How (and why) to read William Faulkner

How (and why) to read William Faulkner - Sascha Morrell

Рет қаралды 226,849

Жыл бұрын

Get to know the works of William Faulkner, whose inventive literature made him one of America’s most remarkable writers.
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William Faulkner is considered one of America’s most remarkable and perplexing writers. He confused his audience intentionally, using complex sentences, unreliable narrators, and outlandish imagery. His body of work is shocking, inventive, hilarious, and challenging. So how can readers navigate his literary labyrinths? Sascha Morrell explains how to read one of literature's most confusing writers.
Lesson by Sascha Morrell, directed by Naghmeh Farzaneh, Sarah Saidan.
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Пікірлер: 170

@SearchOfSelf Жыл бұрын

Faulkner's literary labyrinths are like mirrors reflecting our own biases and blindspots, forcing us to confront the complexities of history and memory 📖

@custos3249 Жыл бұрын

Meh. If you come at his novels already from a position of psychology, he's not really that pivotal or eye opening. But what do I know? My mother is a fish.

@ForecieYT Жыл бұрын

interesting

@SearchOfSelf Жыл бұрын

@@custos3249 That might be true, but there definitely is something special about Faulkner's writing that sets it apart for sure.

@Anarcath Жыл бұрын

Getting to the last word of the 1288 word long sentence leaves you breathless, as if you just ran a marathon, chasing meaning and never catching it.

@harshalbhanarkar Жыл бұрын

Please do more such literature videos, I love these videos ❤

@jwcarnal Жыл бұрын

I read two Faulkner novels when 18 or 19 while attending a technical college. I wasn't an avid reader back then but in an attempt to broaden my outlook on life I slogged through the first novel telling myself maybe I'll absorb its greatness mostly with my subconscious mind because I sure couldn't understand most of it most of the time. Closing the book after reading the last sentence on the last page I could not honestly say I understood what it was about. I had a general idea of time and place and events but nothing I could explain to anyone to demonstrate my understanding. If this was Great Literature I thought to myself "I guess I'll just have to miss out on that portion of intellectual life." Faulkner is a Southern writer. I was raised in the South and was attending a Southern university. And my English literature professor kept bringing his name up when discussing American literature so... After several months had passed I read the novel again. It was one of the most remarkable experiences in my life. Those reread words now conveyed me into the lives of the characters not as an observer but as one experiencing what the characters were experiencing as to perceptions and emotional reactions to those perceptions. Great literature indeed. The same sequence was need for the second novel as well. Time consuming but well worth it.

@didarul-alam Жыл бұрын

As beginer which book should i start with?

@Suhrevardi 11 ай бұрын

@@didarul-alam I started with Absalom, Absalom. It is considered his best work and I think it's the best place to start. The first chapter of The Sound and the Fury is very frustrating if you are unfamiliar with Faulkner's style. As I Lay Dying changes perspective each chapter and so it becomes difficult to gain a handle on the rhythm of the style. So I suggest Absalom, Absalom - just read it slowly until you get used to the style.

@Merrypaws Жыл бұрын

If I recall correctly, Faulkner once dissed Ernest Hemingway by saying "He's never been known to use a word that would send a reader to the dictionary." To which Hemingway replied: "Poor Faulkner. He thinks that big emotion comes from big words." I find it interesting because both of them are now considered some of the greatest juggernauts of literature, but they approached the craft from polar opposite directions.

@sir_albaxious1909 Жыл бұрын

Lol

@nathanlevesque7812 Жыл бұрын

They're both overrated

@malachickisawesome Жыл бұрын

@@nathanlevesque7812edgy

@smokemystogies9063 Жыл бұрын

The more complex language only serves as a conduit to properly, moreso to more fittingly deliver your message, you can do the majority all with simple words but sometimes more learned words are the only things that can properly convey what you're trying to say. Just different styles of writing between the two, Faulkner just tackled things more complexly, complex in no way equates to good either

@Royse-zm Жыл бұрын

Even during an interview of The Paris Review Hemingway mentioned conflicts with Faulkner (if i recall correctly)😂

@asankajayaweera7212 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for introducing a new writer to my reading world. Because of one of your videos, I read Toni Morrison's Beloved which astonishingly painful. So I will definitely read William's books too.

