WEBVTT 00:10.167 --> 00:12.267 WAI CHEE DIMOCK: I just want to refresh your 00:12.267 --> 00:13.597 memory about what we talked 00:13.600 --> 00:19.070 about last time, about the kindness of strangers. 00:19.067 --> 00:21.097 Last time we spent a lot of time talking about the 00:21.100 --> 00:26.030 kindness of strangers, and in many ways, this as an instance 00:26.033 --> 00:30.933 of Faulkner updating a long tradition of thinking about 00:30.933 --> 00:36.833 hospitality, and also thinking about pregnancy outside of 00:36.833 --> 00:40.803 wedlock, or even when you are in a marriage that the father 00:40.800 --> 00:43.800 is not your husband -- 00:43.800 --> 00:52.200 so Lena updating Leda from the Greek classics. 00:52.200 --> 00:55.770 But also thinking about community, and thinking about 00:55.767 --> 00:59.797 Lena's relation to the Southern community, and 00:59.800 --> 01:06.200 updating Southern hospitality as an updating of the ancient 01:06.200 --> 01:10.370 Greek idea of hospitality to strangers. 01:10.367 --> 01:13.867 So today we'll be thinking more about that, but 01:13.867 --> 01:17.867 introducing a new term, and bringing 01:17.867 --> 01:19.297 Christianity into play. 01:19.300 --> 01:20.430 You guys probably know this-- 01:20.433 --> 01:25.173 Christianity is very important in Light in August, and 01:25.167 --> 01:28.767 especially the Christian concept of how we should 01:28.767 --> 01:32.267 conduct ourselves towards our neighbors. 01:32.267 --> 01:35.627 So we'll be thinking about that, and the various 01:35.633 --> 01:38.273 permutations that Christian idea, treat 01:38.267 --> 01:41.497 your neighbor as thyself. 01:41.500 --> 01:44.930 But before we go into that, I just want to talk a little bit 01:44.933 --> 01:51.503 about the narrative structure of Light in August. Obviously 01:51.500 --> 01:55.400 Lena is one very important half of the narrative. 01:55.400 --> 01:58.730 She represents the undramatic half of the narrative, very 01:58.733 --> 02:01.073 peaceful, very monotonous. 02:01.067 --> 02:04.367 The only way drama can come into her part of the story is 02:04.367 --> 02:07.967 when the supporting cast takes over and they kind of upstage 02:07.967 --> 02:11.297 her and become the protagonist within just that 02:11.300 --> 02:13.170 short period of time. 02:13.167 --> 02:17.997 So the undramatic narrative revolving around Lena and 02:18.000 --> 02:20.470 those people that she comes into contact with. 02:20.467 --> 02:24.367 And then opposite to that is a very 02:24.367 --> 02:25.867 dramatic structure, actually. 02:25.867 --> 02:29.127 And we're beginning to see that in the reference to 02:29.133 --> 02:32.573 Joanna Burden and her house being burned down, and the 02:32.567 --> 02:34.397 spectators saying that it would be good to have some 02:34.400 --> 02:38.930 "human fat meat" to quicken the fire. 02:38.933 --> 02:43.503 So very, very dramatic development, and various other 02:43.500 --> 02:46.970 characters also contribute to that dramatic narrative. 02:46.967 --> 02:50.367 So we'll be looking at Joanna Burden, Reverend Hightower, 02:50.367 --> 02:53.927 and obviously Joe Christmas. 02:53.933 --> 02:57.703 But I just want to start by going back and looking 02:57.700 --> 03:02.670 squarely at this injunction from Leviticus, which is 03:02.667 --> 03:07.527 probably one of the central tenets of Christianity. 03:07.533 --> 03:10.033 And we should take it, not just the last line, which is 03:10.033 --> 03:12.033 the line that all of us know, but take 03:12.033 --> 03:15.573 it in its full context. 03:15.567 --> 03:20.197 "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the 03:20.200 --> 03:24.600 sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor 03:24.600 --> 03:26.030 as yourself. 03:26.033 --> 03:32.473 I am the Lord." So loving your neighbor is in the context of 03:32.467 --> 03:35.167 you obeying God. 03:35.167 --> 03:41.597 So it is under the rubric of your devotion to God, your 03:41.600 --> 03:46.470 obedience to God that you should love your neighbor. 03:46.467 --> 03:51.827 But it's further thickened by the notion that you should not 03:51.833 --> 03:55.033 take vengeance against others. 03:55.033 --> 03:58.273 We might not necessarily think of the 03:58.267 --> 03:59.897 prohibition against vengeance. 03:59.900 --> 04:03.470 In fact, we don't really associate Christianity with 04:03.467 --> 04:07.167 the prohibition again vengeance. 04:07.167 --> 04:12.897 There's just no prohibition against vengeance in our 04:12.900 --> 04:17.270 current legal and ethical thinking. 04:17.267 --> 04:20.397 Punitive justice is an instance of, actually, 04:20.400 --> 04:21.230 collective vengeance. 04:21.233 --> 04:23.203 And so it is institutionalized. 04:23.200 --> 04:26.170 There's no prohibition against vengeance. 04:26.167 --> 04:28.997 But actually within, at least, Leviticus, there's a 04:29.000 --> 04:30.900 prohibition against vengeance. 04:30.900 --> 04:35.330 So if you think about what that means, and putting that 04:35.333 --> 04:38.373 also under the rubric of loving your neighbor-- 04:38.367 --> 04:46.467 so all this is very important to Light in August. But I want 04:46.467 --> 04:49.627 to further introduce one other consideration, which is a 04:49.633 --> 04:53.933 relatively new book that came out by three very important 04:53.933 --> 05:01.303 thinkers and philosopher, Slavoj Zizek, Eric Santner, 05:01.300 --> 05:05.370 and Kenneth Reinhardt called The Neighbor. 05:05.367 --> 05:09.197 The three of them each had an essay in this 05:09.200 --> 05:11.300 book called The Neighbor. 05:11.300 --> 05:14.170 And the argument is really thinking about what the 05:14.167 --> 05:20.827 concept of neighbor could mean after the Holocaust, and after 05:20.833 --> 05:24.673 the numerous instances of genocide that we've witnessed 05:24.667 --> 05:27.367 in the twentieth century and the twenty-first century. 05:27.367 --> 05:31.667 It seems that the human propensity is to turn against 05:31.667 --> 05:34.467 those among whom you've lived all your life. 05:34.467 --> 05:36.897 It takes such a short space of time. 05:36.900 --> 05:38.770 Generations of people might be living 05:38.767 --> 05:40.767 together in the same place-- 05:40.767 --> 05:42.867 all of a sudden, you turn against the person 05:42.867 --> 05:45.127 next door to you. 05:45.133 --> 05:49.073 So the three philosophers think of this as a case of 05:49.067 --> 05:50.697 political theology. 05:50.700 --> 05:53.470 This is a very interesting concept. 05:53.467 --> 05:57.097 It's thinking about the ethics of social conduct, of 05:57.100 --> 06:01.170 behavior, towards people who are not kin to you, who have 06:01.167 --> 06:06.167 no blood ties to you, you have no obligation other than just 06:06.167 --> 06:08.867 the obligation of treating them as neighbors, and what 06:08.867 --> 06:12.667 the appropriate conduct would be, what are the limits to 06:12.667 --> 06:15.367 being someone's neighbors, and what are the licenses 06:15.367 --> 06:17.297 that you can take. 06:17.300 --> 06:22.600 So I'd encourage you just to take a look at this book, if 06:22.600 --> 06:26.170 you just want to do some reading in philosophy. 