WEBVTT 00:10.267 --> 00:11.827 WAI CHEE DIMOCK: Just getting started. 00:11.833 --> 00:15.503 And just want to remind you, refresh your memory about what 00:15.500 --> 00:18.100 we were talking about before the break. 00:18.100 --> 00:21.730 So we were talking about first, the concept of 00:21.733 --> 00:28.103 strangers and kindness of strangers that Lena would be a 00:28.100 --> 00:29.900 recipient of. 00:29.900 --> 00:36.570 And then we were talking about neighbors and what could come 00:36.567 --> 00:41.597 to us from neighbors and not always good things. 00:41.600 --> 00:46.230 And Hightower is a recipient of the not always good things 00:46.233 --> 00:48.273 coming from our neighbors. 00:48.267 --> 00:53.727 But Hightower, as we also know, is very emphatic that in 00:53.733 --> 00:58.433 spite of what happens to him, in spite of the beatings and 00:58.433 --> 01:02.733 so on, that he's actually surrounded by two people. 01:02.733 --> 01:14.673 So it really takes a tremendous act of willpower to 01:14.667 --> 01:16.567 be able to say that. 01:16.567 --> 01:18.767 And so this is the quote from Hightower. 01:18.767 --> 01:20.267 "They are good people. 01:20.267 --> 01:25.167 All that any man can hope for is to be permitted to live 01:25.167 --> 01:28.067 quietly around his fellows." 01:28.067 --> 01:32.627 So it is a proposition, a statement that really is sort 01:32.633 --> 01:36.833 of thrown in our face and in the face of all the things 01:36.833 --> 01:39.433 that have happened to him. 01:39.433 --> 01:44.973 So today what I'd like to do is to use race as a test case 01:44.967 --> 01:46.697 for Hightower's proposition. 01:46.700 --> 01:50.800 We all know that Joe Christmas is someone whose racial 01:50.800 --> 01:54.570 identity is ambiguous, I would say, from beginning to end. 01:54.567 --> 01:58.227 We don't really know for sure what his parentage -- 02:02.333 --> 02:05.373 we have good guesses, but we don't know for sure. 02:05.367 --> 02:08.927 And we certainly don't know the genetic makeup of someone 02:08.933 --> 02:10.003 like Joe Christmas. 02:10.000 --> 02:16.100 So in that context, I think it's especially relevant to 02:16.100 --> 02:17.400 talk about some of the contemporary 02:17.400 --> 02:19.870 discussion of race. 02:19.867 --> 02:23.397 And this is not even so new. 02:23.400 --> 02:26.100 It came out in 2003. 02:26.100 --> 02:29.730 It was a special issue of Scientific American, whether 02:29.733 --> 02:30.833 race exists, 02:30.833 --> 02:35.373 and it makes a strong argument that race is misleading in the 02:35.367 --> 02:38.597 sense that when you look at the physical characteristics, 02:38.600 --> 02:43.130 the facial features of people, and we assume that race has a 02:43.133 --> 02:47.133 very solid existence, that is real. 02:47.133 --> 02:49.773 But actually the facial characteristics or the 02:49.767 --> 02:54.567 physical attributes do not always correspond to our 02:54.567 --> 02:55.727 genetic makeup. 02:55.733 --> 03:00.903 So how people look actually is not a great way to tell us who 03:00.900 --> 03:03.600 they are biologically. 03:03.600 --> 03:07.270 And so the scientific argument in the special issue or that 03:07.267 --> 03:12.397 essay is about the importance of thinking outside of the box 03:12.400 --> 03:17.670 of noticeable or observable visible characteristics, to 03:17.667 --> 03:20.527 thinking about what would come into play 03:20.533 --> 03:22.103 in a medical situation. 03:22.100 --> 03:24.770 This is Scientific American after all. 03:24.767 --> 03:28.527 So this was back in 2003. 03:28.533 --> 03:32.333 And even earlier than that, on the front cover of Time 03:32.333 --> 03:36.533 Magazine, is the new face of America. 03:36.533 --> 03:42.133 And it's really about America becoming a mixed-race nation. 03:42.133 --> 03:46.373 And if that is the case, I look at everyone, yeah, quite 03:46.367 --> 03:50.497 often I can't really tell what background, ethnic background 03:50.500 --> 03:51.730 people are from. 03:51.733 --> 03:53.273 And that is the case. 03:53.267 --> 03:56.197 This is a computer-generated image. 03:56.200 --> 03:57.570 And we don't really know. 03:57.567 --> 04:01.827 She's made up of the traits of many races, and so 04:01.833 --> 04:02.633 it's hard to tell. 04:02.633 --> 04:06.773 But she's a very typical American face. 04:06.767 --> 04:10.797 And around the same time, a book came out by F. James 04:10.800 --> 04:12.370 Davis called Who is Black? 04:12.367 --> 04:14.897 Actually this was quite an important book when it came 04:14.900 --> 04:19.930 out in 1992, to such an extent that in its 10th anniversary, 04:19.933 --> 04:24.173 PBS actually did a special program titled Who is Black? 04:24.167 --> 04:26.197 and featured that book. 04:26.200 --> 04:31.000 And his argument is very, very pertinent to Faulkner's novel. 04:31.000 --> 04:35.170 We don't actually know who is black in this novel. 04:35.167 --> 04:37.897 So it is a question that is not answered. 04:37.900 --> 04:41.970 And it's perhaps not meant to be answerable, even at the end 04:41.967 --> 04:43.327 of the novel. 04:43.333 --> 04:48.303 And this is an image that actually Tai 04:48.300 --> 04:49.970 used for her section. 04:49.967 --> 04:52.227 And it was a great section. 04:52.233 --> 04:54.903 I'm very happy to be there. 04:54.900 --> 04:57.470 So I just borrowed it from her. 04:57.467 --> 05:04.197 And this is an Ebony Magazine quiz, 1952. 05:04.200 --> 05:10.270 But even back in 1952, people were realizing that if you 05:10.267 --> 05:11.897 look at people, you don't really know 05:11.900 --> 05:13.970 what race they are. 05:13.967 --> 05:16.197 And so I think that most people would actually get a 05:16.200 --> 05:19.330 few wrong answers for that quiz. 05:19.333 --> 05:24.203 So I think that all this is just to set the stage for the 05:24.200 --> 05:30.870 very complicated and maybe not meant to be resolved landscape 05:30.867 --> 05:35.967 that Faulkner has set up for us in Light in August. And so 05:35.967 --> 05:38.797 what I'd like to talk about today is the word nigger. 05:38.800 --> 05:41.700 And of course, that's the word that would have to be used. 05:41.700 --> 05:46.670 Because just as in the '50s, the word negro was the 05:46.667 --> 05:49.597 standard term. 05:49.600 --> 05:53.630 In the '20s and '30s, "nigger" would have been 05:53.633 --> 05:54.873 the standard term. 05:54.867 --> 05:57.297 So it was not originally a racial slur. 05:57.300 --> 06:00.800 The use of the word "nigger," even though it wasn't 06:00.800 --> 06:03.970 necessarily a racial slur, it nonetheless 06:03.967 --> 06:06.797 was a charged epithet. 06:06.800 --> 06:13.430 It always has carried excessive semantic burden. 06:13.433 --> 06:18.873 And because it carries excessive semantic burden, it 06:18.867 --> 06:22.097 also opens itself up to multiple uses. 06:22.100 --> 06:26.030 So today we'll look at the way that word is being used by 06:26.033 --> 06:28.633 different people in different contexts and 06:28.633 --> 06:30.373 for different purposes. 06:30.367 --> 06:34.497 So we'll go down the list. We'll be talking about all 06:34.500 --> 06:37.900 this, and also spoken by other people. 