@aestheticbitch6509 Жыл бұрын

The fact that every animation is in the highest level. Respect to the animator. Hahahha

@ravza.221b Жыл бұрын

someone finally said it lol

@quynhdinh03 Жыл бұрын

I do think so 😂

@nerd26373 Жыл бұрын

We appreciate videos like this. They're insightful.

@normicall Жыл бұрын

More of these literature videos please - it’s been a while

@ronkirk5099 Жыл бұрын

I was raised a left coast liberal so I knew little about the deep south, but when I went on to read at least half a dozen of Faulkner's classic novels, I learned not only something about the south, but something about the human condition as well. A pretty great writer with a remarkable body of work. Highly recommended.

@coolskeleton_95_ Жыл бұрын

This is interesting. Fully explains why I constantly get confused throughout his works. Very through explanation!

@hyperactive_atlas Жыл бұрын

I’ve been bingeing these videos all day perfect timing for a new upload

@jamescolbourne8298 11 ай бұрын

I really recommend starting with as I lay dying or light in August, and then tackling sound and the fury or absalom, absalom! after. It can also help to look at something like sparknotes or shmoop after each chapter. He's definitely a challenging writer, but certainly one of the great ones.

@goncalomba Жыл бұрын

Thrilled to see that TED ED literature videos are back! Unarguably, a public good 📖

@derekmayers-louther Жыл бұрын

He was very ahead of his time using The ideas of the sunken boat fallacy way before someone even started talking about those concepts

@gastondeveaux3783 16 күн бұрын

The best way I can describe Faulkner's soaring stream of consciousness passages would be to compare them to those 3D drawings where you have to let your eyes get slightly out of focus to see a 3D image within the drawing. I get that feeling sometimes with his writing, where you just let the words flow over you, like music or poetry. It has to be savoured, and, if necessary, reread after some reflection to get to another layer of understanding. Faulkner is rarely easy reading, but I am certain I will always keep returning to it. It is very special.

@AllCodyAllTheTime 5 ай бұрын

Thank you for this informative, and neatly-produced, presentation. .

@joelkirkpatrick5688 Жыл бұрын

Oooo, this looks like a great read! I love books that play with your mind and discuss difficult topics, with strange and interesting characters.

@theWZZA Жыл бұрын

The animation is top notch and on point 🏆

@ef5686 Жыл бұрын

this video is outstanding visually and in it's overview.

@avinashkishore4067 Жыл бұрын

A video of such nature about Clarice Lispector, a lesser known genius, must be made. The meditative nature of her work.

@borntogazeintonightskies Жыл бұрын

Nice. I actually recommended a "Why You Should Read William Faulkner" video 3 years ago when they did one for Edgar Allan Poe. Not saying I had anything to do with this. Just glad that it's a thing now.

@danielsantiagourtado3430 Жыл бұрын

Love your videos!😊😊😊❤❤❤❤

@ibnarasayoub5220 Жыл бұрын

extremely glad to see the "why you should read" videos back again !

@Echo81Rumple83 Жыл бұрын

If I were made to read this in highschool, I would've flunked English so hard, it would've made reading Pet Semetary a lot easier for me (I only read about 80 pages out of the 600+ it has, and I was struggling with my fifth-grade reading-level impairment at the time).

@XavierGuillaume Жыл бұрын

Sounds good! I love unraveling difficult literature! Hardest book I read was probably Chaucer bc it was written in Middle English.

@sydneyfromyoutube7604 Жыл бұрын

Keep it up guys 💪😉

@cecilia08yeah Жыл бұрын

My favorite short story from him is A Rose for Emily.

@casjean8904 Жыл бұрын

ah! so i have read something by him! college english.

@abhradas6433 Жыл бұрын

After such a long time a literature video❤❤❤ please keep uploading on literature more!!!!! Love from India.