06:26.167 --> 06:30.227 But now let's go back to what we've been talking about a 06:30.233 --> 06:33.303 little bit last time, and I just want to remind you of 06:33.300 --> 06:37.300 this discussion, this conversation becomes right at 06:37.300 --> 06:41.670 the heels of thinking about Byron Bunch being in love. 06:41.667 --> 06:44.097 "'It's a big fire,' another said. 06:44.100 --> 06:44.830 'What can it be? 06:44.833 --> 06:48.033 I don't remember anything out that way big enough to make 06:48.033 --> 06:51.173 all that smoke, except that Burden house.' 'Maybe that's 06:51.167 --> 06:52.467 what it is,' another said. 06:52.467 --> 06:56.667 'My pappy says he can remember how 50 years ago, folks said 06:56.667 --> 07:00.727 it ought to be burned, with a little human fat meat to start 07:00.733 --> 07:04.033 it good.' 'Maybe your pappy slipped up there and set it 07:04.033 --> 07:05.073 afire,' a third said. 07:05.067 --> 07:06.927 They all laughed." 07:06.933 --> 07:11.773 So this is the other face of the community. 07:11.767 --> 07:15.267 Going along with Lena, we have this idea that human beings 07:15.267 --> 07:17.567 are just all kindness, and that's all there is. 07:17.567 --> 07:20.597 But we just know from experience that that's 07:20.600 --> 07:22.930 probably just half the story. 07:22.933 --> 07:26.873 So Faulkner is very emphatic about showing us the other 07:26.867 --> 07:29.927 face of the neighbor. 07:29.933 --> 07:35.003 And there's a genealogy to the Burden house. 07:35.000 --> 07:39.800 In Kipling's poem, "The White Man's Burden," that people who 07:39.800 --> 07:43.570 do good, or consider themselves to do good, quite 07:43.567 --> 07:47.497 often actually incur the resentments of those 07:47.500 --> 07:48.230 they do good to. 07:48.233 --> 07:51.833 It's an interesting kind of psychological dynamics. 07:51.833 --> 07:55.203 "Take up the White Man's burden--/ And reap his old 07:55.200 --> 08:01.430 reward:/ The blame of those ye better,/ The hate of those ye 08:01.433 --> 08:02.203 guard." 08:02.200 --> 08:05.370 I think that it actually is quite a natural human tendency 08:05.367 --> 08:13.267 not to want to get other people taking care of you in 08:13.267 --> 08:16.367 this particular way, of doing good to you. 08:16.367 --> 08:20.297 And so resentment is actually kind of natural reaction. 08:20.300 --> 08:26.430 And what the White Man's Burden means, especially in 08:26.433 --> 08:30.033 the context of doing good to a different race. 08:30.033 --> 08:34.773 And obviously that issue, it was front and center during 08:34.767 --> 08:38.367 reconstruction, when you have all the slaves becoming 08:38.367 --> 08:39.527 freemen, and what to do-- 08:39.533 --> 08:43.133 and how to educate them and induct them, really, into 08:43.133 --> 08:45.003 citizenship. 08:45.000 --> 08:52.270 So lots of Northern reformers went South, and a lot of them, 08:52.267 --> 08:56.327 including Joanna Burden's family, had the idea that they 08:56.333 --> 09:01.673 would be there as social reformers, and would be 09:01.667 --> 09:04.167 educating the ex-slaves. 09:04.167 --> 09:07.967 But they also went by a different name in American 09:07.967 --> 09:11.267 history, and that is the name of the carpetbagger. 09:11.267 --> 09:16.967 And we can see a very vivid illustration of that, the huge 09:16.967 --> 09:19.597 bag that is more than an appendage, really. 09:19.600 --> 09:22.900 It's the defining feature of this person. 09:22.900 --> 09:26.800 And there were many, many cartoons about how much they 09:26.800 --> 09:30.200 were resented in post-bellum South. 09:30.200 --> 09:33.600 So there's this is one image of how doing good, or the 09:33.600 --> 09:37.100 claim to do good, can actually benefit yourself. 09:37.100 --> 09:43.230 Likewise, the self groaning under the burden of the-- how 09:43.233 --> 09:43.803 did that go? 09:43.800 --> 09:46.670 It's an actual burden right there. 09:46.667 --> 09:49.397 And I'm not entirely clear about the logic of this. 09:49.400 --> 09:53.530 You guys should just try to figure it out, and email, or 09:53.533 --> 09:56.133 just write a blog about this, or email me, if you can figure 09:56.133 --> 09:56.903 out the exact logic. 09:56.900 --> 10:00.630 Anyway, there's resentment there, but it's complicated. 10:00.633 --> 10:04.703 So political cartoons can be really a great way to think 10:04.700 --> 10:10.270 about political history and social history, and certainly 10:10.267 --> 10:15.067 a very important background to Light in August. 10:15.067 --> 10:17.427 But what we now see is the outcome of that. 10:17.433 --> 10:22.473 Joanna Burden, as we know, is still there as someone who's 10:22.467 --> 10:23.127 doing good. 10:23.133 --> 10:27.833 She is on the board of multiple charities, she gives 10:27.833 --> 10:30.433 money, she has a black lawyer. 10:30.433 --> 10:36.473 Basically she's spent her whole life working towards the 10:36.467 --> 10:39.997 welfare of the black population. 10:40.000 --> 10:45.300 And this is what happens to her at the end of that life. 10:45.300 --> 10:47.700 But the way that Faulkner is telling the story, the actual 10:47.700 --> 10:49.930 tone of that is very different from the 10:49.933 --> 10:52.073 tone that I just used. 10:52.067 --> 10:55.267 "'She was lying on the floor. 10:55.267 --> 10:58.727 Her head had been cut pretty near off.'" Oh, this is-- 10:58.733 --> 11:01.103 as is the custom in Light in August-- 11:01.100 --> 11:05.630 a very dramatic episode is rendered to us, is retold to 11:05.633 --> 11:10.073 us by someone who was there, but not a central 11:10.067 --> 11:11.897 player in the story. 11:11.900 --> 11:16.870 So this whole discovery of Joanna Burden's body was 11:16.867 --> 11:19.797 reported by Byron Bunch to Hightower. 11:19.800 --> 11:22.470 And Byron wasn't there to do the discovering, either. 11:22.467 --> 11:24.867 He was reporting what a countryman who was a total 11:24.867 --> 11:29.297 stranger, and coming to town in a wagon, a total stranger, 11:29.300 --> 11:33.230 being given this important function of discovering Joanna 11:33.233 --> 11:33.833 Burden's body. 11:33.833 --> 11:36.433 So this is this countryman from nowhere, 11:36.433 --> 11:40.103 telling about the event. 11:40.100 --> 11:42.170 "'She was lying on the floor. 11:42.167 --> 11:45.497 Her head had been cut pretty near off; a lady with the 11:45.500 --> 11:47.700 beginning of gray hair. 11:47.700 --> 11:50.170 The man said how he stood there and he could hear the 11:50.167 --> 11:53.767 fire and there was smoke in the room itself now, like it 11:53.767 --> 11:55.797 had done followed him in. 11:55.800 --> 11:59.230 And how he was afraid to try to pick her up and carry her 11:59.233 --> 12:03.633 out, because her head might come clean off. 12:03.633 --> 12:07.133 So he run back into the house and up the stairs again and 12:07.133 --> 12:10.403 into the room and jerked the cover off the bed and rolled 12:10.400 --> 12:12.670 her onto it like a sack of meal. 12:12.667 --> 12:16.027 And he said that what he was scared of happened. 12:16.033 --> 12:19.603 Because the cover fell open and she was laying on her side 12:19.600 --> 12:23.270 facing one way, and her head was turned clean around like 12:23.267 --> 12:25.297 she was looking behind her. 12:25.300 --> 12:28.300 And he said that if she could've just done that when 12:28.300 --> 12:29.870 she was alive, she might not have been 12:29.867 --> 12:31.627 doing it now.'" OK. 12:31.633 --> 12:34.573 Faulkner is actually repeating himself, right? 