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Go Down, Moses
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August 2015: Go Down, Moses
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August 1-9: Parts 1 & 2 ("Was" and "The Fire and the Hearth")
August 10-16: Parts 3 & 4 ("Pantaloon in Black" and The Old People")
August 17-23: Part 5 ("The Bear")
August 24-31: Parts 6 & 7 ("Delta Autumn" and "Go Down, Moses")
Towards the end of each week, I'll post some discussion questions relevant to that week's reading. If you feel inclined to discuss a section before the end of the week, please use spoiler tags if necessary.
But don't feel like you have to wait for discussion questions. Feel free to drop in with your thoughts at any point (again, using spoiler tags (see "some html is ok" above the comment box if you're not sure how to do that) if you're discussing anything spoilery that people may not have finished reading yet.)
Let the journey begin!
Mod
As our first week comes to an end, I'd like to post a couple of snippets from Wikipedia and SparkNotes about the two stories we've read so far, and how they relate to the book as a whole.
Faulkner's technique in Go Down, Moses is to present stories whose full significance in the overall history of his characters is not apparent until later in the book. The book explores the history and development of the McCaslin family, which is descended from Carothers McCaslin and occupies the plantation he founded. Faulkner incorporates into the McCaslin family many of the characteristics he viewed as essential to an understanding of the South as a whole, including the painful racial divide between whites and blacks that defined Southern history in the decades before and after the Civil War. He does this by splitting the McCaslin family tree into two branches, one white and the other black. The white branch, obviously, descends from Carothers McCaslin and his wife; the black branch descends from Carothers McCaslin and the slave-girl Tomey, with whom McCaslin had a sexual affair.
"Was," which appears at first to be simply an innocuous and amusing story (if one historically appalling in its treatment of blacks and women as things to be gambled over) about the marital maneuverings between a spinster and an affirmed bachelor, is actually the story of the origin of the black branch of the McCaslin family tree. Tomey's Turl is Carothers McCaslin's son, Buck and Buddy's half-brother. Turl and his wife, Tennie, will continue the black McCaslin branch into the future.
Mod
1) In "Was," Faulkner keeps saying "he" when referring to one of the characters. This is one of Faulkner's traits, it seems to me from what I've read of other books of his: he doesn't always straight out name a character, or will name one, and then expect you to be able to follow that in all of the other characters mentioned, "he" is the one named waaaaaaay long ago. Did anyone else have a problem with that? After a while, I (think I) figured out that the random "he" was the 9-year-old, McCaslin (Cass). There are plenty of "he"s and "his" -- Uncle Buck, Uncle Buddy, Tomey's Turl, Hubert; a lot of pronouns to get lost in, and to have to wade through to remember that the "he" that doesn't make sense is still another character, the boy Cass, who is rarely named throughout the story.
2) In "The Fire and the Hearth," we have another example of Faulkner telling a story, minus names, and we have to keep up and/or figure things out for ourselves. Here, Faulkner tells the story of Lucas' wife delivering "the white man's" baby during the flood. But it wasn't until 40-50 pages later that I realized the baby was the current landowner, Roth (Carothers) Edmonds. Is this because I wasn't properly engaged in reading and following the story, or because Faulkner's storylines are so complex and convoluted? He plays with time and, as we've seen, doesn't give (full) names, or sprinkles them in here and there, but a lot less often than is helpful.
Did others get lost in the narration? Did it hamper your enjoyment of the story, or even completely turn you off?
The first time I ever read a Faulkner book was for a class. The teacher of that class was normally very adamant about reading slowly and engaging with a text, but when we got to Faulkner, every day it was "YOU HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION WHEN YOU READ! THINK!!!" As I read that book, and other Faulkner books since then, I realize how true that maxim is for reading Faulkner: his writing is so complex and his style so unusual (there's the common anecdote that he doesn't use punctuation, and that business about not naming names) that you have to really SLOW DOWN when you read his stories. Once I remembered that, and started digesting each little morsel of a sentence, I started enjoying the story so much more.
Anyone reading along and have any thoughts for this week?
Mod
As the second week winds down, we're finishing the stories "Pantaloon in Black" and "The Old People."
To me, "Pantaloon in Black" seemed almost as if it was a short story written by Faulkner that was included in this collection because there was no other place to publish it. The McCaslin/Edmonds family is only mentioned as Carothers owns the land; other than that, this isn't a story about the family, unlike the rest of the stories in the book. I thought it was a decent story, just out of place -- What do you think?
Also, any thoughts on "The Old People"?
Mod
Obviously, this is the longest of the stories in the book, three- and four-times as long as most of the other stories. The story begins with a narrative about chasing "Old Ben," an enormous bear, and how the hunters track him for years before finally being able to kill him.
Then we jump ahead (I think about 7 years) to Isaac discussing with McCaslin whether a man can actually own land, and his many religious reasons and reasons of entitlement (a white man can't actually own the land, since he stole it from the men who were here first, etc.) for believing a man cannot own the land.
So, for anyone reading along, or reading in the future, what did you think of this one? It seems to be the most narrative-driven of the stories, but I was jolted by the fact that the title animal was captured *halfway* through the story, and he was only referred to as a metaphor in the second half. I expected 130 pages of tracking the bear!
I did enjoy the genealogy and history aspect of the second half, though. It helped relate these people to the previous stories in the book, the way Faulkner told about Buddy and Buck, and their ledger books of family members (including slaves).
Any thoughts? Liked the story, didn't like the story, it was too long, "What the hell?", "I can't wait to be done with it," "I fell asleep before I even started,"...?
Mod
"Delta Autumn" sees Isaac now as an old man, still going on the annual hunting trip, but now with the grandsons of the men he originally went with. Time marches on. Furthermore, one of his companions is Carothers Edmonds, who, we find out toward the end of the story, (view spoiler), thus, again, time marches on, and repeats itself with the in-and-out of the McCaslin family.
The final story, "Go Down, Moses," is a short one, detailing a few days in the life of Mollie Beauchamp and her grandson.
So, what did you think?
Mod
I feel this was the best book Faulkner ever wrote and the Faulkner i ever read. It was the most complex because it could be read as a novel and each chapter separately as a short story. It helps to know the title is a well known Negro spiritual,and adds to the title. For a deeper understanding of this book some understanding of Faulkner's life is also needed.
Its a thoughtful treatise about race, property, people as property, rape, men, women, memory, and more.
Mod
Indeed, knowing about Faulkner's life is helpful in reading his books. Faulkner grew up in Mississippi and placed most of his stories in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional location in Mississippi based on Lafayette County and Oxford (where Faulkner grew up). Growing up in the South during the early 1900s, Faulkner was surrounded by stories of the Civil War, slavery, and contemporary race issues, which you see a lot of in his stories.
Mod
I'll be leading our group discussion for August's reading of Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner. Faulkner can be a tough read, but please don't let that discourage you from reading his works. And if you read Go Down, Moses with us, we can all work through it together :)
I'll be posting a reading/discussion schedule in the next few days, but if you're so inclined, go ahead and start reading.
In the meantime, who will be joining in our group read? Have you read any Faulkner before, and how have your experiences with him been?