Status Updates From Καθώς ψυχορραγώ

it’s interesting that faulkner doesn’t just write from perspective, he writes from mentality. he uses it, bends it. reaches in, grasps, and twists it.

Okay, maybe Vardaman is the best character, too. Maybe im picking favorites and the favorites are whoever tug my heartstrings.

i understand that he has to keep things moving and be the adult for his kids, yet we all know that’s not his devotion. that’s not his heart, his desire. it’s this incapability to care and that’s worse. it doesn’t come from a place of pain, rather narcissistic indifference.

It feels fitting to read this book while it’s raining

dear sweet vardaman. though he’s little, he’s the only one who immediately gravitates toward grief like a normal human being. crying and screaming and just… hurting. when do we grow up and forget how to hurt properly?? anse asking dewey to hurry up and make dinner RIGHT after addie dies is genuinely not even messed up, it’s outright delusional.

i loved dr. peabody’s chapter. he thinks eloquently, i want to live in the imaginary gardens of his mind with real toads (to quote poet marianne moore on an unrelated note). when he asks anse why he didn’t call upon him (the doctor) earlier, anse fumbles AND IT’S so maddening to read. he has no clear excuse other than negligence and having his eyes up his ass.

dewey dell’s chapters are annoying as hell, almost as bad as anse. speaking of him, he’s pathetic. he got his stupid three dollars and sacrificed his son’s time with their dying mother. jewell might not have cared, but darl did. that was an injustice to him and anse just plays the dumb father. no, it’s not grief. it’s selective selfishness.

For an older book, I wasn’t expecting this stylization, but it’s neat! I wonder if it was experimental at the time, or other authors had also tried it?

I see why this is a classic, this sticks in your brain and makes you think about what life was like back then

This poor kid…

This does make me think about what it must be like, to become the woman of the house so suddenly in a time where it meant there was always so much work to be done, the whole family’s survival is in your hands and you don’t even get time to grieve. It must’ve driven people mad

Maybe the repetition is a stylistic choice, but I don’t like how every single cow noise is described as a moaning, where are the synonyms? The cow lows, the cow whines, etc. why is it always moaning

Okay, I really like this part

Does Dewey Dell know she’s the best character in the book because I decided I sympathized with her?
Oh man. This book really is heavy with grief and going on