12:34.567 --> 12:39.297 It's the same kinds of construction that Lena used 12:39.300 --> 12:42.970 when she talks about herself climbing out of the window for 12:42.967 --> 12:43.767 the last time. 12:43.767 --> 12:48.527 It was a little difficult, that time, but if it had been 12:48.533 --> 12:52.903 that difficult from the first time, she might not need to be 12:52.900 --> 12:53.930 doing it now, right? 12:53.933 --> 12:58.233 So it's exactly the same structure. 12:58.233 --> 13:02.873 What is weird is that even in Lena's case-- even though it 13:02.867 --> 13:05.497 could have been seen as a totally unfunny story, it's 13:05.500 --> 13:07.870 told in a funny way. 13:07.867 --> 13:10.897 And this episode is-- 13:10.900 --> 13:16.170 it's really hard to see how it could be funny in any fashion, 13:16.167 --> 13:20.527 except for the way Faulkner has chosen to tell the story. 13:20.533 --> 13:27.073 So this is something very deep in Faulkner, that his 13:27.067 --> 13:33.427 temptation, his compulsion, is to tell a tragic story from a 13:33.433 --> 13:34.473 comic point of view. 13:34.467 --> 13:38.067 And we can the speculate about why this is such 13:38.067 --> 13:40.997 a pattern in him. 13:41.000 --> 13:47.100 But I think that he really doesn't want to give tragedy 13:47.100 --> 13:49.030 the entirety of the field. 13:49.033 --> 13:52.003 If we can think of the narrative field as either 13:52.000 --> 13:56.500 full-occupancy or half-occupancy, tragedy is 13:56.500 --> 14:00.900 granted no more than half occupancy of the narrative 14:00.900 --> 14:03.970 field at any given moment. 14:03.967 --> 14:07.597 And maybe it's not even half; here it seems to 14:07.600 --> 14:09.530 be less than half. 14:09.533 --> 14:12.873 So here's the country man worrying about all the things 14:12.867 --> 14:15.367 that one really shouldn't be worrying about when you're 14:15.367 --> 14:17.467 discovering a dead body. 14:17.467 --> 14:24.027 And the very contrived plot detail that Joanna Burden's 14:24.033 --> 14:28.473 head is turned around, so she's looking backwards. 14:28.467 --> 14:33.897 And it turns out that there's actually a very venerable 14:33.900 --> 14:38.130 genealogy to that particular configuration of the dead 14:38.133 --> 14:41.273 human body or human head in relation to 14:41.267 --> 14:42.867 the rest of the body. 14:42.867 --> 14:46.967 It turns out that the epic is coming into play as well, 14:46.967 --> 14:51.197 because in the Divine Comedy, in Canto XX, there's a very 14:51.200 --> 14:56.630 famous episode of Dante and Virgil going to hell and 14:56.633 --> 14:59.703 seeing all these people in hell being punished, and 14:59.700 --> 15:04.600 Dante's way of punishment is by the logic of contrapasso, 15:04.600 --> 15:07.900 that the punishment is the repetition of your crime. 15:07.900 --> 15:10.130 So this is what he sees-- 15:10.133 --> 15:12.533 a whole group of people with heads set around. 15:12.533 --> 15:16.833 "As I inclined my head still more, I saw that each, 15:16.833 --> 15:22.203 amazingly, appeared contorted between the chin and where the 15:22.200 --> 15:24.000 chest begins. 15:24.000 --> 15:29.070 They had their faces twisted toward the haunches, and found 15:29.067 --> 15:33.527 it necessary to walk backwards because they could not see 15:33.533 --> 15:39.233 ahead of them." And this is an illustration, a Flaxman 15:39.233 --> 15:43.933 illustration, of all these people in hell, their heads 15:43.933 --> 15:45.373 turned backwards. 15:45.367 --> 15:48.097 And the reason that they are punished in this particular 15:48.100 --> 15:51.930 way is that in life, they were soothsayers. 15:51.933 --> 15:55.033 They claimed to be foreseeing the future. 15:55.033 --> 16:00.433 And of course, in Dante's cosmos, this quite sever 16:00.433 --> 16:05.833 Christian cosmos, unlike the Greek tradition, human beings 16:05.833 --> 16:07.933 are not really supposed to know 16:07.933 --> 16:09.733 anything about the future. 16:09.733 --> 16:12.473 Foreknowledge is not a privilege that 16:12.467 --> 16:14.267 human beings can claim. 16:14.267 --> 16:17.197 So as a consequence of claiming foreknowledge of the 16:17.200 --> 16:20.170 future, these people were punished in hell by having 16:20.167 --> 16:22.827 their heads turned backwards. 16:22.833 --> 16:25.773 And we can also think of Faulkner, in many ways, 16:25.767 --> 16:27.167 thinking of this as a fit 16:27.167 --> 16:29.627 punishment for social reformers. 16:29.633 --> 16:33.573 Social reformers also claim to have some kind of privileged 16:33.567 --> 16:37.867 relation to the future, and they're reforming the present 16:37.867 --> 16:41.297 quite often because they have this vision about the future. 16:41.300 --> 16:44.400 They want the present to approximate the vision of the 16:44.400 --> 16:45.830 future that they can see. 16:45.833 --> 16:49.903 So maybe that is the connection between Joanna and 16:49.900 --> 16:51.500 these ancient soothsayers. 16:55.067 --> 16:57.827 So there's a kind of a thematic connection, but the 16:57.833 --> 17:03.633 tonal connection is different. 17:03.633 --> 17:10.703 If we think about Dante's incidents in the Divine 17:10.700 --> 17:15.130 Comedy, there's just no humor in it. 17:15.133 --> 17:18.673 It's a terrible sight to see all the people with their 17:18.667 --> 17:19.927 heads turned backwards. 17:19.933 --> 17:22.073 And likewise, in this representation, there's 17:22.067 --> 17:23.567 nothing funny about this. 17:23.567 --> 17:27.127 It could have been done in a funny fashion, but it's never 17:27.133 --> 17:30.933 done in a funny fashion, whereas Faulkner's 17:30.933 --> 17:34.733 representation of Joanna is definitely comic. 17:34.733 --> 17:41.703 So it seems that every time, any time Faulkner invokes an 17:41.700 --> 17:47.070 analogy from a prior text, it's always rewriting the 17:47.067 --> 17:52.727 text, and changing especially the tone of that episode. 17:52.733 --> 17:58.473 So from Joanna, we get a kind of complicated picture of the 17:58.467 --> 18:00.697 malice of neighbors. 18:00.700 --> 18:03.130 Well, actually, she's not killed by her neighbors, as 18:03.133 --> 18:04.203 we'll find out. 18:04.200 --> 18:07.830 So even though the neighbors are kind of rejoicing and 18:07.833 --> 18:10.433 having a lot of fun over the fact that she is killed, and 18:10.433 --> 18:12.173 that her house is burning down-- 18:12.167 --> 18:15.967 even though they are enjoying it, they're actually not the 18:15.967 --> 18:18.097 instruments for her killing. 18:18.100 --> 18:20.470 So that's important to remember. 18:20.467 --> 18:24.367 And also that Faulkner, for some reason, chooses to 18:24.367 --> 18:27.867 approach it from a very odd angle, so that it's not 18:27.867 --> 18:31.097 exactly sympathy that Faulkner is trying to 18:31.100 --> 18:33.430 generate from the reader. 18:33.433 --> 18:38.633 We should ask, what kind of readers' responses he's is 18:38.633 --> 18:41.503 cultivating in that particular episode, but it's definitely 18:41.500 --> 18:44.200 not sympathy for Joanna. 18:44.200 --> 18:47.800 So that puts us in a very peculiar relation as well, 18:47.800 --> 18:52.930 because in some sense, we are the neighbors to Joanna. 18:52.933 --> 18:56.633 We are just like those neighbors who have some fun at 18:56.633 --> 18:58.433 her expense. 