06:37.900 --> 06:43.630 And also when the word is spoken by the person himself. 06:43.633 --> 06:49.703 So I just noticed this microphone has a way of 06:49.700 --> 06:52.200 diminishing itself. 06:52.200 --> 06:56.500 So these are the people that we'll be looking at who use 06:56.500 --> 06:57.600 the word nigger. 06:57.600 --> 07:01.870 First is Joe Brown, and then the dietitian a couple of 07:01.867 --> 07:05.327 times, and then Hightower, and then Bobbie the waitress, and 07:05.333 --> 07:06.103 then Joanna Burden. 07:06.100 --> 07:08.570 And then Joe Christmas himself, he uses the word 07:08.567 --> 07:10.467 nigger for himself. 07:10.467 --> 07:15.667 But first, let's look at the way Joe Brown uses that word. 07:15.667 --> 07:17.227 At this point, Joe Brown is being 07:17.233 --> 07:18.733 questioned by the sheriff. 07:18.733 --> 07:23.373 So we know that Joanna's body has been discovered. 07:23.367 --> 07:26.197 Her house has burned down. 07:26.200 --> 07:31.930 And the sheriff is questioning Joe Brown. 07:31.933 --> 07:37.433 And there's $1,000 that is up for anyone who can 07:37.433 --> 07:38.803 help solve the case. 07:38.800 --> 07:41.930 So Joe Brown has sort of high hopes that he'll be the one to 07:41.933 --> 07:42.903 get the $1,000. 07:42.900 --> 07:47.330 But as the sheriff questions him, more and more comes out, 07:47.333 --> 07:50.673 it seems less and less likely that the $1,000 will be in his 07:50.667 --> 07:51.227 own pocket. 07:51.233 --> 07:52.673 So he's getting desperate. 07:52.667 --> 07:55.967 And that is when that word comes up. 07:55.967 --> 07:59.727 "Because they said it was like he had been saving what he 07:59.733 --> 08:03.373 told them next for just such a time as this. 08:03.367 --> 08:07.067 Like he had knowed that if come to a pinch"-- 08:07.067 --> 08:09.467 this is Brian telling Hightower-- 08:09.467 --> 08:13.967 "like he had knowed that if it come to a pinch, this would 08:13.967 --> 08:18.727 save him, even if it was almost worse for a white man 08:18.733 --> 08:23.103 to admit what he would have to admit than to be accused of 08:23.100 --> 08:24.830 the murder itself. 08:24.833 --> 08:26.973 'That's right,' he says. 08:26.967 --> 08:27.667 'Go on. 08:27.667 --> 08:28.197 Accuse me. 08:28.200 --> 08:30.970 Accuse the white man that's trying to help you 08:30.967 --> 08:31.697 with what he knows. 08:31.700 --> 08:34.970 Accuse the white man and let the nigger go free. 08:34.967 --> 08:38.527 Accuse the white and let nigger run.'" 08:38.533 --> 08:42.703 So this is the classic race card that we 08:42.700 --> 08:44.970 recognize so well. 08:44.967 --> 08:48.967 And unfortunately, it still has some currency. 08:48.967 --> 08:53.397 So he's playing the race card, because he's really desperate. 08:53.400 --> 08:57.970 What is really interesting is how subtle this portrait, even 08:57.967 --> 09:01.597 of someone like Joe Brown who has so little 09:01.600 --> 09:03.000 saving grace to him. 09:03.000 --> 09:07.770 This is really someone who is supremely unlikable. 09:07.767 --> 09:13.197 But even for someone who is supremely unlikable, Faulkner, 09:13.200 --> 09:17.500 nonetheless, portrays him as someone who's not incapable of 09:17.500 --> 09:19.170 feeling ashamed. 09:19.167 --> 09:24.327 So it is shameful, even for someone like Joe Brown to use 09:24.333 --> 09:29.673 the race card, that when there's nothing else he can 09:29.667 --> 09:31.827 do, he would do that. 09:31.833 --> 09:37.633 So he's not such a racist or such a whatever that he's 09:37.633 --> 09:39.873 blind to what he's doing. 09:39.867 --> 09:43.267 And so I would say that even though this is Joe Brown doing 09:43.267 --> 09:47.397 one of the despicable things that he's capable of doing, in 09:47.400 --> 09:51.370 the very act of doing that, he recognizes completely that he 09:51.367 --> 09:54.267 is being despicable. 09:54.267 --> 09:57.497 So this is one kind of self-contained usage of 09:57.500 --> 10:02.000 shameful, and shameful even to the person who is doing it. 10:02.000 --> 10:07.400 And the next couple of usages all 10:07.400 --> 10:10.830 revolving around the dietitian. 10:10.833 --> 10:17.703 And we know that Joe Christmas is behind the curtains and 10:17.700 --> 10:22.030 watching this whole scene unfolding between the 10:22.033 --> 10:27.033 dietitian and her beau and eating toothpicks and having 10:27.033 --> 10:29.333 no idea what's going on outside of the dietitian 10:29.333 --> 10:31.373 thinking that he knows everything. 10:31.367 --> 10:34.097 So she drags him out. 10:34.100 --> 10:38.470 And this is what Joe sees when she drags him out. 10:38.467 --> 10:42.727 "A face no longer smooth pink-and-white surrounded now 10:42.733 --> 10:47.033 by wild and disheveled hair whose smooth band once made 10:47.033 --> 10:49.933 him think of candy. 'You little rat!' the thin, furious 10:49.933 --> 10:52.103 voice hissed, 'You little rat! 10:52.100 --> 10:52.970 Spying on me! 10:52.967 --> 10:55.727 You little nigger bastard!'" 10:55.733 --> 10:58.703 So she's never called him that before. 10:58.700 --> 11:03.700 So it's at this moment of extreme vulnerability on the 11:03.700 --> 11:07.000 part of the dietitian that that word would 11:07.000 --> 11:08.630 come rushing up. 11:08.633 --> 11:14.433 So it has some relation to the Joe Brown usage in the sense 11:14.433 --> 11:22.303 that this is a word that comes out when your back is against 11:22.300 --> 11:25.330 the wall, basically. 11:25.333 --> 11:28.973 This is the thing that you fling at people. 11:28.967 --> 11:31.127 But the dietitian actually is more 11:31.133 --> 11:34.433 resourceful than Joe Brown. 11:34.433 --> 11:37.673 She actually is able to use that word 11:37.667 --> 11:39.597 in some other contexts. 11:39.600 --> 11:44.000 So this is the next installment of the word nigger 11:44.000 --> 11:47.630 coming out of the mouth of the dietitian. 11:47.633 --> 11:53.433 And she has something else to offer Joe Christmas. 11:53.433 --> 11:58.203 Her hand is outstretched, and upon it lay a silver dollar. 11:58.200 --> 12:03.300 "Her voice went on urgent, tense, fast. 'A whole dollar. 12:03.300 --> 12:03.770 See? 12:03.767 --> 12:05.097 How much you could buy. 12:05.100 --> 12:07.530 Some to eat every day for a week. 12:07.533 --> 12:11.603 And next month maybe I'll give another one.' He seemed to see 12:11.600 --> 12:15.830 ranked tubes of toothpaste like corded wood, endless and 12:15.833 --> 12:19.573 terrifying; his whole being coiled in a rich and 12:19.567 --> 12:21.797 passionate revulsion. 12:21.800 --> 12:23.700 'I don't want no more,' he said. 12:23.700 --> 12:25.830 'I don't ever want no more,' he said. 12:25.833 --> 12:28.203 He didn't need to look up to know what her 12:28.200 --> 12:30.200 face looked like now. 12:30.200 --> 12:32.070 'Tell!' she said. 'Tell, then! 12:32.067 --> 12:33.367 You little nigger bastard! 12:33.367 --> 12:34.997 You nigger bastard!'" 12:35.000 --> 12:39.930 So this is the evolution of the dietitian, that she's not 12:39.933 --> 12:42.233 so vulnerable now. 12:42.233 --> 12:45.573 That she's actually on the verge of going on the 12:45.567 --> 12:47.927 offensive, but not quite. 