.773 Once again, true to his name. 36:10.767 --> 36:11.997 That's what he loses. 36:12.000 --> 36:15.000 It's still a very petty sum. 36:15.000 --> 36:18.230 But this is the big loser. 36:18.233 --> 36:20.703 And he has that much in his possession so he can 36:20.700 --> 36:23.570 afford to lose big. 36:23.567 --> 36:28.497 But let's start out with an image of Jewel as still a 36:28.500 --> 36:30.430 have. Still having that thing. 36:34.667 --> 36:39.697 When the emerging situation is becoming clear to everyone, it 36:39.700 --> 36:41.470 is Jewel that Anse is looking at. 36:41.467 --> 36:44.127 And Jewel has not reacted in any fashion. 36:44.133 --> 36:51.173 So this is a true turning point or a critical moment 36:51.167 --> 36:52.897 when things could have gone either way. 36:52.900 --> 36:56.930 So the horse is still in Jewel's possession. 36:56.933 --> 36:59.303 He doesn't have to give up the horse. 36:59.300 --> 37:02.430 It would be impossible for Anse to take 37:02.433 --> 37:03.633 control of the horse. 37:03.633 --> 37:05.273 He's the last person to be able to 37:05.267 --> 37:06.527 control that wild horse. 37:06.533 --> 37:10.103 Only one person can control that horse and it's Jewel. 37:10.100 --> 37:12.100 So this is a critical moment. 37:12.100 --> 37:16.030 How is Anse going to be able to get a hold of the horse to 37:16.033 --> 37:17.873 sell the horse? 37:17.867 --> 37:21.297 And it seems as if Jewel is really 37:21.300 --> 37:23.530 tended in one direction. 37:23.533 --> 37:26.903 This is a road that he could have taken. 37:26.900 --> 37:29.270 But I'm giving it away in the sense that no, it's 37:29.267 --> 37:30.227 the road not taken. 37:30.233 --> 37:32.103 But this is moment when it looks like this is the road 37:32.100 --> 37:34.400 that he's about to take. 37:34.400 --> 37:37.030 So as soon as Jewel hears that the horse 37:37.033 --> 37:38.373 is part of the bargain. 37:38.367 --> 37:42.967 "Then he spit, slow, and said 'Hell' and he turned and went 37:42.967 --> 37:46.867 on to the gate and unhitched the horse and got on it... 37:46.867 --> 37:49.697 They went out of sight that way, the two of them looking 37:49.700 --> 37:52.030 like some kind of spotted cyclone." 37:52.033 --> 37:57.603 Still true to that original image of incredibly fast 37:57.600 --> 38:01.130 movement, almost superhuman in the speed with which the two 38:01.133 --> 38:01.973 of them move. 38:01.967 --> 38:05.267 And also superhuman, almost mythic in the sense that man 38:05.267 --> 38:06.627 and horse had become one. 38:06.633 --> 38:09.133 This is the Hemingway image that is 38:09.133 --> 38:11.403 transposed onto Faulkner. 38:11.400 --> 38:14.370 This is the closest that Faulkner will ever get to 38:14.367 --> 38:17.797 Hemingway is Jewel and the horse becoming one. 38:17.800 --> 38:22.470 So it looks like that Anse is never going to be able to get 38:22.467 --> 38:26.697 $40, because Jewel and the horse have cleared out. 38:26.700 --> 38:30.030 Jewel can still be a have if this were the 38:30.033 --> 38:33.673 ending of As I Lay Dying. 38:33.667 --> 38:36.597 But this is what happens after that. 38:36.600 --> 38:39.330 "'The horse?' I said. 38:39.333 --> 38:43.933 Anse's boy taken that horse and cleared out last night 38:43.933 --> 38:47.233 probably half way to Texas by now, and Anse--' 'I don't know 38:47.233 --> 38:49.403 who brung it,' Eustace said. 38:49.400 --> 38:50.570 "I never see them. 38:50.567 --> 38:54.167 I just found the horse in the barn this morning when I went 38:54.167 --> 38:58.627 to feed, and I told Mr. Snopes, and he said to bring 38:58.633 --> 39:00.333 the team over here.'" 39:00.333 --> 39:05.173 So the team of mules arrives because Mr. 39:05.167 --> 39:08.267 Snopes did get the horse. 39:08.267 --> 39:12.927 And only one person could have brought the horse to Snopes. 