18:58.433 --> 19:01.973 We the readers are also having some fun at her experience. 19:01.967 --> 19:05.327 So that is the kind of narrative that 19:05.333 --> 19:07.473 Faulkner is giving us. 19:07.467 --> 19:13.227 But to move on to the next figure, who also enacts a kind 19:13.233 --> 19:18.973 of dance, a permutation of the various meanings of neighbor-- 19:18.967 --> 19:22.397 and this one, actually, is given more space in terms of 19:22.400 --> 19:28.030 this full development of the various incarnations of the 19:28.033 --> 19:30.673 concept of neighbor. 19:30.667 --> 19:34.467 So this is the Reverend Hightower, who came to town, 19:34.467 --> 19:40.697 and then all of a sudden he loses his job as a minister, 19:40.700 --> 19:44.300 and then rumors start going around about his relation with 19:44.300 --> 19:45.600 blacks, as well. 19:45.600 --> 19:49.130 And this is what happens to him one night. 19:49.133 --> 19:53.833 "Because that evening, some men, not masked either, took 19:53.833 --> 19:55.903 the negro man out"-- 19:55.900 --> 19:59.700 this is the cook-- "took the negro man out and whipped him. 19:59.700 --> 20:03.930 And when Hightower waked the next morning his study window 20:03.933 --> 20:08.773 was broken and on the floor lay a brick with a note tied 20:08.767 --> 20:12.767 to it, commanding him to get out of town by sunset and 20:12.767 --> 20:17.927 signed K.K.K. And he did not go, and on the second morning 20:17.933 --> 20:22.473 a man found him in the woods about a mile from town. 20:22.467 --> 20:27.027 He had been tied to a tree and beaten unconscious." 20:27.033 --> 20:30.033 So this is exactly the same people-- 20:30.033 --> 20:37.373 the same people who were kind to Lena 20:37.367 --> 20:39.467 probably were all Klansmen. 20:39.467 --> 20:41.597 It was quite a common -- 20:41.600 --> 20:44.670 it has very deep roots, actually, in some Southern 20:44.667 --> 20:46.167 communities. 20:46.167 --> 20:49.697 And lots of people were Klansmen that you might not 20:49.700 --> 20:51.930 think would be Klansmen. 20:51.933 --> 20:54.873 New studies also have shown that actually lots of women 20:54.867 --> 20:57.567 were Klansmen, as well. 20:57.567 --> 21:02.367 So we just don't know who-- 21:02.367 --> 21:04.197 whether, in this case, it was just men. 21:04.200 --> 21:05.200 But what is interesting-- 21:05.200 --> 21:09.600 there are actually two interesting facts about this. 21:09.600 --> 21:13.670 One is that the men are not masked. 21:13.667 --> 21:15.527 I think that that says a lot. 21:15.533 --> 21:21.003 That actually, in any kind of Klan action, the people would 21:21.000 --> 21:24.770 be hooded, so you don't actually see the faces. 21:24.767 --> 21:27.127 But this is a variation on that. 21:27.133 --> 21:29.673 These men are not hooded, they're not masked. 21:29.667 --> 21:31.667 So that's a very important thing, revealing their 21:31.667 --> 21:35.067 identities fully to Hightower. 21:35.067 --> 21:39.497 And then the other detail is that obviously they want 21:39.500 --> 21:43.800 Hightower to leave town, and he does not go. 21:43.800 --> 21:47.530 Even though he's beaten unconscious, he still refuses 21:47.533 --> 21:52.073 to leave. So these two are very important variations to 21:52.067 --> 21:55.267 the customary story about Klan violence. 21:55.267 --> 21:57.097 And we'll see what comes from that. 21:57.100 --> 22:00.130 That Faulkner's both giving us a very recognizable Southern 22:00.133 --> 22:05.103 history, but also, he's giving us a very important variation 22:05.100 --> 22:06.670 on this Southern history. 22:06.667 --> 22:10.497 So let's follow the kind of permutation of 22:10.500 --> 22:12.570 the malice of strangers. 22:12.567 --> 22:15.097 "He refused to tell who had done it. 22:15.100 --> 22:18.530 The town knew that that was wrong, and some of them men 22:18.533 --> 22:21.903 came to him and tried again to persuade him to leave 22:21.900 --> 22:25.300 Jefferson, for his own good, telling him that next time 22:25.300 --> 22:26.700 they might kill him. 22:26.700 --> 22:30.700 But he refused to leave. He would not talk about the 22:30.700 --> 22:34.600 beating, even when they offered to prosecute the men 22:34.600 --> 22:35.870 who had done it. 22:35.867 --> 22:38.027 But he would do neither. 22:38.033 --> 22:41.573 He would neither tell nor depart. 22:41.567 --> 22:44.327 And then all of a sudden, the whole thing seemed to blow 22:44.333 --> 22:47.373 away like an evil wind. 22:47.367 --> 22:50.697 It was as though the town realized at last that he would 22:50.700 --> 22:54.930 be a part of its life until he died, and that they might as 22:54.933 --> 22:57.603 well become reconciled." 22:57.600 --> 23:02.270 So this is the crucial, different story that Faulkner 23:02.267 --> 23:05.067 is telling about Southern history. 23:05.067 --> 23:08.827 Is that the malice of your neighbors is 23:08.833 --> 23:10.173 the starting point. 23:10.167 --> 23:13.827 It is not the endpoint. 23:13.833 --> 23:18.133 It would be too easy, too much of a cliche to say these 23:18.133 --> 23:19.933 people are just bigoted. 23:19.933 --> 23:23.003 And they're going to persecute anyone who's 23:23.000 --> 23:23.870 not of the same mind. 23:23.867 --> 23:26.397 It would be much too simple to say that. 23:26.400 --> 23:28.270 So this is the very important variation. 23:28.267 --> 23:31.597 The men are not masked. 23:31.600 --> 23:36.300 They put it within Hightower's power to report them. 23:36.300 --> 23:40.430 And the town is, in fact, ready to prosecute those men. 23:40.433 --> 23:47.003 So in fact the legal action is about to get started, and 23:47.000 --> 23:49.470 certainly there's actionable violence. 23:49.467 --> 23:56.597 But just as those people who were beating Hightower put it 23:56.600 --> 24:03.570 within his power to report on him, he refuses to use that 24:03.567 --> 24:07.267 power that they've put into his hands. 24:07.267 --> 24:11.397 So this is a strange kind of symmetry. 24:11.400 --> 24:16.700 For me, this is the most interesting and compelling 24:16.700 --> 24:19.230 kind of reciprocity-- 24:19.233 --> 24:23.073 that you put yourself in the power of someone that you 24:23.067 --> 24:28.727 hate, and you don't use the power that those whom you 24:28.733 --> 24:35.073 hate, or those who hate you, have vested in your hands. 24:35.067 --> 24:37.527 Given the fact that there's so much violence going on, this 24:37.533 --> 24:42.203 is actually an incredibly delicate ethical gesture on 24:42.200 --> 24:43.300 both their parts. 24:43.300 --> 24:46.070 And I would say that this is-- 24:46.067 --> 24:49.497 I don't know how, I mean, maybe this is too utopian. 24:49.500 --> 24:52.100 I'm just reporting to you, this is what I think Faulkner 24:52.100 --> 24:56.430 is doing, that this is the way that he would like to tell the 24:56.433 --> 24:58.803 story, and it's just the way that he hopes that human 24:58.800 --> 25:01.630 beings will conduct themselves under those circumstances. 25:01.633 --> 25:05.633 I should also point out that actually, in the book that I 25:05.633 --> 25:08.273 mentioned earlier, The Neighbor, there's actually a 25:08.267 --> 25:12.167 strong argument in favor of ethical violence, that 25:12.167 --> 25:15.927 sometimes you just can't help doing violence to someone, but 25:15.933 --> 25:18.273 how to be ethical about that. 25:18.267 --> 25:22.397 So for me, this actually is an instance of ethical-- 25:22.400 --> 25:23.930 qualified, highly qualified, but 25:23.933 --> 25:26.773 nonetheless, ethical violence. 