12:47.933 --> 12:50.673 Because she just wants to make peace really. 12:50.667 --> 12:55.527 She has wanted to cut a deal with Joe Christmas, basically. 12:55.533 --> 12:59.233 And so what she doesn't understand is that he doesn't 12:59.233 --> 13:02.403 understand the concept of bribery. 13:02.400 --> 13:05.430 Joe Christmas is really interesting in that way. 13:05.433 --> 13:08.733 He doesn't always understand kindness. 13:08.733 --> 13:12.573 And he even doesn't understand the next thing down I think, 13:12.567 --> 13:14.967 which is bribery. 13:14.967 --> 13:18.967 So for him, the silver dollar just means endless tubes of 13:18.967 --> 13:20.227 toothpaste. 13:23.900 --> 13:26.630 That can't be more repugnant to him. 13:26.633 --> 13:31.233 But he knows enough to know that rejecting that silver 13:31.233 --> 13:37.903 dollar would actually be an automatic guarantee of the 13:37.900 --> 13:40.900 appearance of that word from the dietitian. 13:40.900 --> 13:44.530 So a pattern is beginning to develop. 13:44.533 --> 13:48.673 First, complete vulnerability on the part of the dietitian. 13:48.667 --> 13:54.027 Then not complete vulnerability, but her scheme 13:54.033 --> 13:57.503 is being foiled unwittingly by Joe Christmas. 13:57.500 --> 13:59.000 And that word comes out again. 13:59.000 --> 14:04.070 So it's sort of a handy, part involuntary, but part 14:04.067 --> 14:08.197 reflexive and part handy, almost instrumental, 14:08.200 --> 14:10.770 usage of that term. 14:10.767 --> 14:14.597 And we'll move on now to a completely 14:14.600 --> 14:16.930 instrumentalized usage. 14:16.933 --> 14:19.703 So with the dietitian it begins with a 14:19.700 --> 14:23.630 non-instrumentalized involuntary usage. 14:23.633 --> 14:27.573 By the third time she uses that word, it is completely 14:27.567 --> 14:30.697 instrumentalized and completely calculated. 14:30.700 --> 14:34.130 And that's when the dietitian goes to the matron of the 14:34.133 --> 14:38.873 orphanage and uses that word, "nigger," one more time. 14:38.867 --> 14:41.597 "'How did you know about this?' The dietitian did not 14:41.600 --> 14:43.230 look away. 'I didn't. 14:43.233 --> 14:45.073 I had no idea at all. 14:45.067 --> 14:47.767 Of course I knew it didn't mean anything when the other 14:47.767 --> 14:51.297 children called him nigger.' 'Nigger?' the matron said. 14:51.300 --> 14:53.370 'The other children?' 'They had been calling 14:53.367 --> 14:55.327 him nigger for years. 14:55.333 --> 14:58.533 Sometimes I think the children have a way of knowing things 14:58.533 --> 15:03.133 that grown people of your and my age don't see.'" 15:03.133 --> 15:07.303 Down to that little detail, 'people of your and my age.' 15:07.300 --> 15:09.230 They actually are not the same age. 15:09.233 --> 15:12.433 So when you have somebody using that kind of 15:12.433 --> 15:17.273 construction, you just know that they're highly 15:17.267 --> 15:21.127 manipulative and know exactly what they're doing. 15:21.133 --> 15:28.503 So that little giveaway detail at the end is basically just 15:28.500 --> 15:31.970 the icing on the cake of this racialization, this very 15:31.967 --> 15:36.697 deliberate racialization of Joe Christmas in order to get 15:36.700 --> 15:39.030 him sent away from the orphanage. 15:39.033 --> 15:45.373 So the dietitian, I would say, is probably right up there, in 15:45.367 --> 15:49.997 my mind, along with Joe Brown in terms of unlikeability. 15:50.000 --> 15:55.130 But she is better, I think, at what she's doing. 15:55.133 --> 16:03.033 So she succeeds in pinning that epithet on Joe Christmas. 16:03.033 --> 16:07.703 And so this is really the first thing that we should say 16:07.700 --> 16:12.170 about that epithet is that it is something that someone else 16:12.167 --> 16:13.427 pins on you. 16:13.433 --> 16:17.403 It doesn't really rule from inside you. 16:17.400 --> 16:20.630 It is not a genetic attribute about you. 16:20.633 --> 16:21.873 It's an attribution. 16:21.867 --> 16:25.597 It's not an internal genetic congenital attribute. 16:25.600 --> 16:30.230 It is an attribution that is foisted upon you. 16:30.233 --> 16:35.403 And that is what the dietitian is doing right there. 16:35.400 --> 16:41.570 So that is the usage of the word "nigger" on one side of 16:41.567 --> 16:44.527 the spectrum, Joe Brown and the dietitian. 16:44.533 --> 16:48.673 And now we'll move on to the other end of the spectrum 16:48.667 --> 16:51.867 where there's sheer agony to use that word. 16:51.867 --> 16:54.867 By the time the dietitian uses the word the last time, she's 16:54.867 --> 16:57.467 actually very good at what she's doing. 16:57.467 --> 16:58.967 It doesn't really touch her anymore. 16:58.967 --> 17:02.227 She's completely distanced herself and therefore able to 17:02.233 --> 17:03.633 manipulate that word. 17:03.633 --> 17:07.933 But here is, on the other side of the spectrum, someone who 17:07.933 --> 17:10.803 simply cannot have that distance from that word. 17:10.800 --> 17:12.930 And so it's an agonized usage. 17:12.933 --> 17:17.173 And this comes up in the context of a conversation 17:17.167 --> 17:22.327 between Hightower and Byron. 17:22.333 --> 17:26.133 And Byron is telling him about this new development-- 17:26.133 --> 17:30.173 about burning down the house, Joanna's body and so on-- 17:30.167 --> 17:31.597 but also about Christmas. 17:31.600 --> 17:32.900 "'About Christmas. 17:32.900 --> 17:35.070 About yesterday and Christmas. 17:35.067 --> 17:37.267 Christmas is part nigger. 17:37.267 --> 17:41.967 About him and Brown and yesterday.' 'Part negro,' 17:41.967 --> 17:43.697 Hightower says. 17:43.700 --> 17:47.730 His voice sounds light, trivial, like a thistle bloom 17:47.733 --> 17:52.133 falling into silence without a sound, without any weight. 17:52.133 --> 17:54.503 He does not move. 17:54.500 --> 17:57.900 For a moment longer, he does not move. 17:57.900 --> 18:01.870 Then there seems to come over his whole body as if its parts 18:01.867 --> 18:05.667 were mobile like face features, that shrinking and 18:05.667 --> 18:10.827 denial, and Byron sees that the still, flaccid, big face 18:10.833 --> 18:14.203 is suddenly slick with sweat. 18:14.200 --> 18:17.200 But his voice is light and calm. 18:17.200 --> 18:20.930 'What about Christmas and Brown and yesterday?' he says. 18:20.933 --> 18:28.603 So it is that utter disparity between the bodily gesture, 18:28.600 --> 18:33.470 the facial expression, the bodily expression on 18:33.467 --> 18:41.527 Hightower, and the still controlled, lightness of tone. 18:41.533 --> 18:45.833 That is what gives Hightower away. 18:45.833 --> 18:52.303 That not only is the possibility of Joe Christmas 18:52.300 --> 18:56.470 being black, not only is it the most terrifying of 18:56.467 --> 18:59.727 possibilities, but it's so terrifying that he can't 18:59.733 --> 19:03.903 really afford to acknowledge its gravity. 