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/lit/ - Literature

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15354688 No.15354688 [Reply] [Original]

>Because women so delicate so mysterious Father said. Delicate equilibrium of periodical filth between two moons balanced. Moons he said full and yellow as harvest moons her hips thighs. Outside outside of them always but. Yellow. Feet soles with walking like. Then know that some man that all those mysterious and imperious concealed. With all that inside of them shapes an outward suavity waiting for a touch to. Liquid putrefaction like drowned things floating like pale rubber flabbily filled getting the odour of honeysuckle all mixed up.

What did he mean by that? Can anybody explain every word and what it means? I want to understand...

>> No.15354698

>>15354688
Whores. Sweet beautiful dirty whores.

>> No.15354726

Faulkner was a notorious corncobby coomer and it shows in his writing in the most beautiful ways

>> No.15354731

>>15354688
He's talking about women's relationship with the lunar cycles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaformic_Theory

>> No.15354761

>>15354688

Female sexuality is glorious and ghastly. Women are beautiful but the mechanics of reproducing the species is also messy and disgusting and terrifying. A large part of human psychology and social organization is concerned with dealing with this, and in particular trying to elevate women and conceal the reality.

Most serious writers have tackled the topic. For example, here's a poem from Crow by Ted Hughes saying more-or-less the same thing:

---

FRAGMENT OF AN ANCIENT TABLET

Above - the well-known lips, delicately downed.
Below - beard between thighs.

Above - her brow, the notable casket of gems.
Below - the belly with its blood-knot.

Above - many a painful frown.
Below - the ticking bomb of the future.

Above - her perfect teeth, with the hint of a fang at the corner.
Below - the millstones of two worlds.

Above - a word and a sigh.
Below - gouts of blood and babies.

Above - the face, shaped like a perfect heart.
Below - the heart's torn face.

>> No.15354792

>>15354761
>>15354731
>>15354726
>>15354698

No shit he's talking about female sexuality. But what does he mean by

"Outside outside of them always but."

or

"Feet soles with walking like."

>> No.15354805

>>15354792
Hey OP, you're the retard who can't read. Those are idiomatic phrasings for poetic effect.

>> No.15354814

>>15354688
>Liquid putrefaction like drowned things floating like pale rubber flabbily filled getting the odour of honeysuckle all mixed up.

Imagine the taste!

>> No.15354817

>>15354805

What crazy place do you live in where "Outside outside of them always but." is idiomatic?

>> No.15354825

>>15354817
>what is stream of conciousness

>> No.15354829

>>15354817
Please stop being so stupid.

Idiomatic: "appropriate to the style of art or music associated with a particular period, individual, or group." Idiomatic phrasing referring to the Father's formulation of that description.

Is this your first Faulkner?

>> No.15354838

>>15354825

Just admit that you don't know what it means if you can't explain what it means.

>> No.15354845

>>15354829
He's probably just a school kid trying to get us to do his homework for him.

>> No.15354853

>>15354838
How old are you, kid?

>> No.15354855

>>15354838
IT'S THE FUCKING INTERNAL THINKING OF I BELIEVE BENJI? CAN'T REMEMBER WHO NARRATES THIS PART. THE NARRATOR (BENJI?) IS RECALLING THE WORDS OF HIS FATHER THROUGH HIS OWN FILTER.

THIS IS WHY THE TEXT LOOK FUNNY DUMB DUMB. DON'T BE A FUCKING RETARD LITERALIST AND LEARN TO READ THE TEXTURE.

>> No.15354862

>>15354855

It's Quentin, and what you're saying boils down to "it's weird because it's weird and I don't know what it's supposed to mean either"

>> No.15354868

>>15354792

Remember this is coming at the point Quentin's chapter when his thoughts are beginning to break up because of the emotional stress he's under. And remember also how his father talks, with long complicated sentences because he's sort of hiding from reality behind a mass of erudite verbiage. That's why it's so obscure.

>Outside outside of them always but.
The "two moons balanced" is two things: firstly it's the two round shapes of the woman's hips/buttocks with the "filth" of the menstruating vagina between them, and also "periodical filth between two moons" in a time sense, i.e. the monthly menstruation. The word "outside" has two connotations. A woman's hips (likened to moons) are *outside* her vaginal area, which is in the centre, spatially. But the essence of pregnancy is something being inside a woman's body and coming outside it. Plus the OUTSIDE of a woman is a lot prettier than the INSIDE. Quentin can't face the thought of Caddy, who he sees as his beautiful sister, getting involved in all this stuff. It's literally driving him insane.

Read the book again.

>> No.15354918

>>15354862
Okay, Quentin. Quentin is recalling the words of his father through his own filter.

Here's a question, NPC. Are you thinking in complete sentences in your head? Do you ever repeat a word during thought? Or are you "writing" complete thoughts without any idiomatic (read as eccentric, if you don't know what idiomatic means) verbiage?

Read any poetry, really. Please. This could be said for all of /lit/ but clearly you're the most in need presently. It's simply a poetic phrasing.

>Outside outside of them always but
Outside repeated to emphasize their external features.

>Feet soles with walking like
Again, emphasizing the external features in discussing the dichotomy between the external beauty and internal disgustingness.

Have you ever read a poem? Have you read a play by Shakespeare? Anything ever written in verse? Kipling? It seems like you're trying to read this so literally that you're missing the point. And you're the only one in this thread that doesn't get it.

>> No.15354945

>>15354862
>>15354918
Wait, following up. If you're on Part II how could you even have gotten through Part I without a million idiotic questions like this? How is this stumping you?

>> No.15354980

>>15354945

It didn't "stump" me I was just curious how other people read it. I know it's not literal and that Faulkner is trying to portray subjective states of consciousness and that these parts are particularly obscure because of how neurotic/crazy and upset Quentin is, how he's jumping between different memories and the present, his father's advice, different periods in his and Caddy's relationship, etc. I know it doesn't all make perfect literal sense anymore than the inside of anyone's head would make perfect "sense" to someone on the outside.

It's asinine to just say "hurr it's stream of consciousness you idiot!" that doesn't mean you can't comment on it or say anything about it which 2 of you have and much obliged to you for it.

>> No.15354995
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15354995

>>15354980
>It's asinine to just say "hurr it's stream of consciousness you idiot!" that doesn't mean you can't comment on it or say anything about it
>>15354688
>Can anybody explain every word and what it means?

>> No.15354997

>>15354980
Exactly, good OP.

Just don't roil shit for your frens by going
>No shit he's talking about female sexuality