25:26.767 --> 25:29.497 And I think it's because of that. 25:29.500 --> 25:33.400 Because actually, this is violence within limits. 25:33.400 --> 25:37.130 It is violence that actually has a degree of lawfulness to 25:37.133 --> 25:40.403 it, in the sense that the law is going to prosecute them. 25:40.400 --> 25:43.830 And those perpetrators actually have put themselves 25:43.833 --> 25:47.803 under the jurisdiction off the law. 25:47.800 --> 25:51.330 There's a degree of lawfulness to that kind of violence 25:51.333 --> 25:52.273 because of that. 25:52.267 --> 25:56.367 Though I think that Hightower actually has this to say about 25:56.367 --> 25:58.397 his neighbors. 25:58.400 --> 26:01.970 Hightower says, "'They are good people. 26:01.967 --> 26:07.297 They must believe what they must believe, especially as it 26:07.300 --> 26:12.000 was I who was at one time both master and 26:12.000 --> 26:14.170 servant of their believing. 26:14.167 --> 26:18.497 And so it is not for me to outrage their believing nor 26:18.500 --> 26:22.030 for Byron Bunch to say that they were wrong. 26:22.033 --> 26:26.473 Because all that any man can hope for is to be permitted to 26:26.467 --> 26:29.327 live quietly among his fellows." 26:29.333 --> 26:31.833 So this is one kind of idea. 26:31.833 --> 26:36.003 It's that you can't really change what people 26:36.000 --> 26:38.500 believe about you. 26:38.500 --> 26:42.600 They can have all kinds of wrong beliefs about you-- 26:42.600 --> 26:45.630 there's no way you can change those beliefs. 26:45.633 --> 26:47.873 There's no way you can change how some other 26:47.867 --> 26:49.827 people feel about you. 26:49.833 --> 26:52.473 Feeling is not something that you can dictate, and other 26:52.467 --> 26:55.197 people, if they happen to hate you, there's nothing you can 26:55.200 --> 26:56.000 do about that. 26:56.000 --> 27:02.130 So that is a very tough-minded evaluation of the privacy of 27:02.133 --> 27:05.703 certain kinds of sentiment that are not pretty, that do 27:05.700 --> 27:09.300 not make for harmonious relations among human beings. 27:09.300 --> 27:13.200 And hatred is a very powerful reality for Faulkner. 27:13.200 --> 27:15.600 So you just have to live with that, that some people just 27:15.600 --> 27:17.800 don't like you all much. 27:17.800 --> 27:23.000 And given the fact that, how can you still manage to live 27:23.000 --> 27:27.030 quietly and peacefully among people who don't like 27:27.033 --> 27:28.033 you all that much? 27:28.033 --> 27:30.773 That is the ethical challenge for Hightower. 27:30.767 --> 27:35.927 So all this suggests that for him, for now, at this moment-- 27:35.933 --> 27:38.003 on page 75-- 27:38.000 --> 27:44.230 Hightower is the voice of a certain kind of ethical norm 27:44.233 --> 27:45.573 in Faulkner. 27:45.567 --> 27:48.167 And it's not surprising that his name is Hightower. 27:48.167 --> 27:51.997 It's almost kind of very elevated, very high kind, 27:52.000 --> 27:55.270 maybe impossibly high kind, of ethical norm. 27:55.267 --> 27:58.897 Very few of us actually can behave as he 27:58.900 --> 28:01.470 does at this moment. 28:01.467 --> 28:07.167 But I think that we should also be aware that Hightower 28:07.167 --> 28:11.797 actually doesn't occupy that moral height all time. 28:11.800 --> 28:16.070 Just as the narrative field is quite often a field of 28:16.067 --> 28:17.927 half-occupancy -- 28:17.933 --> 28:21.533 nothing can fully occupy that field -- 28:21.533 --> 28:26.403 moral elevation is also a place where you can't have 28:26.400 --> 28:28.330 full command all the time. 28:28.333 --> 28:33.373 So this is a sullen, distant image of Hightower from the 28:33.367 --> 28:34.397 town's point of view. 28:34.400 --> 28:36.070 People don't like him all that much. 28:36.067 --> 28:39.367 What they think about Hightower. 28:39.367 --> 28:42.397 "But the town said to Hightower that if Hightower"-- 28:42.400 --> 28:44.830 and this is not talking about his black cook anymore, and 28:44.833 --> 28:46.473 not talking about the violence. 28:46.467 --> 28:49.297 They're talking about something else, to other 28:49.300 --> 28:50.700 things about Hightower. 28:50.700 --> 28:53.300 One is that he seems complete fixated on the Civil War. 28:53.300 --> 28:56.470 He seems completely fixated on this grandfather's death in 28:56.467 --> 28:57.427 the Civil War. 28:57.433 --> 28:58.703 The horse is galloping. 28:58.700 --> 29:00.400 That is the reality for him. 29:00.400 --> 29:04.070 And the other, his wife is going crazy in that marriage, 29:04.067 --> 29:06.227 and he doesn't seem to be able to do anything about it. 29:06.233 --> 29:09.933 So this is the town's commentary on those two other 29:09.933 --> 29:13.333 aspects of Hightower's life, and you can see why he doesn't 29:13.333 --> 29:17.733 have full command of the ethical elevation that we've 29:17.733 --> 29:20.273 just seen him in. 29:20.267 --> 29:25.367 "But the town said that if Hightower had just been a more 29:25.367 --> 29:29.297 dependable kind of man, the kind of man a minister should 29:29.300 --> 29:32.730 be, instead of being born about 30 years after the only 29:32.733 --> 29:35.633 day he seemed to have ever lived in-- 29:35.633 --> 29:38.403 the day when his grandfather was shot from 29:38.400 --> 29:39.970 the galloping horse-- 29:39.967 --> 29:42.427 she would have been all right too." The wife. 29:42.433 --> 29:47.173 "But he was not, and the neighbors would hear her 29:47.167 --> 29:51.327 weeping in the parsonage in the afternoons or late at 29:51.333 --> 29:56.303 night, and the neighbors knowing that the husband would 29:56.300 --> 29:59.770 not know what to do about it because he did not know what 29:59.767 --> 30:00.427 was wrong." 30:00.433 --> 30:03.073 So all of a sudden the neighbors have been 30:03.067 --> 30:09.427 transformed from the perpetrators of violence to an 30:09.433 --> 30:12.973 independent voice of judgment on 30:12.967 --> 30:15.767 Hightower and on the marriage. 30:15.767 --> 30:19.727 They're functioning more like a Greek chorus in the sense 30:19.733 --> 30:24.673 that they have some knowledge about the marriage that is 30:24.667 --> 30:28.167 denied to Hightower himself. 30:28.167 --> 30:31.667 And so we should not forget for a minute that a man who 30:31.667 --> 30:37.827 has such a delicate ethical understanding of a certain 30:37.833 --> 30:42.303 kind of situation having to do with violence that is done to 30:42.300 --> 30:48.670 himself can be completely blind in another situation 30:48.667 --> 30:51.727 where it would have been good for him to be just a little 30:51.733 --> 30:53.103 more sensitive. 30:53.100 --> 30:58.000 So there's the utter lack of sensitivity in Hightower that 30:58.000 --> 31:00.700 qualifies his claim to that ethical 31:00.700 --> 31:02.270 height that we've seen. 31:02.267 --> 31:03.727 It's a totally different issue. 