19:03.900 --> 19:07.530 So it's not just that it's just terrible, but he can't 19:07.533 --> 19:08.833 even admit to it. 19:08.833 --> 19:13.673 It's that double combination that suggests just how grave 19:13.667 --> 19:16.627 the situation is. 19:16.633 --> 19:19.103 Because Hightower knows exactly 19:19.100 --> 19:19.930 what's going to happen. 19:19.933 --> 19:24.933 Once the question of race comes into play, there's 19:24.933 --> 19:27.603 probably just one outcome. 19:27.600 --> 19:31.630 He knows it from his own personal history from what has 19:31.633 --> 19:34.533 happened to him and to his cook, and that was really 19:34.533 --> 19:35.973 nothing compared with this. 19:35.967 --> 19:40.497 So it's just a terrible scenario, the endpoint of 19:40.500 --> 19:44.100 which he can already see, and that's why he's behaving in 19:44.100 --> 19:46.170 this particular way. 19:46.167 --> 19:49.827 But there's also a point, kind of a division, the lightness 19:49.833 --> 19:52.833 of tone and kind of the involuntary shrinking and 19:52.833 --> 19:59.573 sweating and just kind of devastation 19:59.567 --> 20:02.697 that's coming over Hightower. 20:02.700 --> 20:04.670 It points to the doubleness of Hightower. 20:04.667 --> 20:07.767 And I think it's worth talking about. 20:07.767 --> 20:09.467 This is a slight digression. 20:09.467 --> 20:13.767 But Faulkner's really very emphatic about the two faces 20:13.767 --> 20:15.197 of Hightower. 20:15.200 --> 20:18.730 I think sometimes we tend to see him too much as a victim, 20:18.733 --> 20:22.033 and certainly what's happened to him invites us to think of 20:22.033 --> 20:24.803 him as just a victim of his neighbor's violence. 20:24.800 --> 20:27.170 But Faulkner is empathic from beginning to 20:27.167 --> 20:28.997 end that he is two-faced. 20:29.000 --> 20:32.970 "His face is at once gaunt at flabby; it is as though there 20:32.967 --> 20:37.967 were two faces, one imposed upon the other, looking out 20:37.967 --> 20:41.667 from beneath the pale, bald skull surrounded by a fringe 20:41.667 --> 20:45.697 of gray hair, from behind the twin motionless glare of his 20:45.700 --> 20:46.500 spectacles." 20:46.500 --> 20:50.530 Down to the twin glares of his spectacle, to an earlier 20:50.533 --> 20:52.373 moment where everybody's coming out of the church and 20:52.367 --> 20:54.797 the reporters were taking a picture of him, and they took 20:54.800 --> 20:56.170 picture of him from the side. 20:56.167 --> 20:57.927 He looks like Satan. 20:57.933 --> 21:02.133 Down to this moment when this lightness of tone is belied by 21:02.133 --> 21:05.703 the involuntary shrinking of his body. 21:05.700 --> 21:08.300 Hightower seems to be the meeting place for two 21:08.300 --> 21:10.400 contradictory impulses. 21:10.400 --> 21:15.130 And so we can also say that metaphorically, he's also the 21:15.133 --> 21:19.773 meeting place for the goodness of strangers and the brutality 21:19.767 --> 21:20.897 of the neighbors. 21:20.900 --> 21:23.800 He really is a kind of unresolved meeting place for 21:23.800 --> 21:25.070 those two cross-currents. 21:28.133 --> 21:32.273 But right now, right there he's trying his best to 21:32.267 --> 21:35.397 trivialize that event in saying that it really is 21:35.400 --> 21:36.430 nothing at all. 21:36.433 --> 21:37.803 It is of no consequence. 21:40.633 --> 21:44.173 Coming now to Bobbie the waitress, we'll look at one 21:44.167 --> 21:49.397 instance, another instance of someone trying to trivialize 21:49.400 --> 21:55.030 that fact, the possibility that Joe could be black. 21:55.033 --> 21:58.973 So this is the two of them lying in bed. 21:58.967 --> 22:01.797 And he makes this confession. 22:01.800 --> 22:05.900 "'I got some nigger blood in me.' Then she lay perfectly 22:05.900 --> 22:08.600 still, with a different stillness. 22:08.600 --> 22:11.270 But he did not seem to notice it. 22:11.267 --> 22:13.867 He lay peacefully too, his hand slow up 22:13.867 --> 22:16.227 and down her flank. 22:16.233 --> 22:19.573 'You're what?' she said. 'I think I got some nigger blood 22:19.567 --> 22:23.797 in me.' His eyes were closed, his hand slow and unceasing. 22:23.800 --> 22:24.770 'I don't know. 22:24.767 --> 22:27.497 I believe I have.' She did not move. 22:27.500 --> 22:30.770 She said at once, 'You're lying.' 'All right.' he said, 22:30.767 --> 22:33.067 not moving, his hand not ceasing. 22:33.067 --> 22:38.067 'I don't believe it.' her voice said in the darkness." 22:38.067 --> 22:44.197 So I think that Faulkner is going out of his way to make 22:44.200 --> 22:47.800 this a very peaceful scenario. 22:47.800 --> 22:52.570 So this is the equivalent of that lightness of tone that 22:52.567 --> 22:56.327 Hightower is using when he is facing the possibility that 22:56.333 --> 22:57.733 Joe Christmas is black. 22:57.733 --> 23:00.873 And here, Joe Christmas is making that confession 23:00.867 --> 23:03.727 himself, but really he doesn't know. 23:03.733 --> 23:07.673 But all the emphasis here is on how peaceful the scene is. 23:07.667 --> 23:08.797 He's just stroking her. 23:08.800 --> 23:11.970 He doesn't stop when he makes that confession. 23:11.967 --> 23:16.167 So it's as if nothing is happening. 23:16.167 --> 23:18.397 It wants to create the illusion 23:18.400 --> 23:19.870 that nothing is happening. 23:19.867 --> 23:22.727 But actually, everything is happening. 23:22.733 --> 23:27.303 So the waitress Bobbie's reaction goes along with the 23:27.300 --> 23:31.730 pretense that this is really nothing at all. 23:31.733 --> 23:33.073 She's not going to believe in it. 23:33.067 --> 23:35.597 There's nothing to it. 23:35.600 --> 23:40.630 But we also know that that takes a lot of willpower, that 23:40.633 --> 23:42.733 that assertion, 'I don't believe it' or 23:42.733 --> 23:43.473 there's nothing to it. 23:43.467 --> 23:45.127 You're just imagining it. 23:45.133 --> 23:48.133 All those statements actually take a lot of 23:48.133 --> 23:50.173 willpower to say. 23:50.167 --> 23:56.497 And how superficial that the assertion is becomes clear 23:56.500 --> 23:59.600 when something else happens. 23:59.600 --> 24:03.330 And then Bobbie uses the word nigger one more time. 24:03.333 --> 24:07.033 This time in a completely different tone of voice. 24:07.033 --> 24:12.573 This is much later when Joe has killed everything. 24:12.567 --> 24:16.527 He has killed his foster father in the kitchen 24:16.533 --> 24:17.433 accidentally. 24:17.433 --> 24:20.633 And now he's going to see Bobbie one more time. 24:20.633 --> 24:23.373 And now they know that they have to leave, that they're in 24:23.367 --> 24:24.767 big trouble. 24:24.767 --> 24:28.897 So this is a moment of duress, the equivalent of the 24:28.900 --> 24:31.900 dietitian's duress, the equivalent 24:31.900 --> 24:33.770 of Joe Brown's duress. 24:33.767 --> 24:37.927 And this is what Bobbie says under duress. 24:37.933 --> 24:41.033 "It was very much like it had been in the school house, 24:41.033 --> 24:43.933 someone holding her as she struggled and shrieked, her 24:43.933 --> 24:48.233 hair wild with the jerking and tossing of her head, her face, 24:48.233 --> 24:52.633 even her mouth, in contrast with the hair, as still as a 24:52.633 --> 24:55.303 bad mouth in a dead face. 24:55.300 --> 24:56.830 'Bastard Son of a bitch! 