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Thread: Faulkner vs Hemingway: Complexity

  1. #31
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    I've heard both sides state their case and believe I have enough information to make a decision. After careful consideration I've decided to go with Tupac.

  2. #32
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    Too much time floating into air means you are touching nothing. From the mud you can build civilizations.

    I just love to tear metaphors apart.
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  3. #33
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    I'm going to say Hemingway is more complex. Faulkner's writings contains these flourishing, beautiful lines that capture the complexity of human interaction and the thoughts between.

    I read Hemingway and he tells so much between the lines. I find great complexity in his icebergs. From birds-eye view these 'bergs are dots you have to connect and he has so painstakingly placed them as to let the reader fill in the rest of the picture without deviating from his point.

    Having thrown those two cents in though I couldn't give you an opinion on who is actually "better". They're just great.

  4. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by Arrowni View Post
    Too much time floating into air means you are touching nothing. From the mud you can build civilizations.

    I just love to tear metaphors apart.
    Well go right on living there in the Yoknapatawpha County mud. I'll spend my time with Hemingway in France, Spain, Italy etc. Some people are stick in the mud and others like to travel.
    "L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.

    "Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.

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    If Faulkner's prose tends to soar and circle. involved and prolonged, if his scenes become halls of mirrors repeating tableaux in a progressive magnification, if echoes multiply into the dissonance of infinite overtones, it is because the meanings his stories unfold are complex, mysterious, obscure, and incomplete. There is no absolute, no eternal pure white radiance in such presentations, but rather the stain of many colors, refracted and shifting in kaleidoscopic suspension, about the center of man's enigmatic behavior and fate, within the drastic orbit of mortality. Such being Faulkner's view of life, such is his style.
    Last edited by kinesj; 09-09-2011 at 08:04 PM.

  6. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by kinesj View Post
    If Faulkner's prose tends to soar and circle. involved and prolonged, if his scenes become halls of mirrors repeating tableaux in a progressive magnification, if echoes multiply into the dissonance of infinite overtones, it is because the meanings his stories unfold are complex, mysterious, obscure, and incomplete. There is no absolute, no eternal pure white radiance in such presentations, but rather the stain of many colors, refracted and shifting in kaleidoscopic suspension, about the center of man's enigmatic behavior and fate, within the drastic orbit of mortality. Such being Faulkner's view of life, such is his style.
    Wow! You've obviously been reading too much Faulkner. Have you ever thought of going into advertising?
    "L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.

    "Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.

  7. #37
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    You should know all about advertising, Emil, with your little Hemingway campaign.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Emil Miller View Post
    Wow! You've obviously been reading too much Faulkner. Have you ever thought of going into advertising?
    I don't know, but non-american readers are more likely to relate to Faulkner as his stories speak of universal themes, whilst Hemingway stories are centralized on the "american" soul.

    You might find this amusing, as Faulkner stories, setting wise, are largely if not almost entirely based on the fictional american south of Yoknapatawpha County, as opposed to Hemingway, whose stories have settings that range from Cuba to Spain and Africa.

    Faulkner built a highly-detailed, authentic fictional universe. Creating Middle-Earth requires powerful imagination, but creating Yoknapatawpha County requires not only that, it also demands a deliberate examination upon the physical world and the psyche of the diverse persona to whom the setting is home.

    Benji's part in The Sound and Fury would not be realistic if it his thoughts were represented in the same way normal people think and remember.
    The same applies to Quentin's part, whereby the prose is long-winding, and to add the complexity, the narrator abruptly goes on a poetic rant at certain points. As a highly educated and articulate character, it can only be believable that Quentin's part, which represents his mind, is inhabited by long-sentences often constructed from high-level vocabularies.
    Last edited by Raven Falcon.; 09-09-2011 at 08:42 PM.

  9. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by Emil Miller View Post
    Wow! You've obviously been reading too much Faulkner. Have you ever thought of going into advertising?
    A writer's style reflects his own perspective and worldview. However, Faulkner was capable of adapting his style to the exigencies of the narrative. For examples of this, merely read Absalom, Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury then read Sanctuary and Light in August. In his colloquial passages Faulkner is as objectively dramatic as Hemingway, in his streams of acute consciousness he evokes the perspicacious insight of Joyce, and he is superlatively skillful at both. Such is indicative of a stylistic virtuosity that Hemingway decidedly lacked.
    Last edited by kinesj; 09-09-2011 at 08:15 PM.

  10. #40
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    Quote Originally Posted by Emil Miller View Post
    Well go right on living there in the Yoknapatawpha County mud. I'll spend my time with Hemingway in France, Spain, Italy etc. Some people are stick in the mud and others like to travel.
    Don't get me started with Hemingway's "travels", that's like loving to travel by getting as far from the places as you can possibly be and look at your belly the entire time.

    You're reading too much Hemingway
    My blog about literature (in spanish): http://otrasbentilaciones.wordpress.com/

  11. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by Arrowni View Post
    Don't get me started with Hemingway's "travels", that's like loving to travel by getting as far from the places as you can possibly be and look at your belly the entire time.

    You're reading too much Hemingway
    Actually I haven't read a great deal of Hemingway and, as for travel, I have travelled fairly widely and appreciate Hemingway's description of those countries I have visited that are also featured in his novels. Were I to visit the US, Lafayette County would not be on my list of places to see.
    "L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.

    "Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Emil Miller View Post
    Actually I haven't read a great deal of Hemingway and, as for travel, I have travelled fairly widely and appreciate Hemingway's description of those countries I have visited that are also featured in his novels. Were I to visit the US, Lafayette County would not be on my list of places to see.
    Somehow I think a travel and leisure guide was not exactly what Faulkner has in mind with the conception of Yoknapatawpha. Rather, he is moving a flashlight from here to there across time and space, revealing now this, now that -- but regardless of how much is shown at any one time, we sense the pieces are all integrally tied together, and that they in turn are tied to the far larger and more intricately complex story of mankind and nature. Yoknapatawpha is no "microcosm". We don't see the world portrayed here in miniature. Rather the world is all one huge, fascinating fabric of story, and this is a piece of it.

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    And the thread goes on..

    Cripes. What an explosive subject this is turning out to be.

    I will say this though - when I began reading Hemingway I was bedazzled! As I kept reading him I was merely awed. And then finally I read across the river and into the trees and kind of just felt physically sick. And I never read any more of his works. I think the pessimism gets to you after a while...

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  15. #45
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    Quote Originally Posted by brucebond007 View Post
    I will say this though - when I began reading Hemingway I was bedazzled!
    Just to reiterate, my preference of Faulkner is in no way intended as a slight at Hemingway. Hemingway is, in fact, one of my favorite writers, Faulkner just happens to be my favorite of all. I do wish that Hemingway had been more experimental, and sometimes his work has diminishing returns on reread. However, there is no question that he has produced some tremendous work, much of which I quite enjoy.

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