31:03.733 --> 31:07.203 It doesn't take away from the beating, it doesn't take away 31:07.200 --> 31:11.670 from the Klan action, but it does suggest that Hightower is 31:11.667 --> 31:15.267 a divided figure, and he doesn't speak for 31:15.267 --> 31:16.427 Faulkner all the time. 31:16.433 --> 31:19.473 That Faulkner is actually using his neighbors sometimes 31:19.467 --> 31:22.797 to pass judgment on him, just as he is a dispenser of 31:22.800 --> 31:25.400 judgment on others. 31:25.400 --> 31:28.070 So this is neighbors in a different light, but there's 31:28.067 --> 31:30.397 yet another twist. So Faulkner doesn't stop. 31:30.400 --> 31:34.600 This is a constant switching back and forth. 31:34.600 --> 31:37.900 The swing of the pendulum from the right being on the 31:37.900 --> 31:40.870 neighbors' side to the right being on Hightower's side, and 31:40.867 --> 31:42.367 injury being done to Hightower. 31:42.367 --> 31:46.667 So this is the neighbors in yet another right. 31:46.667 --> 31:47.797 "Within two days"-- 31:47.800 --> 31:49.500 this is a little bit later. 31:49.500 --> 31:52.170 Hightower is trying to deliver a black baby. 31:52.167 --> 31:54.167 The baby dies. 31:54.167 --> 31:58.227 And within two days, rumors were going around town. 31:58.233 --> 32:00.773 "Within two days there were those who said that the child 32:00.767 --> 32:05.597 was Hightower's and that he had let it die deliberately. 32:05.600 --> 32:09.670 But Byron believed that even the ones who said this did not 32:09.667 --> 32:10.767 believe it. 32:10.767 --> 32:14.797 He believed that the town had had the habit of saying things 32:14.800 --> 32:18.400 about the disgraced minister which they did not believe 32:18.400 --> 32:19.330 themselves." 32:19.333 --> 32:23.933 So this is yet another interesting portrait of how 32:23.933 --> 32:27.603 people behave as a collectivity. 32:27.600 --> 32:32.300 That as a collectivity, we tend to say things that we do 32:32.300 --> 32:36.370 not actually, ourselves, individually believe in. 32:36.367 --> 32:42.167 This is the nature, quite often, of rumors, or just kind 32:42.167 --> 32:47.397 of standardized statements about the current situation 32:47.400 --> 32:49.400 that you just repeat a certain line. 32:49.400 --> 32:53.000 This is the nature of a line, that it's fed to others, and 32:53.000 --> 32:55.800 that we would mouth without thinking about it. 32:55.800 --> 32:57.370 And all of us do it. 32:57.367 --> 33:01.067 It's not just people living in a small town. 33:01.067 --> 33:03.567 All of us tend to say certain things that we haven't 33:03.567 --> 33:07.767 actually personally thought about, including damaging 33:07.767 --> 33:11.797 things that we can say about someone, like having a child 33:11.800 --> 33:13.330 and allowing the child to die. 33:13.333 --> 33:17.203 So this is the nature of rumor, and Byron's insight-- 33:17.200 --> 33:19.200 and he knows these people very well-- 33:19.200 --> 33:26.070 is that in one sense, it is speech that seems hurtful that 33:26.067 --> 33:28.927 actually doesn't have personal malice in it. 33:28.933 --> 33:33.473 So we have to be very careful to distinguish that hurtful 33:33.467 --> 33:39.727 speech can certainly inflict injury on the person that that 33:39.733 --> 33:40.833 speech is about. 33:40.833 --> 33:43.003 It can inflict injury. 33:43.000 --> 33:47.830 But something can't inflict injury without having a lot of 33:47.833 --> 33:51.033 personal malice in it, and that is the crucial 33:51.033 --> 33:56.233 distinction that Byron wants us to make. 33:56.233 --> 33:59.203 So we can see it constantly things are 33:59.200 --> 34:00.630 switching back and forth. 34:00.633 --> 34:03.503 So we've been talking about it since Tuesday-- 34:03.500 --> 34:06.930 the protagonist and supporting cast constant switch, 34:06.933 --> 34:10.173 background, foreground, dark and light, Light in August, 34:10.167 --> 34:14.127 Dark House, the other title for the novel, kind and unkind 34:14.133 --> 34:17.703 neighbors, dramatic narrative versus undramatic narrative. 34:17.700 --> 34:22.870 But all of this is coming to head in the switch between 34:22.867 --> 34:25.897 Lena Grove and Joe Christmas. 34:25.900 --> 34:31.800 And this is a very interesting narrative innovation on the 34:31.800 --> 34:34.670 part of Faulkner. 34:34.667 --> 34:38.827 We've seen in The Sound and the Fury that it is a 34:38.833 --> 34:40.873 four-section novel, right? 34:40.867 --> 34:46.327 In As I Lay Dying, many, many, too many to count, sections 34:46.333 --> 34:50.033 completely split into tiny little narratives. 34:50.033 --> 34:55.803 And in this novel, it's really the story of two people who 34:55.800 --> 34:58.170 are strangers to each other. 34:58.167 --> 35:01.727 It's really a huge challenge how you could tell a story 35:01.733 --> 35:05.533 about two people who have no connection to each other, but 35:05.533 --> 35:08.173 make the two stories one novel. 35:08.167 --> 35:11.527 So we'll see how that is played out, and whether 35:11.533 --> 35:16.103 Faulkner is completely successful in turning these 35:16.100 --> 35:19.400 two into a single story. 35:19.400 --> 35:23.230 But today, we'll look at part of what he's trying to do, I 35:23.233 --> 35:27.503 think, and look at the contrasting functions of Lena 35:27.500 --> 35:30.500 Grove and Joe Christmas in this novel. 35:30.500 --> 35:33.330 Obviously we know that one is a positive 35:33.333 --> 35:36.473 catalyst for the community. 35:36.467 --> 35:41.767 All the good things about the community come out when we see 35:41.767 --> 35:46.797 Lena Grove in action, and all the bad things about the 35:46.800 --> 35:49.830 community come out when we see Joe 35:49.833 --> 35:51.233 Christmas's part of the story. 35:51.233 --> 35:53.703 So one is a positive catalyst, the other is a negative 35:53.700 --> 35:56.700 catalyst. But what is odd is that even though this seems to 35:56.700 --> 36:02.130 put them on opposite ends of the narrative spectrum, quite 36:02.133 --> 36:07.433 often Faulkner also contrives to make them meet as well. 36:07.433 --> 36:10.103 So it's a very interesting kinship, actually, between the 36:10.100 --> 36:12.600 two of them, even though they seem so different. 36:12.600 --> 36:15.500 So we'll talk about the linguistic kinship, and also 36:15.500 --> 36:19.800 the fact that both of them seem to be passive receptacles 36:19.800 --> 36:21.700 for what is coming to them. 36:21.700 --> 36:24.870 So first, I think you know this, but just 36:24.867 --> 36:26.397 want to repeat it. 36:26.400 --> 36:28.170 From Lena, this is the story. 36:28.167 --> 36:29.367 "'Folks have been kind. 36:29.367 --> 36:33.897 They have been right kind.'" It is a very monotonous story. 36:33.900 --> 36:38.370 In that sense, she's not very great character, not a 36:38.367 --> 36:41.467 completely helpful character to Faulkner, because she only 36:41.467 --> 36:46.397 knows one thing, and the story never changes. 36:46.400 --> 36:52.800 So he really has to introduce a kind of a counterpoint to 36:52.800 --> 36:59.630 Lena, whose very name already precipitates a negative 36:59.633 --> 37:05.173 response from the people who are learning about his name 37:05.167 --> 37:05.967 for the first time. 37:05.967 --> 37:07.197 So he used to be the foreman. 37:10.500 --> 37:12.830 Joe Christmas is just getting a job from these people. 37:12.833 --> 37:14.733 "'His name is what?' one said. 37:14.733 --> 37:17.603 'Christmas.' 'Is he a foreigner?' 