39:12.933 --> 39:17.673 So Jewel becomes a have not. 39:17.667 --> 39:21.567 And we can see why he's losing his kinship to the snake-- 39:21.567 --> 39:26.797 becoming a have not by voluntarily relinquishing his 39:26.800 --> 39:29.000 possession of the horse. 39:29.000 --> 39:33.470 He is the most tragic figure in one sense, because he has 39:33.467 --> 39:37.627 the most power to refuse to relinquish that possession. 39:37.633 --> 39:41.033 And he is the one who actually, out of his power, 39:41.033 --> 39:45.833 actually, willfully, deliberately, consciously, 39:45.833 --> 39:48.573 gives up that possession. 39:48.567 --> 39:55.497 So the time has come for remapping of the whole kinship 39:55.500 --> 39:58.770 structure in As I Lay Dying. 39:58.767 --> 40:01.797 Jewel has, up to this point, been the 40:01.800 --> 40:03.970 outsider to the family. 40:03.967 --> 40:08.997 He's the one that everyone picks out as being a non-kin 40:09.000 --> 40:11.430 by Darl and by Dewey Dell. 40:11.433 --> 40:15.673 But this is the moment when all of a sudden he's been 40:15.667 --> 40:21.427 admitted for the first time into the family circle. 40:21.433 --> 40:26.203 And what's interesting is that this redrawing of the kinship 40:26.200 --> 40:33.070 lines is dramatized by Faulkner as the racialization 40:33.067 --> 40:35.497 of both Cash and Jewel. 40:35.500 --> 40:38.930 And we can see why they both racialize at 40:38.933 --> 40:40.173 this critical moment. 40:40.167 --> 40:43.997 They become kin, because they both become black. 40:44.000 --> 40:47.100 "Cash's leg and foot turned black. 40:47.100 --> 40:50.670 We held lamp and looked at Cash's foot and leg 40:50.667 --> 40:52.167 where it was black. 40:52.167 --> 40:56.467 'Your foot looks like a nigger's foot, Cash,' I said. 40:56.467 --> 41:01.967 Jewel was lying on his face His back was red. 41:01.967 --> 41:03.867 Dewey Dell put the medicine on it. 41:03.867 --> 41:06.367 The medicine was made out of butter and soot, to 41:06.367 --> 41:07.927 draw out the fire. 41:07.933 --> 41:09.903 Then his back was black. 41:09.900 --> 41:11.370 'Does it hurt, Jewel?' I said. 41:11.367 --> 41:14.297 'Your back looks like a nigger's, Jewel,' I said. 41:14.300 --> 41:16.800 Cash's foot and leg looked like a nigger's." 41:16.800 --> 41:20.170 This is really heavy handed on the part of Faulkner. 41:20.167 --> 41:27.197 They both look like niggers, and for two different reasons. 41:27.200 --> 41:33.500 Cash's foot is turning black because they put concrete on 41:33.500 --> 41:37.900 it to fix the leg. 41:37.900 --> 41:40.070 To fix the broken leg, the Bundrens have 41:40.067 --> 41:42.627 put concrete on it. 41:42.633 --> 41:46.733 That's the medical practice within the Bundren family. 41:46.733 --> 41:51.033 So his foot is turning black at this moment. 41:51.033 --> 41:58.033 And Jewel's back is black because he has 41:58.033 --> 41:58.973 just been in the fire. 41:58.967 --> 42:01.697 He's the one who actually saved the coffin, although 42:01.700 --> 42:03.570 it's a dubious thing to do. 42:03.567 --> 42:06.767 He's the one who actually saves the coffin when the barn 42:06.767 --> 42:08.567 was set on fire. 42:08.567 --> 42:12.767 And as a consequence, he gets this severe burn on his back. 42:12.767 --> 42:15.697 And that's why his back is all black. 42:15.700 --> 42:20.030 So each of them actually has lost something, and they've 42:20.033 --> 42:20.833 gained something. 42:20.833 --> 42:24.273 They don't have a normal color, like anyone has normal 42:24.267 --> 42:25.027 colored back. 42:25.033 --> 42:25.903 They've got them. 42:25.900 --> 42:29.600 They've gained a black leg and a black back. 42:29.600 --> 42:34.470 And as a result of being blackened in this manner, then 42:34.467 --> 42:36.397 all of a sudden, they become brothers. 42:36.400 --> 42:44.070 So this is a new concept of brotherhood and new membership 42:44.067 --> 42:48.127 being proposed for that kinship structure. 