24:56.833 --> 24:59.203 Getting me into a jam, that always treated you 24:59.200 --> 25:00.300 like a white man. 25:00.300 --> 25:04.770 A white man!' Perhaps Joe did not hear her at all, nor the 25:04.767 --> 25:05.867 screaming waitress. 25:05.867 --> 25:08.197 'He told me himself he was a nigger! 25:08.200 --> 25:09.530 The son of a bitch! 25:09.533 --> 25:13.603 Me F-word for nothing a nigger son of a bitch that would get 25:13.600 --> 25:18.630 me in a jam with clodhopper police.'" 25:18.633 --> 25:23.073 So this not by design. 25:23.067 --> 25:25.927 It is involuntary usage. 25:25.933 --> 25:31.003 But it is telling that that's the word that always, or at 25:31.000 --> 25:34.730 least every single one, everything single character in 25:34.733 --> 25:36.503 Light in August would reach for. 25:36.500 --> 25:40.530 That is the word that would come involuntarily into our 25:40.533 --> 25:44.333 mouths when we are under duress. 25:44.333 --> 25:49.633 It also says that no matter what good intentions we have 25:49.633 --> 25:53.703 or how much willpower we hope to bring to bear on a 25:53.700 --> 25:58.830 racialized situation, that that willpower is always going 25:58.833 --> 26:05.333 to be unequal to the terrible weight, cementing weight that 26:05.333 --> 26:06.833 comes with that word. 26:06.833 --> 26:13.503 That every individual effort to lighten or trivialize that 26:13.500 --> 26:17.330 epithet, every attempt to make light of it is going to fail. 26:17.333 --> 26:21.003 This is probably another possible meaning for Light in 26:21.000 --> 26:24.530 August that this is an attempt of various people to make 26:24.533 --> 26:29.903 light of the phenomenon of race and not succeeding. 26:29.900 --> 26:36.700 So Bobbie is, in that sense, not even an especially 26:36.700 --> 26:41.030 interesting character on her own, other than as a kind of a 26:41.033 --> 26:45.273 dramatizing, concentrated version of the sort of 26:45.267 --> 26:50.267 involuntary reactions and involuntary usage of that word 26:50.267 --> 26:53.867 when we ourselves are under duress. 26:53.867 --> 26:56.167 And all this really quite marginal thing that 26:56.167 --> 26:58.027 Hightower-- 26:58.033 --> 27:00.503 isn't all that marginal-- 27:00.500 --> 27:06.400 but his reaction, in many ways, is an entry point to his 27:06.400 --> 27:07.400 psychology. 27:07.400 --> 27:12.370 But there's one person for whom the word "nigger" is 27:12.367 --> 27:17.767 front and center, and in many ways she is more extreme to be 27:17.767 --> 27:19.567 a generalized case. 27:19.567 --> 27:27.397 So Faulkner uses Joanna Burden as a fairly atypical case of 27:27.400 --> 27:32.870 thinking, very emotional response to the word "nigger." 27:32.867 --> 27:36.827 That it's, in many ways, on the far end of the spectrum, 27:36.833 --> 27:40.173 that nonetheless reflects on the medium, on the mean of 27:40.167 --> 27:41.267 that spectrum. 27:41.267 --> 27:45.497 But she has this very extreme notion of what the word 27:45.500 --> 27:50.730 "nigger" means, which is that it is an eternal curse, and 27:50.733 --> 27:55.833 the context of which is the death of her grandfather and 27:55.833 --> 27:59.833 her half-brother Calvin. 27:59.833 --> 28:04.103 So her grandfather and her half-brother Calvin were 28:04.100 --> 28:06.630 killed by a white person. 28:06.633 --> 28:08.733 They were killed by Satoris. 28:08.733 --> 28:10.133 So let's not forget that they were not 28:10.133 --> 28:11.403 killed by a black person. 28:11.400 --> 28:13.500 They were killed by a white person. 28:13.500 --> 28:18.700 But this is the account that Joanna would give of the 28:18.700 --> 28:22.200 reason why the two of them are killed. 28:22.200 --> 28:26.700 This is what the father says to her. 28:26.700 --> 28:30.830 "'Your grandfather and brother are lying there, murdered not 28:30.833 --> 28:35.533 by one white man, but by the curse which God put on a whole 28:35.533 --> 28:40.203 race before your grandfather or your brother or me or you 28:40.200 --> 28:42.130 were ever thought of. 28:42.133 --> 28:46.273 A race doomed and cursed to be forever and ever a part of the 28:46.267 --> 28:49.497 white race's doom and curse for its sins. 28:49.500 --> 28:50.470 Remember that. 28:50.467 --> 28:51.427 His doom and his curse. 28:51.433 --> 28:53.333 Forever and ever. 28:53.333 --> 28:53.773 Mine. 28:53.767 --> 28:54.727 Your mother's. 28:54.733 --> 28:57.333 Yours, even though you are a child. 28:57.333 --> 29:01.273 The curse of every white child that was born and that ever 29:01.267 --> 29:02.267 will be born. 29:02.267 --> 29:03.897 None can escape it." 29:03.900 --> 29:09.000 This is about as thoroughgoing a curse as could be. 29:09.000 --> 29:12.000 It's basically comprehensive, cover all the bases. 29:12.000 --> 29:16.630 It covers every single member of the white race, and it goes 29:16.633 --> 29:18.203 on for an eternity. 29:18.200 --> 29:20.330 That curse will never go away. 29:20.333 --> 29:25.073 So why is it that when two white people are killed by 29:25.067 --> 29:27.897 another white person that that is the case of the curse of 29:27.900 --> 29:29.830 the black race? 29:29.833 --> 29:32.403 That is a really interesting bit of logic. 29:32.400 --> 29:36.500 But Joanna's father is firmly convinced 29:36.500 --> 29:37.570 that that is the case. 29:37.567 --> 29:43.097 That if there had not been blacks in this world-- 29:43.100 --> 29:45.430 which actually probably would have been true-- 29:45.433 --> 29:49.073 if there had not been blacks in this world, the grandfather 29:49.067 --> 29:51.797 and Calvin would not have been killed by Satoris. 29:51.800 --> 29:55.200 So even though it seems like a strange kind of logic, once 29:55.200 --> 29:58.770 you spell it out in that way, actually it is a strange, but 29:58.767 --> 30:01.897 nonetheless truthful statement. 30:01.900 --> 30:06.470 And this is how Joanna's interpretation of that 30:06.467 --> 30:13.697 statement, her elaboration on that image of race as an 30:13.700 --> 30:17.730 eternal curse on the blacks, obviously, but also on the 30:17.733 --> 30:19.233 whites as well. 30:19.233 --> 30:23.933 And given what her father says, this is 30:23.933 --> 30:26.033 what she herself thinks. 30:26.033 --> 30:29.933 "But after that I seemed to see them--" blacks-- "for the 30:29.933 --> 30:34.533 first time not as people, but as a thing, a shadow in which 30:34.533 --> 30:39.373 I live, we lived, all white people, all other people. 30:39.367 --> 30:42.797 I thought of all the children coming forever and ever in the 30:42.800 --> 30:46.530 world, white, with a black shadow already falling upon 30:46.533 --> 30:48.773 them before they drew breath. 30:48.767 --> 30:50.967 And I seemed to see the black shadow in 30:50.967 --> 30:53.027 the shape of a cross. 30:53.033 --> 30:56.973 And it seemed like the white babies were struggling, even 30:56.967 --> 31:00.467 before they drew breath to escape from the shadow, that 31:00.467 --> 31:04.627 was not only upon them but beneath them too, flung out 31:04.633 --> 31:08.173 like their arms were flung out, as if they were 31:08.167 --> 31:09.467 nailed to the cross. 