@amgm1996 Жыл бұрын

Very interesting

@josephvaz5238 Жыл бұрын

I love this video so much

@optimizelife Жыл бұрын

Insightful, interesting

@N7spectre117 Жыл бұрын

Illustration for this video HAS to be added to the best of 2023 list!

@nancyM1313 Жыл бұрын

thank you Very much🎭

@justamanfromtaured6790 Жыл бұрын

Please do more why you should read videos or literary videos

@basedigor Жыл бұрын

Faulkner can be very difficult, but most of his work is not. I think Absalom is his greatest achievement but Sound/Fury and As I Lay Dying tend to get the most praise. This short video essay does anyone new to Faulkner no favors, as while some might look at his work through the prisms of "race" and "colonialism" (really ... really?) you'd be selling his work and your time short to take that approach imo (the basic contrast in his work is between planters versus merchants, country folk versus town folk). I'd recommend starting with Snopes Trilogy (The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion) and if you like his style then start going through it chronologically when it was written. For Sound and the Fury, you might want to find a good reader's guide, because you will get lost very quickly (the caddy/Caddie action takes place in the first few pages, and it only gets more difficult from there). Enjoy - Faulkner and Melville are America's greatest sons of letters, but they take patience.

@writeon2593 Жыл бұрын

3:41 As someone who wrote a book report on a book which I disliked for often using run on sentences, this would be a nightmare. In the essay, to prove my point, I took the entire second sentence of the story, word for word, and typed it all up in MLA font. It took up half a page. The sentence you're talking about here would likely span multiple pages and lose me and the reader in its length.

@johnhall3570 Жыл бұрын

Sounds like Henry James at his most verbose!

@johnhall3570 Жыл бұрын

The only place you used to find sentences longer than Faulkner’s were at Alcatraz!

@writeon2593 Жыл бұрын

@@johnhall3570 No, it was actually a spanish autobiography. I can't recall the name of it, but it had a lot of mystery surrounding it as to who actually wrote it. I know, how can you have an autobiography in which you aren't sure who wrote it? Simply put, we don't know if it was actually a completely fictional story written from the perspective of a fictional character. Another option is that the events are accurate, but the writer wanted to be anonymous and wrote himself a pen name which was also used as the name of his protagonist. It was a really weird book, especially when I read it for the first time and couldn't fully translate what I read. I had to look up an english summary of the book and its chapters to actually understand what was going on.

@claudiasosagutierrez9742 Жыл бұрын

@@writeon2593 is it "The Life of Lazarillo of Tormes"? It fits with your description but I could be wrong

@writeon2593 Жыл бұрын

@@claudiasosagutierrez9742 YES! Thank you! I couldn't remember the name for the life of me.

@dqan7372 Жыл бұрын

Ugh. I think I need to go back to bed. I just spent a good five minutes researching one of literature's most confusing writers, Sascha Morrell, and wondering why I'd never heard of her books. Now that I know that it's really Faulkner the thumbnail totally makes sense. Couldn't see it before, though. Sometimes it pays to just hit 'play'.

@mecahhannah Жыл бұрын

Awesome thanks

@ArchDudeify Жыл бұрын

Narrator, your voice is beautiful Excellent brief video

@kristibualli5430 Жыл бұрын

That music! ❤

@Englishliterature3 Жыл бұрын

Do more literature videos, thanks

@ZachGatesHere Жыл бұрын

"Poor Faulkner, does he think big emotions come from big words?" - Ernest Hemingway

@sheyjutyghosh Жыл бұрын

i love ted-ed's literature videos

@midimusicforever Жыл бұрын

Still on my todo-list.

@Craw1011 Жыл бұрын

These videos are always such a delight. If you're at all interested in requests I would love to see a video done on Pynchon!

@Rhyno012345 Жыл бұрын

My senior year AP English teacher hated The Sound and the Fury and swore she would never require her students to read it; so I suppose it’s not for everyone.

@aaronpajuelo1963 3 ай бұрын

gracias por la traducción

@scavenger_of_human_sorrow9272 10 ай бұрын

The best place to start with Faulkner is, in my opinion, "As I lay Dying", as it is, for one, not that long, and also offers a rather simple narrative.

