Reading Those Classics 2024 #1

Classic Short Stories set in The Country. A collection of 42 stories, it won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1951. The stories were first published in weekly magazines such as The American Mercury, Forum, Harper’s Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, Scribner’s Magazine, and The Sewanee Review. 

The Collected Stories of William Faulkner\

Faulkner came up with the themed section headings, such The Wilderness, The Village, etc. This first section is called The Country.

Barn Burning. This story is set in the 1890s, since patriarch Abner Snopes was shot during the Civil War "thirty years ago." I don't buy the interpretation that Abner turned arsonist because he was enraged at the economic injustice that forced him into sharecropping. Faulkner indicates Abner was always at least half-psycho half-sadist, a misfit criminal not fighting on either side, using the war as a cover for his violent and thieving ways. He abuses his family, of course, smacking around his ten-year-old son, Colonel Satoris ‘Sarty’ Snopes, whose point of view informs the story. In this coming of age tale, we see that though Abner acts like Abner’s bad to the bone and the culture counsels nothing should trump family loyalty, Sarty uses his own innate sense of justice and fair dealing to show him the right way. It is possible for us humans to ascend from one level of valuing and choose a higher one, but it's hard, especially for a kid.

Shingles for the Lord. Satire on the socialism-lite of the WPA puts this comic story in the late 1930s. Due to a constellation of nutty circumstances beyond anybody's control, Mr. Grier brings himself into disrepute with his neighbors. Though the preacher warns that Mr. Grier will be shunned for his terrible sin, he is sure he won't be on the outs with his neighbors for long, such is the strength of habit and custom in his remote community. Narrated by the unnamed son of Grier, this story has the Faulknerian theme of man's eternal struggle against nature and stuff, both of which are liable to go all kablooey on us, to our trouble and loss and surprise and dismay.

The Tall Men. Set in 1941, this story tells about the paradoxical nature of the patriotism of the McCallum family, first introduced in 1929 in Flags in the Dust a.k.a. Sartoris. Independent-minded to say the least, they don't see the point of collecting money they didn't earn from New Deal agricultural programs and they don't see the point of registering for the draft if there's no war on. A draft board inspector is not appeased when the McCallum patriarch Buddy instructs his two sons to go to Memphis to enlist, though he’ll need help on the farm due to his own injury and disability. Faulkner takes a chance by using a long monologue to cause the local marshal to explain the McCallums and their acceptance of civic responsibility and destiny to the inspector (and the reader). But the monologue works in explaining the motives of these people who are conservative in a noble way that would be quaint to conservatives of today.

A Bear Hunt. On the surface it is a comic story about Providence having fun with two good old boys, one suffering hiccoughs for 24 hours, the other suggesting how to get shut of them. But in a metaphor for the sense that being human makes us all vulnerable to subtle influences, an Indian mound in a hidden piece of the remote country has caught the imaginations of civilized people in its sway. And oblivious white people may be the objects of revenge surreptitiously exacted by black people for white assaults committed against black property, bodies, and dignity.

Two Soldiers. Published in early 1942, only three months after Pearl Harbor, this topical and patriotic story is about son and brother Pete’s determination to enlist and fight the Japanese. His nine-year-old unnamed brother is full of alarm that he cannot follow Pete. Telling the story from the child’s point of view, Faulkner captures a typical situation of childhood in that the child is unable to explain his goals or situation because he doesn’t understand that other people don’t share his thoughts and feelings and knowledge. Pete’s parents don’t have any confederate baggage about loyalty and responsibility to the whole country, not like Buddy MacCullum’s rebel father in Sartoris, who never forgave Buddy for fighting for the Yankees in WWI. The story also works because of its gentle humor

Shall Not Perish. This sequel to Two Soldiers is also topical and patriotic with the message that all regions and social classes will have to sacrifice their sons, brothers, fathers in the war. Faulkner’s prediction at the end of the story is America will have the bravery and determination to get the job done. From a literary point of view the story is not as effective as Two Soldiers. It is less satisfying because though still told from the point of a view a child, the voice is not a child’s voice and country dialect is dropped. Also, it is un-Faulkner-like because of the simplicity of the language. We beguiled veterans of TS&TF and Light in August don’t turn to Faulkner for mere lucidity. We want to be dazzled and bewitched with words, just words, even in short stories.