31:09.467 --> 31:13.467 I saw all the little babies that would ever be in the 31:13.467 --> 31:17.567 world, the ones not yet even born-- a long line of them 31:17.567 --> 31:21.497 with their arms spread, on the black cross." 31:21.500 --> 31:27.270 So this is a modern interpretation of an entire 31:27.267 --> 31:29.267 race being crucified. 31:29.267 --> 31:34.227 And it turns out that according to Joanna and her 31:34.233 --> 31:41.773 father that the dynamics of race and the legacy of slavery 31:41.767 --> 31:51.727 is such that whites will be crucified upon the black cross 31:51.733 --> 31:54.803 for as long as they live, for as long as they are human 31:54.800 --> 31:56.070 beings on earth. 31:56.067 --> 31:58.567 So it's an extravagant claim. 32:01.633 --> 32:07.673 And it's predicated on the notion, and in some sense, 32:07.667 --> 32:12.297 it's a summary of all that we've seen so far, which is 32:12.300 --> 32:17.600 that the racial epithet is in fact an epithet that all of us 32:17.600 --> 32:22.670 reach for involuntarily when we are under duress. 32:22.667 --> 32:26.997 So it's almost a kind of psychological necessity for us 32:27.000 --> 32:30.430 to call someone black. 32:30.433 --> 32:34.233 That all of us as human beings, because all of us are 32:34.233 --> 32:38.903 under duress so much of the time, there's just no way to 32:38.900 --> 32:42.570 avoid being under duress some of the time. 32:42.567 --> 32:44.597 Because there's such good chances for all of us to be 32:44.600 --> 32:48.000 under duress, there also good chances for all of us to call 32:48.000 --> 32:49.970 someone black. 32:49.967 --> 32:58.897 We just need to make that kind of attribution on someone. 32:58.900 --> 33:05.470 And it's because of that basic human psychological need that 33:05.467 --> 33:08.567 the relations between the races-- so-called races, even 33:08.567 --> 33:10.567 though the membership of each one is always 33:10.567 --> 33:12.067 going to be in flux-- 33:12.067 --> 33:17.197 but the relation between the supposed races, that relation 33:17.200 --> 33:20.470 is always going to be fraught, always going to 33:20.467 --> 33:22.867 be a terrible relation. 33:22.867 --> 33:26.497 And that's why, according to Joanna, it's not just the 33:26.500 --> 33:30.500 black shadow falling on white babies, but she actually goes 33:30.500 --> 33:32.400 so far as to say that that shadow is 33:32.400 --> 33:33.500 underneath them as well. 33:33.500 --> 33:37.030 This is an incredibly detailed, all-encompassing 33:37.033 --> 33:39.473 black shadow that basically envelops everyone. 33:39.467 --> 33:41.267 So it's on top of you. 33:41.267 --> 33:42.197 It's underneath you. 33:42.200 --> 33:46.100 You arms are flung out, and it follows the shape of your 33:46.100 --> 33:50.230 arms. Basically, it completely envelops every inch of you. 33:50.233 --> 33:52.603 There's no escape from that black curse. 33:52.600 --> 33:56.270 So this is really an incredible claim. 33:56.267 --> 34:01.197 And I think that it's helpful, in order to contextualize that 34:01.200 --> 34:04.470 claim, to think about the Burden genealogy. 34:09.000 --> 34:13.700 I'm sure Faulkner would object to this kind of schematic 34:13.700 --> 34:19.470 summary, but this is what we have. The Burden geneaology 34:19.467 --> 34:22.997 starts up with someone called Nathaniel Burrington. 34:23.000 --> 34:27.970 It's changed to Burden by Calvin Burden who has a 34:27.967 --> 34:32.367 Huguenot Protestant wife and friends. 34:32.367 --> 34:36.667 And then Nathaniel Burden joined his father with two 34:36.667 --> 34:42.927 wives, the Mexican wife Juana or Joanna, and a wife from New 34:42.933 --> 34:44.973 Hampshire who's Joanna's extra mother. 34:44.967 --> 34:50.527 And then Calvin Burden, his son, first son killed by 34:50.533 --> 34:52.003 Satoris along with the grandfather 34:52.000 --> 34:53.000 and then Joanna Burden. 34:53.000 --> 34:56.500 So this is the Burden genealogy. 34:56.500 --> 35:01.700 And we'll see that two names are being repeated twice. 35:01.700 --> 35:05.100 So the name Nathaniel appears twice. 35:05.100 --> 35:08.700 And the name Calvin appears twice. 35:08.700 --> 35:11.530 Definitely Faulkner loves to play with names. 35:11.533 --> 35:17.333 So this is another instance of the nontrivial play with 35:17.333 --> 35:17.933 names, 35:17.933 --> 35:22.903 because we all know who Calvin is, and he has everything to 35:22.900 --> 35:26.670 say about original sin and predestination. 35:26.667 --> 35:29.797 John Calvin right there, looking like someone who would 35:29.800 --> 35:33.170 make that kind of statement about original sin. 35:33.167 --> 35:37.767 And this is his treatise, Calvin, Institutes of the 35:37.767 --> 35:39.427 Christian Religion. 35:39.433 --> 35:44.033 And this is what he says about original sin. 35:44.033 --> 35:48.873 "Original sin, therefore, seems to be a hereditary 35:48.867 --> 35:54.227 depravity and corruption of our nature, diffused into all 35:54.233 --> 35:59.303 parts of the soul, which first makes us liable to God's 35:59.300 --> 36:00.470 wrath." 36:00.467 --> 36:07.067 So it doesn't really actually take the reprehensible action 36:07.067 --> 36:14.797 of anyone for us to be liable to God's wrath, that actually 36:14.800 --> 36:16.530 we inherit that. 36:16.533 --> 36:19.473 The important thing is that it is hereditary. 36:19.467 --> 36:24.327 It is passed on from one generation to another without 36:24.333 --> 36:29.803 the volition of the person upon which it is visited and 36:29.800 --> 36:34.500 without even necessarily any reprehensible action on whom 36:34.500 --> 36:36.430 that original sin is visited. 36:36.433 --> 36:39.903 It simply is something that is passed on automatically from 36:39.900 --> 36:41.500 one generation to another. 36:41.500 --> 36:46.530 So this a longstanding tradition of thinking about an 36:46.533 --> 36:52.003 evil that we can't escape, that we're just involuntarily 36:52.000 --> 36:56.900 signed up on to this legacy of evil and punishment and curse. 37:00.467 --> 37:04.067 I would say this is Joanna's genealogy. 37:04.067 --> 37:08.397 And this is also partly Faulkner's genealogy as well. 37:08.400 --> 37:10.630 I wouldn't say that he's a Calvinist, but he's certainly 37:10.633 --> 37:14.903 very, very interested in this kind of thinking, a curse that 37:14.900 --> 37:19.000 is transmitted across time, across generations. 37:19.000 --> 37:23.030 But there's another party to this 37:23.033 --> 37:26.433 genealogy, Nathaniel Hawthorne. 37:26.433 --> 37:29.233 We already have seen how important Hawthorne is. 37:29.233 --> 37:32.933 And it turns out he really is a figure of longstanding 37:32.933 --> 37:35.103 relevance to Faulkner. 37:35.100 --> 37:38.200 So the Hawthorne-Faulkner connection. 37:38.200 --> 37:41.770 We know that in The Scarlet Letter there's the Reverend 37:41.767 --> 37:45.997 Dimsdale who commits adultery with Hester Prynne. 37:46.000 --> 37:50.400 In As I Lay Dying, there's the Reverend Whitfield who commits 37:50.400 --> 37:51.870 adultery with Addie. 