@pazgonthecynic159 Жыл бұрын

Bring back "Why you should read".

@mrmoose1985 Жыл бұрын

Have you guys done an explanation of why James Joyce is difficult to read because I was trying Dubliners the other day and it’s okay

@derekmayers-louther Жыл бұрын

They have a video on Ulyesses

@jakealhalabi8194 Жыл бұрын

Try reading chapter 1 of Ulysses, so many little references encompassed in 10 pages that you need an annotated edition just to not get confused

@mrmoose1985 Жыл бұрын

@@jakealhalabi8194 oof So it’s like the historical references in classical novels

@mrmoose1985 Жыл бұрын

@@derekmayers-louther thanks

@leeeorama Жыл бұрын

You absolutely DON'T need annotations to enjoy Ulysses. The references to turn of the century Irish politics or aesthetic philosophy might not resonate with you, but it's also a fascinating and engrossing peek into the thoughts of its characters, not to mention frequently funny.

@J1P2K Жыл бұрын

I have issue reading the Sound and the Fury because of my reading problems. I had to use an audio book to just and try to follow along.

@nardineslaiwa7384 Жыл бұрын

I like novels and poetry alot

@yacine_mkhlf Жыл бұрын

Do one on Finnegans Wake

@halwestkawa5089 Жыл бұрын

Create a playlist for videos about physics

@JustinFung2 9 ай бұрын

Would love to know the song.

@HA-Ntuli Жыл бұрын

Even some recent scientific literature is confusing because of how authors deliver the message

@MYMOTHERISAFISH006 Жыл бұрын

As someone whose mother is a fish I approve.

@Shushus-cz9lk 11 ай бұрын

My entire English reading class in college was Faulkner short story’s and first time I heard of him sadly but they are all good

@kenrivera1908 Жыл бұрын

@TED-ED Can you please do a video about Federico Garcia Lorca and his book la Casa de Bernarda Alba. It’s one of the most important works of spanish literature

@arodvaz1955 9 ай бұрын

Faulkner tries one's patience but is incredibly rewarding.

@josepablomartinez-rendon9484 Жыл бұрын

You guys should do a video on Truman Capote and his works! 😊

@kelvinbrito7334 2 ай бұрын

¡Hola! Este es seguramente el comentario que algunos de ustedes estaban esperando. Faulkner es ampliamente conocido y respetado entre los que sabemos de literatura (soy de Venezuela). Más aún, muchos escritores en nuestro idioma, como Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes y Juan Carlos Onetti, entre otros, tienen una gran deuda con Faulkner y sus novelas. Empecé a leer “Santuario” y me gustó mucho la historia, aunque no me sentí preparado para comprenderla bien. Sinceramente, creo que necesito una guía de lectura para leer a Faulkner. Por eso abandoné esta gran novela, que espero retomar pronto. Hasta ahora, soy más team Hemingway que team Faulkner 😂 no puedo superar la prosa del natural de Illinois. Créanme cuando les digo que pasan muchas cosas en sus historias, solo que las pasamos por alto. Pero es sin lugar a dudas un gran cuentista. De él he leído “por quién doblan las campanas” y me pareció una novela con altibajos, pero el saldo final es positivo. Ahorita estoy leyendo “islas a la deriva” y me parece increíble, no puedo asimilar que sea una de las obras menos conocidas de Hemingway. Hay muchas frases y palabras sueltas en español en esa obra. Ambos eran grandes a su manera y a sus estilos 👏🏻 recomiendo las entrevistas de ambos publicadas en The Paris Review. Me contenta saber que existe mucho material escrito sobre Hemingway en nuestro idioma, incluso traducido, como la biografía de Anthony Burgess, pero casi no se encuentran estudios ni biografías sobre Faulkner. Creo que esa sí es una falta imperdonable. Me despido felicitándolos por el excelente video que han hecho 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 me han alegrado el día.

@alessandrojamesdelrosario8666 10 ай бұрын

I want to suggest why you should read the Bronte sisters

@user-ps7vs4ke5p Жыл бұрын

What are these books names

@nemo4555 Жыл бұрын

You have to put a strobe warning for 00:53

@user-vw8qb4lw2t Жыл бұрын

New book video plz!! "Heart of Darkness"!!

