it begins to rain
first harsh, sparse, swift drops across
ground in a long sigh
“It begins to rain. The first harsh, sparse, swift drops rush through the leaves and across the ground in a long sigh, as though of relief from intolerable suspense. They are big as buckshot, warm as though fired from a gun; they sweep across the lantern in a vicious hissing.”
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (New York: Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith, 1930).
In the original screen for the movie, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Ricky Bobby’s two boys are named Hank and Williams, Jr. which gets changed to Walker and Texas Ranger in the movie.
There is a scene that is only on the DVD in the extended cuts where Grandma Lucy is reading to Hank and Williams Jr. They are asking her questions. We see she is reading them Faulkner’s The Bear.
Williams, Jr. asks, “But doesn’t the bear symbolize the old south and the new dog, the encroaching North?”
Hank responds, “Duh! But the question is, should the reader feel relief or sadness at the passing of the old south?”
Grandma asks, “How about both?“
To which Hank gets it and says, “Ahh!… I get it, moral ambiguity! The hallmark of all early twentieth century American fiction!”
I went for a walk on the beach today and it started to rain and I got soaked.
I was there for a short time on my lunch break.
There were lots of families there who had spent a lot of time and effort and money to be on that same beach for just a few days.
Did I feel relief or sadness at being caught in the rain with all those poor folks, struggling to say, “I don’t think the hard stuff is going to come down for some time yet.”
Or …
Did I feel both.
Moral ambiguity! The hallmark of all early twentieth century American fiction!
No Haiku For You 