37:51.867 --> 37:55.527 So Whitfield, Dimsdale, and Whitfield actually making a 37:55.533 --> 37:59.373 speech that sounds almost like Dimsdale's speech at the end 37:59.367 --> 38:00.867 of The Scarlet Letter. 38:00.867 --> 38:05.067 And then in Light in August, the name Nathaniel is 38:05.067 --> 38:06.667 resurrected one more time. 38:06.667 --> 38:11.927 It's almost as if Faulkner's just paying kind of this late 38:11.933 --> 38:14.173 tribute to an author who's been very, very 38:14.167 --> 38:17.097 important to him. 38:17.100 --> 38:28.430 And so given the fact that the Hawthorne connection is 38:28.433 --> 38:34.533 actually a connection by way of The Scarlet Letter, which 38:34.533 --> 38:40.633 is, in some sense, a novel not just about sin, some kind of 38:40.633 --> 38:47.173 sin, past sin that Dimsdale certainly can't shake off and 38:47.167 --> 38:51.267 maybe Hester can't shake off either, a sin that will stick 38:51.267 --> 38:54.627 to you and follow you wherever you go. 38:54.633 --> 38:57.533 It's not only just about that, but it's also about sexual 38:57.533 --> 39:01.733 depravity or sexual license to some extent, even though that 39:01.733 --> 39:06.473 is not represented at all in The Scarlet Letter and not 39:06.467 --> 39:08.267 really represented in any details. 39:08.267 --> 39:12.367 In both those novels, in both The Scarlet Letter and As I 39:12.367 --> 39:16.427 Lay Dying, the sexual license is only gestured at. 39:16.433 --> 39:20.933 We know the outcome of that elicit sexuality in the sense 39:20.933 --> 39:24.473 that we see Hester's illegitimate daughter Pearl in 39:24.467 --> 39:29.067 The Scarlet Letter, and we see Addie's illegitimate son 39:29.067 --> 39:32.697 Jewel, and there's also a connection between Pearl and 39:32.700 --> 39:33.970 Jewel as well. 39:36.200 --> 39:41.470 We see Addie's illegitimate son Jewel in As I Lay Dying. 39:41.467 --> 39:44.967 But in both those novels the sexual license is not really 39:44.967 --> 39:45.427 represented. 39:45.433 --> 39:47.173 It's not part of the novel. 39:47.167 --> 39:53.167 In Light in August, actually we do see that sexual license 39:53.167 --> 39:55.227 front and center. 39:55.233 --> 39:58.573 And what makes this even more complicated is that it's 39:58.567 --> 40:02.267 mapped onto the platform of race. 40:02.267 --> 40:09.527 So it is the weird combination of belief in Calvinist 40:09.533 --> 40:16.773 original sin coupled with sexual wildness on the part of 40:16.767 --> 40:18.397 Joanna Burden. 40:18.400 --> 40:22.330 And that is when the word "negro" comes up. 40:22.333 --> 40:26.973 This is yet another of the licentious context for the use 40:26.967 --> 40:29.167 of the word "negro." 40:29.167 --> 40:34.027 "Now and then she appointed trysts beneath certain shrubs 40:34.033 --> 40:38.503 about the grounds, where he would find her naked or with 40:38.500 --> 40:41.900 her clothing half torn to ribbons upon her in the wild 40:41.900 --> 40:46.730 throes of nymphomania, her body gleaming in the slow 40:46.733 --> 40:51.003 shifting from one to another of such formally erotic 40:51.000 --> 40:55.070 attitudes and gestures as a Beardsley of the time of 40:55.067 --> 40:57.667 Petronius might have drawn. 40:57.667 --> 41:01.227 She would be wild then, in the close, breathing halfdark 41:01.233 --> 41:04.273 without walls, with her wild hair, each strand of which 41:04.267 --> 41:08.067 would seem to come alive like octopus tentacles, and her 41:08.067 --> 41:10.667 wild hands and her breathing, 'Negro! 41:10.667 --> 41:11.267 Negro! 41:11.267 --> 41:12.467 Negro!'" 41:12.467 --> 41:15.827 So it might seem incomprehensible that someone 41:15.833 --> 41:19.703 like Joanna Burden spends all her time trying to help blacks 41:19.700 --> 41:24.530 in the south, who is the on the board of dozen charities 41:24.533 --> 41:27.603 and black schools-- 41:27.600 --> 41:31.830 basically has dedicated her entire life to racial uplift-- 41:31.833 --> 41:33.773 should be doing this. 41:33.767 --> 41:37.997 But I think that it actually is, I think that as far as 41:38.000 --> 41:42.430 Faulkner is concerned, this incredible sexual license 41:42.433 --> 41:47.003 actually goes hand in hand with a belief in Calvinist 41:47.000 --> 41:48.370 predestination. 41:48.367 --> 41:51.927 If you really believe that you are going to be stuck with 41:51.933 --> 41:55.673 original sin, that that is going to be upon you, that 41:55.667 --> 41:58.567 black shadow is going to be upon you no matter what you 41:58.567 --> 42:01.597 do, then it doesn't really matter what you do. 42:01.600 --> 42:05.700 It is a weird kind of granting of license. 42:05.700 --> 42:10.700 That if you're going to be evil anyway, no matter what 42:10.700 --> 42:13.170 you do, then you might as well actually be evil in your 42:13.167 --> 42:14.567 conduct as well. 42:14.567 --> 42:15.727 There's something of that logic. 42:15.733 --> 42:19.403 But I don't even think that it's as logical as that. 42:19.400 --> 42:23.970 For Faulkner, it's just the two sides of Joanna. 42:23.967 --> 42:30.667 And maybe just as Hightower has two faces, Joanna clearly 42:30.667 --> 42:35.697 has two faces, and the whole tradition, Calvinist 42:35.700 --> 42:39.170 tradition, also has two faces. 42:39.167 --> 42:43.597 And that is really Faulkner's contribution to thinking about 42:43.600 --> 42:47.030 this particular kind of theology. 42:47.033 --> 42:51.273 But we also notice is that Faulkner tends to stick in all 42:51.267 --> 42:56.397 kinds of weird details into this otherwise just kind of 42:56.400 --> 42:59.670 full-dressed description of sexual license 42:59.667 --> 43:00.627 on the part of Joanna. 43:00.633 --> 43:06.833 He also has weird kind of references to two other 43:06.833 --> 43:07.603 traditions. 43:07.600 --> 43:11.500 One is Beardsley and the other is Petronius. 43:11.500 --> 43:14.900 So this is Beardsley, the famous 43:14.900 --> 43:18.370 illustrator, Aubrey Beardsley. 43:18.367 --> 43:22.297 This is Salome, showing human beings in this kind of very 43:22.300 --> 43:25.500 erotic and wild gestures. 43:25.500 --> 43:30.700 This is another illustration for Oscar Wilde's Salome. 43:30.700 --> 43:37.870 And as for Petronius, this is actually not quite a novel. 43:37.867 --> 43:40.967 This is sort of a beginning of a novel -- 43:45.967 --> 43:49.027 Petronius, the writer of Satyricon. 43:49.033 --> 43:55.373 The reason that it's related to the Faulkner novels often, 43:55.367 --> 44:00.197 especially Light in August, is that this early novel is about 44:00.200 --> 44:04.300 two foreigners with Greek-sounding names, 44:04.300 --> 44:08.930 Encolpius and Giton in Southern Italy. 44:08.933 --> 44:13.633 So this is the first instance of northerners going south. 44:13.633 --> 44:15.703 Not quite Yankees going south to 44:15.700 --> 44:19.830 Mississippi, but similar dynamics. 44:19.833 --> 44:24.603 And Joanna and her father and the whole family knows that 44:24.600 --> 44:27.270 they're hated as Yankees and carpetbaggers as 44:27.267 --> 44:28.727 we've seen last time. 44:28.733 --> 44:33.273 So the whole dynamics of people from one region going 44:33.267 --> 44:36.097 south and being hated by the locals. 