42:48.133 --> 42:54.073 Jewel who has previously been outside of that kinship circle 42:54.067 --> 42:55.667 has been admitted. 42:55.667 --> 43:00.727 And we'll see who is going to be excluded once again. 43:00.733 --> 43:02.103 It's a zero sum game. 43:02.100 --> 43:07.630 If someone has been let in, who is it and for what reason 43:07.633 --> 43:12.533 is he going to be left out? 43:12.533 --> 43:15.403 "It wasn't nothing else to do. 43:15.400 --> 43:21.200 It was either send him to Jackson, or have Gillespie sue 43:21.200 --> 43:26.670 us, because he knowed some way that Darl set to it." 43:26.667 --> 43:31.497 So everything is interlocking in Faulkner. 43:31.500 --> 43:37.470 It is that fire that turns Jewel's back 43:37.467 --> 43:40.367 into a black back. 43:40.367 --> 43:44.267 And the same fire also has consequences for other people. 43:44.267 --> 43:49.727 You don't set fire to a barn without someone paying for it. 43:49.733 --> 43:52.873 And it turns out that it is Darl who's 43:52.867 --> 43:53.997 going to pay for it. 43:54.000 --> 43:57.670 And the language that is used here-- this is Cash who is 43:57.667 --> 44:03.867 speaking, still in the voice of someone who's used to being 44:03.867 --> 44:09.427 helpless and used to not being able to modify the situation 44:09.433 --> 44:10.333 that is given. 44:10.333 --> 44:12.333 There's just nothing else to do. 44:12.333 --> 44:17.003 One person has to take the blame and to take the 44:17.000 --> 44:18.870 consequences of that blame. 44:18.867 --> 44:22.027 So one person has to be sent to Jackson. 44:22.033 --> 44:24.533 And know what Jackson is. 44:24.533 --> 44:28.903 It already has been a looming presence in The Sound and the 44:28.900 --> 44:33.070 Fury as the ultimate home for Benjy. 44:33.067 --> 44:39.097 And it is actually the home for Darl much sooner than it 44:39.100 --> 44:41.270 will be for Benjy. 44:41.267 --> 44:46.627 So let's look at two instances of the reconstituting of the 44:46.633 --> 44:49.903 narrowing of the kinship circle. 44:49.900 --> 44:55.930 And Cash talking now and looking at his brother, Darl, 44:55.933 --> 45:02.433 but beginning to see his brother as a non-kin. 45:02.433 --> 45:05.373 This is Cash speaking. 45:05.367 --> 45:08.827 Actually, he sort of agrees with Darl that maybe it's a 45:08.833 --> 45:10.573 good thing to burn up the coffin. 45:10.567 --> 45:14.097 It's just so humiliating for Addie to be smelling and to 45:14.100 --> 45:16.270 have all the buzzards descending on her. 45:16.267 --> 45:19.497 They keep counting 10 and then more and more. 45:19.500 --> 45:20.530 And everyone -- 45:20.533 --> 45:23.303 all the towns they go through -- 45:23.300 --> 45:26.030 wanting to sue them because of the terrible smell that is 45:26.033 --> 45:28.433 coming from the coffin. 45:28.433 --> 45:30.903 So because of this other humiliation that's been 45:30.900 --> 45:33.800 visited upon Addie, it would have been a good thing to burn 45:33.800 --> 45:35.130 up the coffin. 45:35.133 --> 45:37.173 And because it wasn't going to happen and nobody else was 45:37.167 --> 45:38.727 going to do, Darl was going to do it. 45:38.733 --> 45:42.773 So Cash can see the reason for wanting to burn up the coffin. 45:42.767 --> 45:45.627 But he can also see that it maybe is not such a great 45:45.633 --> 45:47.333 thing for the person who is doing it. 45:47.333 --> 45:50.573 "... when Darl seen that looked like one of us would 45:50.567 --> 45:53.427 have to do something, I can almost believe he 45:53.433 --> 45:56.033 done right in a way. 45:56.033 --> 45:59.873 But I don't reckon nothing excuses setting fire to a 45:59.867 --> 46:03.397 man's barn and endangering his stock and 46:03.400 --> 46:06.230 destroying his property. 46:06.233 --> 46:08.003 That's how I reckon a man is crazy. 46:10.867 --> 46:14.367 That's how he can't see eye to eye with other folks. 