'Did you hear of a 37:17.600 --> 37:20.900 white man named Christmas?' the foreman said. 'I never 37:20.900 --> 37:24.700 heard of nobody a-tall named it,' the other said." 37:24.700 --> 37:28.470 So just to have the name Christmas-- 37:28.467 --> 37:33.167 and I can't really think of a name that is less neutral, 37:33.167 --> 37:36.897 less innocuous than the name Christmas. 37:36.900 --> 37:41.700 But even for us, I think to hear someone called Christmas, 37:41.700 --> 37:43.270 there will be a kind of strange response 37:43.267 --> 37:44.197 from most of us. 37:44.200 --> 37:47.230 And sure enough, there's a strange response from these 37:47.233 --> 37:49.373 two people. 37:49.367 --> 37:52.467 So why is it that in fact, we're not 37:52.467 --> 37:55.827 entirely immune from that? 37:55.833 --> 38:00.473 It's not as if the world that Faulkner is creating is 38:00.467 --> 38:03.067 completely apart from our world. 38:03.067 --> 38:05.767 I think in many ways, we're part of that world. 38:05.767 --> 38:07.597 But we're suddenly seeing an extreme 38:07.600 --> 38:10.230 reaction these two people. 38:10.233 --> 38:12.173 All of a sudden-- 38:12.167 --> 38:14.327 nobody has even thought of him as being a foreigner, suddenly 38:14.333 --> 38:16.203 he's got to be a foreigner, even worse than that. 38:16.200 --> 38:18.530 Even foreigners don't have a name like Christmas. 38:18.533 --> 38:21.303 So maybe he's non-human. 38:21.300 --> 38:22.030 Not quite that. 38:22.033 --> 38:28.533 But he suddenly is in an unclassifiable, but negatively 38:28.533 --> 38:30.333 unclassifiable, category. 38:33.100 --> 38:36.070 And the rest of the story really plays on the 38:36.067 --> 38:41.327 consequences, in many ways, of having a name like Christmas. 38:41.333 --> 38:47.373 But for now, I want actually not to go there yet, but to 38:47.367 --> 38:53.997 talk about a very strange kind of kinship between Lena and 38:54.000 --> 38:57.230 Joe, who otherwise seem so different. 38:57.233 --> 39:00.473 It's a completely counterintuitive kinship and I 39:00.467 --> 39:02.427 think it's also quite deliberate. 39:02.433 --> 39:05.533 So let's just go back to this passage that we've talked 39:05.533 --> 39:10.403 about last time, about Lena's peaceful journey, "behind her 39:10.400 --> 39:16.070 the four weeks, the evocation of far, is a peaceful corridor 39:16.067 --> 39:20.097 paved with unflagging and tranquil faith and peopled 39:20.100 --> 39:26.470 with kind and nameless faces and voices," is the nature of 39:26.467 --> 39:27.697 Lena's journey. 39:27.700 --> 39:33.530 And oddly enough, the same kind of language is used again 39:33.533 --> 39:37.303 at a very different moment in the story, for Joe Christmas, 39:37.300 --> 39:43.530 when he's actually just about ready to do the killing. 39:43.533 --> 39:47.573 "'Maybe I have already done it,' he thought. 39:47.567 --> 39:52.267 'Maybe it is no longer now waiting to be done.' It seemed 39:52.267 --> 39:57.567 to him that he could see the yellow day opening peacefully 39:57.567 --> 40:03.027 before him like a corridor, an arras, into a still 40:03.033 --> 40:06.173 chiaroscuro without urgency. 40:06.167 --> 40:09.927 It seemed to him that as he sat there the yellow day 40:09.933 --> 40:14.873 contemplated him drowsily, like a prone and somnolent 40:14.867 --> 40:15.997 yellow cat. 40:16.000 --> 40:19.800 He would not move, apparently arrested and held immobile by 40:19.800 --> 40:23.970 a single word which had perhaps not yet impacted, his 40:23.967 --> 40:28.797 whole being suspended in quiet and sunny space, so that 40:28.800 --> 40:33.000 hanging motionless and without physical weight he seemed to 40:33.000 --> 40:36.000 watch the slow flowing of beneath him." 40:36.000 --> 40:40.330 It is exactly, one could just put Lena right in there, and 40:40.333 --> 40:43.003 it would have been a description of the journey. 40:43.000 --> 40:48.230 So I hope that it makes no sense to you, why Faulkner 40:48.233 --> 40:52.273 would want to use this for Joe Christmas right before the 40:52.267 --> 40:54.367 moment of violence. 40:54.367 --> 41:00.527 I think this it's something that cries out to be 41:00.533 --> 41:03.903 interpreted by the reader, why there should be the 41:03.900 --> 41:09.330 duplication of the once-appropriate language for 41:09.333 --> 41:12.003 Lena into this completely inappropriate and 41:12.000 --> 41:15.600 counterintuitive content. 41:15.600 --> 41:20.030 But all we can say is that this is a quite heavy-handed 41:20.033 --> 41:23.673 attempt on Faulkner's part to generate a linguistic kinship 41:23.667 --> 41:25.367 between the two of them. 41:25.367 --> 41:28.497 Let's look at another instance, and in fact, we see 41:28.500 --> 41:33.670 it a little bit in the use of gerunds in talking about this 41:33.667 --> 41:37.067 moment of impending, incipient violence, when he is held 41:37.067 --> 41:39.967 suspended, but very peaceful. 41:39.967 --> 41:43.497 And so this is the use of gerunds, and we've seen that 41:43.500 --> 41:45.300 in Lena, as well. 41:45.300 --> 41:49.000 "'That far within my hearing, before my seeing.' 'I will be 41:49.000 --> 41:53.100 riding within the hearing of Lucas Burch before his seeing. 41:53.100 --> 41:55.330 He will hear the wagon, but he won't know. 41:55.333 --> 41:58.773 So there will be one within his hearing before his seeing. 41:58.767 --> 42:01.027 And then he will see me and he will be excited. 42:01.033 --> 42:04.473 And so there will be two within his seeing before his 42:04.467 --> 42:07.097 remembering." Completely highly 42:07.100 --> 42:09.800 conspicuous use of the gerund. 42:09.800 --> 42:13.600 And there's also a parallel, highly conspicuous use of the 42:13.600 --> 42:17.270 gerund for Joe Christmas. "Knowing not grieving 42:17.267 --> 42:21.067 remembers a thousand savage and lonely streets." The same 42:21.067 --> 42:26.027 use of the gerund, but in a completely different context 42:26.033 --> 42:28.973 and completely different thematics. 42:28.967 --> 42:33.597 So we really have to think a little more about why it is, 42:33.600 --> 42:37.670 even though the two of them seem polar opposites that 42:37.667 --> 42:42.427 Faulkner, nonetheless, sees and is emphatic about the 42:42.433 --> 42:44.103 kinship between the two of them. 42:44.100 --> 42:50.670 So maybe one way to think about it is to once again 42:50.667 --> 42:54.597 think about the relation between an individual and a 42:54.600 --> 42:57.900 collectivity, or at least various representatives of 42:57.900 --> 43:00.230 that collectivity. 43:00.233 --> 43:04.673 And with Lena, we've seen that she really is a passive 43:04.667 --> 43:08.127 receptacle for all the Southern hospitality that is 43:08.133 --> 43:09.503 coming to her. 43:09.500 --> 43:13.700 And maybe that's why she's really not that interesting on 43:13.700 --> 43:18.270 her own, that it really takes action from other people to 43:18.267 --> 43:21.727 vest her narrative with any kind of action at all. 43:21.733 --> 43:23.133 Left to her own devices there will be no 43:23.133 --> 43:25.573 story to tell, really. 43:25.567 --> 43:28.797 And so she's a passive receptacle in the sense that 43:28.800 --> 43:34.070 she's really the narrative device by which a community 43:34.067 --> 43:38.397 gets to tell a story, by which the action of a community gets 43:38.400 --> 43:42.430 dramatized, and gets registered within the compass 43:42.433 --> 43:44.933 of a single individual. 