Audio Clips
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 Photograph by Ralph Thompson © Rector and Visitors, University of Virginia |
During the 1957 and 1958 Spring semesters, William Faulkner was the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Virginia. During that time he appeared at thirty-six different public events, reading from his work and answering over 1400 questions from students, faculty and others. Thanks to two members of the Department of English, Frederick Gwynn and Joseph Blotner, most of those sessions were recorded, and preserved on tape in the University of Virginia Special Collections Library. Over 28 hours of the recordings have been digitized, and are available online in the Faulkner at Virginia audio archive . The mp3 clips available below have been taken from that archive, and are playable on most devices. Fire and flood, folly and courage (30 May 1957; 1:27) As tour de force (15 April 1957; 0:56) What is the significance of Vardaman's fish? (2 May 1958; 1:07) Which child loved Addie the most? (2 May 1958; 0:54) What made Darl act the way he did? (2 May 1958; 1:17) Why do you write about such unusual people? (7 May 1958; 2:24) |
Fire and flood, folly and courage (30 May 1957; 1:27)
William Faulkner: Yes, ma'am.
Unidentified participant: [Inaudible question]
William Faulkner: That was—was tour de force, of course. I took these people of—of the kind which I know, and simply subjected them to—to the two fiercest natural cataclysms, which are flood and fire. That was a certain amount of deliberate symbolism. But to me, the very fact that these people endured for a reason that on the face of it was foolish, that is, to carry their mother that far just to bury her, but it was noble in that they had promised her to do that, and so they were—they had dropped their own baseness, their own pettiness, to follow out this simple wish of the mother, which was—was noble, even though it was foolish, and that to me is another indication that man is immortal, that he will endure because even in his folly, he's capable of doing something not for his profit at all but simply because his conscience or something, call it God if you like, says do this, and so even in his folly, without believing that he is that brave and that compassionate, he does brave and noble things.
As tour de force (15 April 1957; 0:56)
William Faulkner: Yes, sir.
Unidentified participant: Mr. Faulkner, you—the book of yours which troubles me most, is—puzzles me most, doesn't trouble me at all, is As I Lay Dying. Somebody once suggested to me that the—I think there's thirteen characters in it, constitute really the separate parts of just one man. Is this so?
William Faulkner: No, they were—I was—I was writing about people again. [audience laughter] I took these people, and that—that's a simple tour de force. I took this family and subjected them to the two greatest catastrophes which—which man can suffer—flood and fire. That's all. That was simple tour de force. That was written in six weeks without changing a word because I knew from the first where that was going.
What is the significance of Vardaman's fish? (2 May 1958; 1:07)
William Faulkner: Yes, sir.
Unidentified participant: Sir, in As I Lay Dying is there any significance—significance—significance in the fact that Vardaman catches the fish at the beginning, and keeps comparing the death of it to that of his mother rather than it being some other animal, perhaps?
William Faulkner: Yes. That's a question that's a little—little hard for me to answer because anything in the book has some need, more than significance. There was a need, it seemed to me, that that should be there. The connection, I felt, of the transference that the little boy made between the dead fish and the blood and his dead mother was—was an instance of a child's rationalizing, thinking. But there were no symbolism intended there.
Which child loved Addie the most? (2 May 1958; 0:54)
Unidentified participant: Mr. Faulkner—
William Faulkner: Yes, sir. This gentleman.
Unidentified participant: Sir, in As I Lay Dying which of Addie's children has the most love—love for her and why?
William Faulkner: I would say that Jewel did. That Jewel himself didn't know why he did. He was a—a child of love. That he was illegitimate. And he and his mother were closer. He didn't know why. She did. And I imagine—and also by his—his nature, that he was not the child of—of his shiftless father who loved nothing but his own comfort, that Jewel had inherited something of [warmth] from his—his father.
What made Darl act the way he did? (2 May 1958; 1:17)
William Faulkner: Yes, sir.
Unidentified participant: Sir, in As I Lay Dying, what was the significance of Darl's lying in front of his mother's coffin after it was saved from the fire?
William Faulkner: Darl was mad. He did things which it seemed to me he—he had to do, or he insisted on doing. His reasons I could—could try to rationalize to—to suit myself, or even if I couldn't rationalize his reasons to please me, I had to accept the acts because Darl insisted on doing that. I mean that—that any character that you write takes charge of his own behavior. You can't make him do things once he comes alive and stands up and casts his own shadow. Darl did things which I'm—I'm sure were for his own mad reasons, quite logical. I couldn't always understand why he did things, but he did insist on doing things, and when we would—would quarrel about it, he always won, [audience laughter] because at that time he was alive. He was under his own power.
Why do you write about such unusual people? (7 May 1958; 2:24)
Unidentified participant: [Some of] your people that you select—of course, they're unusual people, in a way. Do you select the—them as unusual? Or [I guess there's] a type that seems to appeal to you?
William Faulkner: I doubt if—if I know whether I select these people or they select me. I think that the writer is—is trying to—to take some comic or tragic moment of man in his struggle inside the human condition and tell it in some form which other people would find comic or tragic. I—as far as I know, I am dealing simply with people in the—the condition that I have seen people. That these people, to me, seem quite sane and quite normal, even ones that—that are mad, seem to me quite sane people. Probably that's because the writer has already accepted the premise if the man believes he's Mahatma Gandhi, so when he lies on a board full of tacks, he's a rational creature.
Unidentified participant: By "mad" [do you mean] by society's [...]?
William Faulkner: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. The—the character in the book As I Lay Dying, Darl, one of the sons, was mad, as society would call him mad. To me, he wasn't—wasn't mad. Or, that is, I didn't set out to say, "Now, one of these brothers will have to be mad, so I will invent a good mad one according to what I do know of the rules of insanity." I was just writing about what was, to me, a—a pitiable, tragic human being.