Books |
The ‘Snopes’ Trilogy (continued)
William Faulkner
By
Published: Jan 01, 2005
Category:
Fiction
Wow, did I set off a bomb yesterday, or what?
For those who missed it — or those who were here but thought nothing was awry — I suggested that Oprah may have picked the "wrong" novels by William Faulkner for her book club’s summer reading. And then, hoping to be useful, I suggested that Oprah might have done better to choose three other novels by William Faulkner.
Later in the day, because I was kinda proud that my reading of Faulkner had come to some practical use, I posted most of what I’d written on The Huffington Post . In the interest of space — and, just maybe, sensing what was ahead — I cut the paragraph in which I said I’d studied Faulkner. That I’d read just about every major novel. And that I’d done this at Harvard. Not that it mattered — my post made a number of Huffington Post readers nuts.
A day later, here’s the scorecard: limited distress among Head Butler readers, boiling rage from a dozen or so Huffington Post readers. Because of the distress I caused a few of you, I want to use this space to talk this criticism through — and to point out some crucial differences between the opinions I got from you and the comments on the Huffington Post.
Here’s the e-mail I got from one of you:
I have enjoyed your site for quite some time but found your last missive very snobbish….Most Oprah readers won’t have the ability or patience for Faulkner? "striking out with the brainbusters"….What an ignorant generalization.
Snobby? That hurts. As regular readers know by now, I am crazy about what I consider "the best" — but not because "the best" conveys any status. You don’t get status in this country by having a connoisseur’s ear for music, a sharp eye for film or a great nose for books; all you get from consuming a quality cultural diet is a sharper mind, a more soulful heart and a deeper appreciation for the mysteries of life. Want status? Make boatloads of money. In our culture, there’s no snobbery quite as powerful as money snobbery.
So I challenged my correspondent: Go to a bookstore. Buy "The Hamlet" — the first volume of the Snopes trilogy that I recommended — and any one of the three novels Oprah chose. Start reading. Tell me, after a hundred pages, which of the books you’re enjoying more. If, that is, you get to page 100 of either book.
I repeat: The proof is in the reading.
As long as we’re on this topic, I’ll go further: Any book you read is better than any book you don’t. If you read Paris Hilton’s little tome, that’s better than any Shakespeare you didn’t read. The first goal of Head Butler is to encourage people to read, listen and watch more. The second goal — and it’s a distant second — is to direct you to culture that has enriched my life and, I hope, will enrich yours.
So at Head Butler, the "great" is not the enemy of the merely "good." Both work for me. But time is tight. Money is sometimes a factor. We need to prioritize, in our free time as in our work lives. And that leads me to push what I see as the great.
You’ll note that I didn’t mock Oprah’s selections. I admired them. I simply suggested an alternative — my point wasn’t that Oprah shouldn’t have chosen William Faulkner, simply that she chose books likely to turn readers off. Let me say it again: I want readers to tackle Faulkner. And to love him. The way to do that, I submit, is to start with his more "accessible" books, not the head-splitters.
Oprah’s selections reward study, re-reading, analysis — the kind of formal reading usually done in school. Some (me among them) would describe this effort as "pleasurable." Many — many more, I’d guess — would say it’s hard work and a chore. Oprah, to her credit, has scholars conducting what is essentially an online seminar about Faulkner. Noble. But how many will avail themselves of that guidance?
The Faulkner novels I chose aren’t exactly potboilers. They’re far from "easy reading." But for all their stylish idiosyncrasies, they’re fairly traditional novels — for Faulkner, anyway. And so they can be read with actual pleasure by people who love great stories more than innovative style.
Over at The Huffington Post, they were having none of that nuanced argument. Here’s a sample:
Why must the NY lit-establishment insist on condescending to Oprah viewers? She has chosen Faulkner’s three finest novels, and her viewers may want to be challenged. Stop being such a two-faced twit: lit-critters complain when the whole country isn’t reading "literature" and then rip Oprah when she tries to spread the spoils of a good book. Shame on you.
Gee, where to start? I would bet "the NY lit establishment" — which doesn’t include me — was knocked on its ass by Oprah’s announcement. I’m going to guess that those writers and critics thought that any Faulkner was too much for Oprah’s audience. And you can’t exactly fault them for thinking that. C’mon, how many viewers who thrilled to Tom Cruise bouncing on Oprah’s couch are going to pick up "As I Lay Dying"? Some? I’d bet: a few. But a very important few (which is why I went to the trouble of proposing other books).
"Readers may like to be challenged." Dear friend, do you know how few readers there are in this country — I mean book readers as opposed to book buyers? The average college graduate in America buys one new book a year. One. Pick up "The Da Vinci Code," take the rest of the year off. That’s reality. And it’s why the book business is in a state of permanent freakout. So lighten up. No one’s complaining that Oprah recommended "literature" — only that, with these choices, she hasn’t helped the cause of literature as effectively as she has in the past.
What really struck me about the negative comments on The Huffington Post — and, just for the record, there were a half-dozen shout outs of agreement — was how negative they were. Angry. Hostile. And, to me, surprising. At Head Butler, I’m isolated from the culture wars; the folks who come here haven’t turned art into politics. Out there, the Culture Wars are real. And spooky. Good thing those people didn’t see the paragraph in which I talked about studying Faulkner at Harvard! Can you just imagine the invective that would have inspired?
But enough about me.
Yesterday, with a push from Head Butler (and, as far as I can tell, nothing else), the Snopes trilogy zoomed from a sales ranking of 22,000 on Amazon to 5,225. I say: good news. Readers will be diving into Faulkner this summer — into six Faulkner novels rather than three.
Let’s meet at the finish line and compare notes.
To buy the Snopes trilogy — "The Hamlet," "The Mansion" and "The Town" — from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy the Oprah selections from Amazon.com, click here.