43:44.933 --> 43:49.133 And I would say that that is also the narrative function of 43:49.133 --> 43:51.233 Joe Christmas, as well. 43:51.233 --> 43:53.973 That in many ways, even though he's probably more 43:53.967 --> 43:57.467 psychologically complex than Lena, and it will be 43:57.467 --> 43:58.627 interesting to think about what kind of 43:58.633 --> 44:00.603 psychology he has-- 44:00.600 --> 44:05.170 in spite of the complexity of his psychology, he has a 44:05.167 --> 44:11.027 similar narrative function in the sense that he is the 44:11.033 --> 44:16.033 vehicle by which somebody else's action, somebody else's 44:16.033 --> 44:18.203 drama, gets registered. 44:18.200 --> 44:21.830 So he is the template on which someone else 44:21.833 --> 44:24.773 writes a dramatic narrative. 44:24.767 --> 44:30.167 So this is the continuation of that peaceful moment when he's 44:30.167 --> 44:32.467 about to do the killing. 44:32.467 --> 44:37.197 "He just sat there, not moving, until after a while he 44:37.200 --> 44:40.730 heard the clock two miles away strike 12. 44:40.733 --> 44:43.603 Then he rose and moved toward the house. 44:43.600 --> 44:47.800 He didn't go fast. He didn't think even then, Something is 44:47.800 --> 44:49.330 going to happen. 44:49.333 --> 44:52.803 Something is going to happen to me." 44:52.800 --> 44:54.800 That syntactical construction-- 44:54.800 --> 44:58.000 not, I'm going to do something, but something is 44:58.000 --> 45:00.930 going to happen to me, so that I will actually 45:00.933 --> 45:02.303 kill someone -- 45:02.300 --> 45:07.030 it's that bizarre transformation of what would 45:07.033 --> 45:10.173 have been a very familiar sentence. 45:10.167 --> 45:15.997 So even the most dramatic fashion that he's responsible 45:16.000 --> 45:21.670 for is cast as something that is happening to him without 45:21.667 --> 45:24.397 his volition almost. 45:24.400 --> 45:28.070 And we see that this is actually the logical 45:28.067 --> 45:33.897 combination of a pattern that has been the dominant pattern 45:33.900 --> 45:35.170 all through his life. 45:35.167 --> 45:38.427 So it goes back, this moment goes back to when he was a 45:38.433 --> 45:44.233 kid, when he was hiding and eating toothpaste in the 45:44.233 --> 45:47.503 closet of the dietitian, and getting sick from the 45:47.500 --> 45:49.730 toothpaste, and then witnessing this completely 45:49.733 --> 45:52.573 bewildering thing that is going on between the dietitian 45:52.567 --> 45:54.697 and the man who is in her room. 45:54.700 --> 45:57.200 And then all of a sudden he throws up and the dietitian 45:57.200 --> 45:59.800 realizes that there's someone hiding in her closet. 45:59.800 --> 46:02.700 So this is what happens when she's furious to know that she 46:02.700 --> 46:05.130 and the other man, that the two of them are not 46:05.133 --> 46:06.403 alone in the room. 46:06.400 --> 46:09.570 "When the curtain fled back he did not look up. 46:09.567 --> 46:13.527 When hands dragged him violently out of his vomit he 46:13.533 --> 46:18.403 did not resist. He hung from the hands, limp, looking with 46:18.400 --> 46:23.830 slackjawed and glassy idiocy into a face no longer smooth 46:23.833 --> 46:27.903 pink-and-white, surrounded now by wild and dishevelled hair 46:27.900 --> 46:30.770 whose smooth bands once made him think of candy. 'You 46:30.767 --> 46:35.327 little rat!' the thin, furious voice hissed; 'you little rat! 46:35.333 --> 46:36.433 Spying on me! 46:36.433 --> 46:39.573 You little nigger bastard!'" 46:39.567 --> 46:43.927 So Joe has not really been-- 46:43.933 --> 46:48.673 intially, when all of this is happening, people have 46:48.667 --> 46:51.067 suspected there's something maybe a little odd about his 46:51.067 --> 46:55.367 racial composition, but nobody actually up to this point, at 46:55.367 --> 46:56.927 least nobody from the administration-- 46:56.933 --> 46:59.903 has called him black. 46:59.900 --> 47:04.700 And it's at this moment when he is the unwitting, 47:04.700 --> 47:11.630 involuntary, unintentional witness to this scene that is 47:11.633 --> 47:16.473 unfolding in the dietitian's room that that adjective is 47:16.467 --> 47:17.927 thrown at him. 47:17.933 --> 47:20.633 And everything about the description, is that he's 47:20.633 --> 47:27.133 hanging from the hands of the dietitian, he's witnessing a 47:27.133 --> 47:30.403 face that has completely transformed, the recipient of 47:30.400 --> 47:33.200 that hiss, that is coming at him. 47:33.200 --> 47:36.630 Almost complete passivity on his side. 47:36.633 --> 47:39.373 So that he really is the template on which the 47:39.367 --> 47:44.297 dietitian is writing her own furor and her own story. 47:44.300 --> 47:49.600 One more example, and this is his relation to his adopted 47:49.600 --> 47:52.570 father, McEachern. 47:52.567 --> 47:54.627 We have various ways to pronounce that name. 47:54.633 --> 47:56.533 I'm just going to pronounce it "McEach-ern," you can 47:56.533 --> 47:58.003 pronounce it any way you want. 47:58.000 --> 48:01.800 "Then the boy stood, his trousers collapsed about his 48:01.800 --> 48:05.830 feet, his legs revealed beneath his brief shirt. 48:05.833 --> 48:08.273 He stood, slight and erect. 48:08.267 --> 48:13.067 When the strap fell he did not flinch, no quiver 48:13.067 --> 48:14.927 passed over his face. 48:14.933 --> 48:20.603 He was looking straight ahead, with a rapt, calm expression 48:20.600 --> 48:23.170 like a monk in a picture." 48:23.167 --> 48:26.927 So once again, this is not the kind of uncontrolled violence 48:26.933 --> 48:29.973 that is coming from the dietician, but the very 48:29.967 --> 48:35.667 disciplined violence that is coming from his own foster 48:35.667 --> 48:37.997 father, adopted father. 48:38.000 --> 48:41.870 But no matter what kind of violence, it can be either out 48:41.867 --> 48:45.397 of control, it can be totally controlled, he is just there 48:45.400 --> 48:51.400 like a saint, like a monk, just totally calm, seemingly 48:51.400 --> 48:53.030 untouched by that violence. 48:53.033 --> 48:57.633 And that's part of the interesting fact about Joe 48:57.633 --> 48:58.973 Christmas, as well. 48:58.967 --> 49:07.327 It's almost as if there's so little content to him-- 49:07.333 --> 49:09.503 although I hesitate to say that, because that doesn't 49:09.500 --> 49:10.770 seem quite right, either. 49:10.767 --> 49:14.297 But whatever it is that is lacking in him, there's no 49:14.300 --> 49:16.230 lashing out from him. 49:16.233 --> 49:18.903 Even the killing is not really, doesn't seem to be a 49:18.900 --> 49:22.970 kind of a lashing out at the way he's treated. 49:22.967 --> 49:29.997 So he seems to be as blank a slate as possible, although 49:30.000 --> 49:33.970 he's probably not as blank a slate as Lena is. 49:33.967 --> 49:37.467 A lot more content than Lena, but still a relatively blank 49:37.467 --> 49:42.767 slate on which a various succession of characters write 49:42.767 --> 49:44.867 a very, very dramatic story. 49:44.867 --> 49:48.067 So this is the structure, and that's why there's this very 49:48.067 --> 49:51.767 deep kinship between the two of them, even though they are 49:51.767 --> 49:52.997 totally different.