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As i lay dying
我是外语文学系学生,我看过他的AS I LAY DYING英文版,准备看他的SOUND AND THE FURY
一开始看AS I LAY DYING有些辛苦,不过重读时很喜欢! 希望和喜欢的XDJM讨论一下!顺便贴一小篇我写的小读后感,望有知音可以讨论~
I didn't expect I would be fascinated by a novel that once seemed like just as much of an ordeal to me as the Bundren's journey. Not until I read it the second time did I realize I'd missed so much subtlety in it! I remember reading Faulkner's Nobel Prize acceptance speech in class as a freshman. At that time the speech didn't impress me much as it seemed quite pompous with lots of big words. Now, however, having read his description of all the human filth, helplessness and sordidness in the novel, I found parts of the speech deeply moving.
Aside from the chapter by Addie, I especially enjoy some of those by Darl and Dewey Dell. Darl's narration about how they fight to get the wagon across the river is so intriguing. I'm really interested in the religious symbolism of the things in the novel such as the log, words(The Word), the flood and the fire, and I've been trying to figure out why Jewel is so constantly associated with wood. I think that is also symbolic in some way. It's real fun to see how different characters interpret different symbols.
The great thing about the story is that Faulkner sometimes seems to sympathize none of his characters while sometimes seems sympathetic towards them all. Even Cora, who is so hypocritical and smugly virtuous deserves our sympathy when Tull says "it would take a tight house for Cora, to hold Cora like a jar of milk in the spring...because you would rather have milk that will sour than to have milk that wont, because you're a man." I sympathize Cora not because she is right or wrong...it's only because I can understand her at times. And Darl...how he "lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home." I find this line so very much moving. As I read the speeches by Faulkner I found that he was rather careful with the word "love". He seemed to prefer using "compassion" which I think is more appropriate in conveying his understanding and feeling towards his characters.
Another thing that still bewilders me is Faulkner's conception of time and the character's problems with self-identification. I know that Faulkner kind of thought of time as human experience rather than a fixed, objective condition. (a bit like Warren?)But it remains for me to find out how he uses his idea of time to explore the themes in his writing. And Darl's idea of I am, I was, I am is, I am not is fascinating.(Dewey Dell seems to have the similar problem).
In order to entertain myself as well as to find out how far the Chinese young scholars are in the study of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, I got a few MA theses by Chinese graduate students online. These theses, according to the website, were chosen as "outstanding graduate theses of China" from the year 1990 to 2006. Although some misunderstood the novel, hailing Cora as virtuous and condemning Addie as "an evil force in the family", I think some others made a real effort to analyze it. But how often I see Faulkner's curse hidden in these papers: words are no good. People try to interpret this work of art with words, but so soon the words fail. Some say Eddie is an evil force; some say she "knows no love so is spiritually and metaphysically dead." Some say Darl doesn't love his mother, Addie is deeply influenced by nihilism so she cannot find the right way to live, etc, etc...but what do evil, spiritual, love and "the right way to live" mean? I don't think Faulkner himself gave a clear definition of all these as he wrote the novel, but so many critics are already "swinging and twisting" on the spider-webs of all these concepts and presumptions. Well, I know it's easy for me to say...but I think it's rather ironic. |
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发表于 2006-10-22 15:10
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发表于 2006-12-8 19:32
