what do you think or like Faulkner? Should I be offended?

Question

Maybe I shouldn't be so offended by the way he talks about women, maybe I should just savor it, for the fact that I can read and I should be happy with what he say's, because he is one of the greatest classical novelist, of course so is Hemingway. Which I don't really care for his writing either. And, yes, if this offendes you do something about it, I'm waiting to hear from you, tell me why I should like it and how they don't talk badly about women.

Answer 1

Hold up. Hemingway was a misogynist, yes. It's pretty clear from his narrative structure, character treatment, etc. That, at least, is most likely fair.

Faulkner, however, is a little more problematic. Recall that his most important novels, As I Lay Dying, Absalom! Absalom! rely solely on narrators to tell the tale(s). Therefore, it's not entirely accurate to portray Faulkner as sharing the views of his characters. That's what gives the writing its lasting qualities. Partially, at least, we have to reckon with the issues he raises, regardless if he was a mysogynist or not.

Consider Dosteovski: The Grand Inquisitor section of the Brothers Karamosov is a pretty powerful indictment of Christianity, and yet Dosteovski was a devote Eastern Orthodox who believed quite the opposite as the narrator in that section of the book.

So, be offended by the characters' stances if you want, but be careful about projecting those views onto the authors.

Answer 2

I'm not positive that Faulkner is even half as blatantly womanizing as Hemingway, but it's long been acknowledged in the feminist critical community that such early-modern-period writers were very often woman-phobic or outright sexist (also see T.S. Eliot). In Hemingway's autobiographical _The Moveable Feast_, which I read recently, he demonizes fellow woman writers who help him with writing advice and encouragement (most notably Gertrude Stein and the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald) and refuses to even refer to his wife, Hadley, by her _name_ until about 1/4 of the way into the book. (Until this point, he refers to her vaguely and distantly as "my wife.") Hemingway had four wives - the first of them he cheated on, and another had too successful of a career for his tastes (that marriage lasted about one year).

Anyway, I don't mind your pointing out these male writers' sexism at all; I couldn't agree more. I simply despise Hemingway, and the more of his work I read, the more I despise him. The guy drank like a fish, got into innumerable drunken car accidents which caused him to suffer many head injuries, and was just generally selfish and whiney (he tells in the book about times his wife was out and he left the family's _cat_ to watch his baby son). Faulker was also a notorious drunk and delivered his Nobel Prize acceptance speech shamelessly, incomprehensibly drunk. There are plenty of male authors whose writing does not betray their own screwed-up and exaggerrated masculinities - one of them is Kurt Vonnegut, about whom I plan to write my master's thesis.

Answer 3

when you read an author - pls take into consideration the era whn that author live.

It is like reading Sahkespeare, you might be offended with what he said about Jews etc, but that's the way their value system work at that time

same with Faulkner, mark Twain and Hemingway

Answer 4

You can be offended if you want to.
We do live in the United States of the Perpetually Offend after all. I doubt there is anything I could say about anything without somebody being offended.
See, I told you. I got a thumbs down for a simple non threatening unbiased statement.

Answer 5

I'd listen to the idiot who ended his message with yo, yo. He is obviously well-educated.

I'd keep in mind that half the feminazis who run around decrying Hemingway as a sexist pig have never read Hemingway.

Answer 6

Hemingway and Faulkner are teh suck. They're both boring as all hell. Mark Twain is where it's at, yo.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/twain/letearth.htm

Answer 7

Be offended if you want, but they're both dead so really doesn't matter a whit to them.

I can't tell you that you should like them, I don't really care for them either. But not because they "talk about women", more like I don't like their imagery and prose.

So, like 'em, or not, I don't care.

Peace

Answer 8

If you really need something to be offended over, go for it.

I think As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury are masterpieces.