@1stfire_shadow 3 ай бұрын

Is Sacha morell the name of the book?

@souravhazra4460 Жыл бұрын

Gogol and Chekhov please! 😅

@Charlotte-Okkotsu 4 ай бұрын

Believe me or not, im related to him not sure on the exact relation, but we share a last name, we lived in similar areas, and my parents also say we're related to them(16 btw)

@Propaganda9999 Жыл бұрын

What if he had no idea how to write books and was trolling everyone from the start

@mdruhulaminsany993 Жыл бұрын

Can you please make a video about "Man of destiny"

@MsDaydream3r Жыл бұрын

*VIDEO SUGGESTIONS:* Neil Gaiman Allen Moore Stephen King

@deniserichards9337 Жыл бұрын

The Sound and tThe Fury has been sitting on my shed for so long ever since I saw the James Franco movie. I’m gonna give it an honest try.

@Bacon1108 Жыл бұрын

cool

@126_md.naeimhossen2 Жыл бұрын

"Waste land" by T. S. Elliot please Or "A Passage to India" by E. M. Forster please

@sir_albaxious1909 Жыл бұрын

Reminds me of the Anime, Baccano!

@LovenArtiste Жыл бұрын

Which books of his would you guys recommend?

@themaestro2572 Жыл бұрын

The Unvanquished. It's a coming-of-age story of Colonel Sartoris, a reoccurring character in Faulkner's stories, and his ascent into the social respect of Yoknapatawpha expectant to his station not just by birth but also his intellect, courage, and morality that exceed his fellow man.

@LovenArtiste Жыл бұрын

@@themaestro2572 Thank you for the recommendation as well as the description. It seems intriguing.

@RS-md9ov Жыл бұрын

“At first I would not go because there might be something I could do and I would not go because there might be something I could do and I would have to haul her back.”- William Faulkner.

@Olleh-264 Жыл бұрын

Hello

@duongdisney 3 ай бұрын

I have to read 2 William Faulkner's novel books are the sound & the fury, light in August, but The Sound & The Fury is the hardest book to read

@ccooper8785 Жыл бұрын

Meh, I'll wait until someone summarises the abridged edition of the Cliffsnotes....

@justinpurser4736 Жыл бұрын

I enjoy the literature videos (as do so many others.) Please consider doing a series of videos on books of The Bible.

@fallenangelofoz8726 Жыл бұрын

I had to read Faulkner in high school. It wasn't the dissonance of povs that made me not like him, it was his dry, dry tone. I remember falling asleep on the couch reading the Jason chapter of The Sound and the Fury for school because it was sooooo boring.

@SelihomMedhanie-ls6tn Жыл бұрын

Thank you relly my life is true thesame

@kirbymarchbarcena Жыл бұрын

Faulkner's works is what distinguishes himself from other literary geniuses

@user-ui9mj8hl3h 11 ай бұрын

[등대 / 나동수] 촌철 : 제가 어둠을 헤쳐갈 수 있었던 것은 당신이 있었기 때문입니다. 활인 : 어머니는 자식들에게 하고 싶은 말은 많지만 꾹 참고 언제나 등대처럼 지켜봐 줍니다. 제가 이 암울한 세상을 겁 없이 헤쳐 나갈 수 있었던 것은 언제나 그 자리서 불을 비춰주는 당신이 있었기 때문입니다.

@SleightCreative Жыл бұрын

My Mother Is a Fish

@mariabatool4900 Жыл бұрын

Love the aild reference

@nathanlevesque7812 Жыл бұрын

This Emperor's New Clothes are needlessly convoluted.

@tm43977 Жыл бұрын

👍🏻👍🏻

@sagarsondarva643 Жыл бұрын

Same thing happened with me while reading Stephen King's DREAMCATCHER, at first and even more as story progresses, it's hard to tell what was dream and what was in reality. Only the parts where the word Mr. Grey used made me realise it was in the dream...