44:36.100 --> 44:39.800 But in this case, there's this additional complication. 44:39.800 --> 44:44.300 That this is a very cold northerner going to the hot 44:44.300 --> 44:50.270 south, and in some instances, being heated up by that 44:50.267 --> 44:52.327 tropical environment. 44:52.333 --> 44:55.973 But basically staying cold and hot. 44:55.967 --> 45:02.297 So this is the pendulum swing of Joanna from that incredible 45:02.300 --> 45:05.170 sexual license to the other side. 45:05.167 --> 45:09.967 And she also, interestingly enough, she also uses the word 45:09.967 --> 45:13.627 "negro" in that context when she swings to the other side. 45:13.633 --> 45:17.773 "She was sitting quite still on the bed, her hands on her 45:17.767 --> 45:22.227 lap, her still New England face (it was still the face of 45:22.233 --> 45:28.233 a spinster, prominently boned, long, a little thin, almost 45:28.233 --> 45:33.433 manlike; in contrast to it her plump body was more richly and 45:33.433 --> 45:37.273 softly animal than ever) lowered. 45:37.267 --> 45:40.067 She said in a tone musing, detached, 45:40.067 --> 45:43.227 impersonal, 'A full measure. 45:43.233 --> 45:45.903 Even to a bastard negro child. 45:45.900 --> 45:50.570 I would like to see father's and Calvin's faces.'" 45:50.567 --> 45:53.667 The syntax I think is very interesting, that what is in 45:53.667 --> 45:57.127 the parentheses, the still face of the spinster and then 45:57.133 --> 46:02.233 the animal body, are kind of a perfect summary of the two 46:02.233 --> 46:03.503 sides of Joanna. 46:06.000 --> 46:09.270 Even for Faulkner, it's very ungainly syntax 46:09.267 --> 46:11.467 or deliberate syntax. 46:11.467 --> 46:17.227 And then that last part of that, the bastard negro child. 46:17.233 --> 46:20.373 And is not accidental that this is the moment where 46:20.367 --> 46:22.667 suddenly she's invoking Calvin. 46:22.667 --> 46:26.067 I would like to see father Nathaniel's face 46:26.067 --> 46:26.827 and Calvin's face. 46:26.833 --> 46:29.973 This is almost as if this is the new twentieth century 46:29.967 --> 46:33.467 edition to The Scarlet Letter and the new twentieth century 46:33.467 --> 46:36.167 edition to the longstanding theology of Calvin. 46:36.167 --> 46:41.597 That this is what happens when you inherit from those two 46:41.600 --> 46:47.530 traditions is that you both do good by 46:47.533 --> 46:49.973 supposedly helping blacks. 46:49.967 --> 46:56.827 But then you also engage in this uncontrollable sexual 46:56.833 --> 46:59.133 orgy with them. 46:59.133 --> 47:08.033 And the bastard negro child is this kind of also involuntary 47:08.033 --> 47:12.333 outcome of the union of those two sides. 47:12.333 --> 47:17.003 And so it's sort of easy to see why Joanna is not going to 47:17.000 --> 47:21.370 be an easy person for Joe Christmas to deal with. 47:21.367 --> 47:26.967 Anyone would have a hard time trying to negotiate, trying to 47:26.967 --> 47:29.627 deal with someone like that. 47:29.633 --> 47:38.173 And Joe Christmas' response is like this. 47:38.167 --> 47:41.027 At this point, Joanna wants him to go to school. 47:41.033 --> 47:45.473 Wants him to study law with a black lawyer and wants to turn 47:45.467 --> 47:49.567 over all her funds, all the money that she has. 47:49.567 --> 47:52.097 And it's not insignificant. 47:52.100 --> 47:54.830 She wants to turn over all the money to him, 47:54.833 --> 47:57.103 and this is his response. 47:57.100 --> 48:00.100 "'To school.' his mouth said. 'A nigger school. 48:00.100 --> 48:01.770 Me.' 'Yes. 48:01.767 --> 48:03.167 Then you can go to Memphis. 48:03.167 --> 48:05.367 You can read law in Peebles' office. 48:05.367 --> 48:08.797 He will teach you law.' 'And then learn law in the office 48:08.800 --> 48:12.230 of a nigger lawyer,' his mouth said. 48:12.233 --> 48:12.603 'Yes. 48:12.600 --> 48:14.700 Then I will turn over all the business to 48:14.700 --> 48:15.530 you, all the money. 48:15.533 --> 48:16.373 All of it. 48:16.367 --> 48:19.197 So that when you need money for yourself, you could... 48:19.200 --> 48:22.870 you would know how; lawyers know how to do it so they... 48:22.867 --> 48:25.567 You would be helping them out of darkness and none could 48:25.567 --> 48:28.867 accuse or blame you even if they found out.' 'But a nigger 48:28.867 --> 48:33.867 college, a nigger lawyer,' his voice said, quiet, not even 48:33.867 --> 48:36.627 argumentative; just promptive. 48:36.633 --> 48:39.833 They were not looking at one another; she had not looked up 48:39.833 --> 48:41.303 since he entered. 48:41.300 --> 48:42.970 'Tell them,' she said. 48:42.967 --> 48:46.767 'Tell niggers that I'm a nigger too?'" 48:46.767 --> 48:50.867 Especially this is a moment when Joanna is both completely 48:50.867 --> 48:59.397 tone deaf, but also just an incredibly sad person. 48:59.400 --> 49:02.800 That this is the best she can do for him. 49:02.800 --> 49:04.200 She's too embarrassed. 49:04.200 --> 49:06.600 She's trying to bribe him as well. 49:06.600 --> 49:08.530 She's trying to say I'm going to turn over all 49:08.533 --> 49:09.303 the money to you. 49:09.300 --> 49:11.930 And it really doesn't matter if you study law. 49:11.933 --> 49:17.303 You know how to use the money for your pleasure, really. 49:17.300 --> 49:21.670 She can't really bring herself to say that word. 49:21.667 --> 49:24.097 She wants to do the most for him. 49:24.100 --> 49:25.900 And she will not admit to it. 49:25.900 --> 49:29.170 She would not name what she's turning over to him. 49:29.167 --> 49:32.527 So all the ellipses of those unfinished sentences. 49:32.533 --> 49:37.603 She's both tone deaf, but also actually at the maximum point 49:37.600 --> 49:42.430 of goodwill and love maybe even towards him, wanting to 49:42.433 --> 49:44.973 do the most for him. 49:44.967 --> 49:52.167 And his way of responding is by being totally ironic about 49:52.167 --> 49:57.867 the word "nigger" and obviously about her as well. 49:57.867 --> 50:03.667 So I think that we can say when the word "nigger" is used 50:03.667 --> 50:06.667 in that context, it's also a moment of 50:06.667 --> 50:08.227 psychological duress. 50:08.233 --> 50:11.503 That maybe he just even can't bear to acknowledge the fact 50:11.500 --> 50:14.230 that she wants to do so much for him. 50:14.233 --> 50:16.633 I think that that would be one way to read that. 50:16.633 --> 50:20.633 That this is actually not a moment when there's no love 50:20.633 --> 50:25.503 felt or that that romance is over. 50:25.500 --> 50:26.530 It's not that. 50:26.533 --> 50:28.373 But that maybe it's too much. 50:28.367 --> 50:32.367 And that the way that he's responding to that is by being 50:32.367 --> 50:38.427 totally cynical, satirical and ironic about the whole thing. 50:38.433 --> 50:42.503 So this scene is really open to any number of readings. 50:42.500 --> 50:46.330 All we know that it is definitely not an innocent 50:46.333 --> 50:47.933 word when it's used by oneself. 50:47.933 --> 50:53.773 That it is as charged and as painful to use as when it is 50:53.767 --> 50:55.567 attributed to oneself by other people.