I have no desire to write like Faulkner. Yes, he is my favorite writer. Yes he is brilliant. Yes I would like to escape into one of his books, through which I am sure there are portals to all his other books, and I could wander Yoknapatawpha county forever.
But I don't aspire to write like Faulkner. If I did, as a self-published author on Amazon I doubt I would ever get any readers.
I recently joined the blog follows program on World Literary Café. I had abandoned my Stalking Faulkner Blog for several months. I was on WLC this morning and decided to join this program, and in thinking about which of my blogs to post, I decided on this one.
It's perfect to choose this one. Everyone who sees this site as a result of WLC will be a writer. Sure, maybe not all writers love Faulkner. But Faulkner is a writer's writer.
Sort of like jazz is a musician's music. Not all musicians love jazz, and not all jazz lovers are musicians, but it's a good bet that a high percentage of them are and vice versa.
Same with Faulkner. I'm not sure exactly why that is.
Perhaps it is because only another writer can appreciate the depth and brilliance of Faulkner's voice. Maybe it's because only another writer would wade through the difficult swamp of reading and trying to understand Quentin's section in The Sound and The Fury, or decide to go to the special website with color-coded text to understand and follow where we are in Benjy's memories.
But whoever does take the time to read and truly appreciate Faulkner's work will be delighted, I assure you. I am only getting started on my lifetime of reading him, who is without a doubt, one of the greatest authors of all time.