46:14.367 --> 46:17.367 And I reckon they ain't nothing else to do with him 46:17.367 --> 46:21.527 but what the most folks says is right." 46:21.533 --> 46:31.373 So Cash ceding his bond with Darl as Darl's brother. 46:31.367 --> 46:37.427 The kinship bond is superseded by a much more clear kind of 46:37.433 --> 46:40.673 property relation. 46:40.667 --> 46:44.027 Darl really has no relation to Gillespie other than that he 46:44.033 --> 46:47.533 is the destroyer of Gillespie's property. 46:47.533 --> 46:51.973 But it is as a destroyer of Gillespie's property that he 46:51.967 --> 46:53.827 will get sent to Jackson. 46:53.833 --> 46:59.373 It is that impersonal property relationship that will define 46:59.367 --> 47:06.367 Darl in the end and not his kinship with his two brothers. 47:06.367 --> 47:11.197 So this is the beginning of the exclusion and the logic 47:11.200 --> 47:16.700 for that exclusion of Darl from that family circle. 47:16.700 --> 47:19.870 But it is Vardaman who puts the case most 47:19.867 --> 47:23.397 strongly and clearly. 47:23.400 --> 47:24.700 Vardaman talking about Darl. 47:24.700 --> 47:26.530 "He went to Jackson. 47:26.533 --> 47:29.973 He went crazy and went to Jackson both. 47:29.967 --> 47:31.967 Lots of people who didn't go crazy. 47:31.967 --> 47:34.127 Pa and Cash and Jewel and Dewey Dell and 47:34.133 --> 47:36.233 me didn't go crazy. 47:36.233 --> 47:38.003 We never did go crazy. 47:38.000 --> 47:41.800 We didn't go to Jackson either, Darl." 47:41.800 --> 47:43.700 This is a child. 47:43.700 --> 47:48.370 He's the cruelest, but he's also the most honest that the 47:48.367 --> 47:52.527 family from now on is going to be Pa and Cash and Jewel and 47:52.533 --> 47:55.303 Dewey Dell and me, Vardaman. 47:55.300 --> 47:59.330 He's not going to include Darl anymore. 47:59.333 --> 48:03.103 It's been radically reconstituted. 48:03.100 --> 48:07.830 And it is on the basis of that reconstitution that we can 48:07.833 --> 48:11.233 think about Darl as a "have not," as the ultimate "have 48:11.233 --> 48:11.733 not." 48:11.733 --> 48:15.473 I think Darl and Jewel as symmetrical in that sense. 48:15.467 --> 48:20.927 Jewel has given the thing that is most monetarily valuable. 48:20.933 --> 48:23.173 And Darl has given up the thing that is 48:23.167 --> 48:24.627 most humanly valuable. 48:27.533 --> 48:31.003 This is Darl speaking, referring to himself in the 48:31.000 --> 48:35.970 third person, talking about himself in the third person. 48:35.967 --> 48:36.967 "Darl has gone to Jackson. 48:36.967 --> 48:41.227 They put him on the train, laughing, down the long car 48:41.233 --> 48:43.573 laughing, the heads turning like the heads of 48:43.567 --> 48:45.127 owls when be passed. 48:45.133 --> 48:47.433 'What are you laughing at? ' I said. 48:47.433 --> 48:49.473 'Yes, yes, yes, yes,'... 48:49.467 --> 48:52.327 Darl is our brother, our brother Darl. 48:52.333 --> 48:56.073 Our brother Darl in a cage in Jackson where, his grimed 48:56.067 --> 48:59.827 hands lying light in the interstices, looking out he 48:59.833 --> 49:05.303 foams. 'Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.'" 49:05.300 --> 49:07.270 So he's lost his mind. 49:07.267 --> 49:14.197 That is what there is to lose in the course of this novel. 49:14.200 --> 49:15.630 He has lost his family. 49:15.633 --> 49:20.733 We know that that's one of the non-monetary things that can 49:20.733 --> 49:23.473 also be lost. He's lost his brothers. 49:23.467 --> 49:24.897 He's lost everything. 49:24.900 --> 49:27.470 He's lost his freedom. 49:27.467 --> 49:29.667 And he also has lost his mind. 49:29.667 --> 49:34.397 So we can't really think of a darker ending than this. 49:34.400 --> 49:39.530 And it says a lot about Faulkner that this darkest of 49:39.533 --> 49:44.233 endings is actually stuck in the middle of a story that 49:44.233 --> 49:45.503 actually has a comic ending. 49:45.500 --> 49:47.800 And that's what Faulkner does with genres.