This past December, I went to Barnes & Noble and bought a handful of books. Among them was a William Faulkner anthology called “Collected Stories.” I have personally been a fan of the author since I read “As I Lay Dying” in my early 20s and found the potential for literature cracking open. Given the girth of the volume, I knew it would be intimidating to just read the 42 short stories front to back, so instead, I’ve decided to take my time. In doing so, I plan to cover one a week until completed. I will be using this space to share my opinions of each piece as well as any stray observations I may have picked up from the greater world of Faulkner mania.
There is something that feels deliberate of having “Shingles for the Lord” follow “Barn Burning” in this collection. In both instances, a day laborer finds themselves in a whole heap of trouble that ends with a building catching fire. Both stories take different paths (and tones) to get there, but given that Faulkner helped curate this compilation, it feels like he’s perfectly reflecting his range over the span of two short stories. Whereas “Barn Burning” is more of a complex drama that builds, often relying on a stream of conscious language, “Shingles for the Lord” is closer to a broad comedy where the conclusion is a punchline. Our protagonist is Res Grier, an acclaimed arsonist who sought out to do good and accidentally set things ablaze. Not bad for a turn of events from last week where The Snopes were ran out of town for doing the same thing.
In many ways, “Shingles for the Lord” is a more scaled down story whose stakes feel less dangerous. There isn’t any great revelation on par with “Barn Burning” commenting on the suffocation of different social classes. It is true that Grier is of a lower class to the point that he has to borrow tools from his neighbors. Through a series of bargaining, he ends up agreeing to re-shingle the church, and things only spiral out of control from there. It is a story where dumb people do dumb things and it’s played mostly for comedy. While there have been moments scattered throughout other Faulkner stories that could be called humorous, this is one of the prime examples of him expressing something wholeheartedly wacky.
For readers, that may be difficult to appreciate at first. Faulkner is known for these dense stories that detail the incredible struggles of humanity with deeply intertwined symbolism. There is a need to recontextualize our existence whenever you pick up one of his tales. Then you get to “Shingles for the Lord,” itself a silly title that feels more direct in intent. While there’s a commentary on racial divisions and the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) when it comes to working, his whole point is to reflect how everyone is flawed. This isn’t meant to be some greater commentary on the bible or any larger deity. It’s a jumping off point for him to reference religious iconography along with Greek mythology, such as Homer. While there are elements of density, this is one of those times where reading Faulkner feels brisk, lacking a need to understand just what the past seven sentences meant.
This is an example of why he’s such an indelible author. He has the ability to make a man getting angry at a dog into this rich recurring gag. When removing the grief-stricken undertones of his characters, what he finds are the foibles of everyday life. Everyone has done silly things when they’re desperate, and Grier is no different. In a lot of ways, he’s struggling much more than The Snopes (who make a brief cameo here) and yet his struggles are more for laughs. His hard work is sold as comedy. Maybe it’s because he is a good-intentioned figure who still promises to rebuild the church, that he’s misunderstood. Compared to dirtying up a rug in “Barn Building,” this feels like a move that should ostracize him, and yet because of how Faulkner writes him, there’s something delightful and silly about it. Grier is fine being called an arsonist because he knows it was an accident. He will be forgiven and his debt will be repaid. There is the sense that the common man is good on his word, able to work together to make the world they made worse a little better.
To be honest, one of the biggest issues with “Collected Stories” is placing these stories side by side. Whereas “Barn Burning” feels triumphant, “Shingles for the Lord” feels minor. Very little discourse has been made of it, and maybe for good reason. There is still a literary craft here that makes excellent world building, but it doesn’t draw the reader in, wanting them to spend a greater time with the text. This is for a quick thrill. There’s nothing wrong with Faulkner challenging himself with tone, but it cannot compare to his darker, more dramatic works. While it benefits from breeziness, it lacks a greater point than watching dumb things happen in rapid procession. The story doesn’t have the same impact. It may comment on the working class and show how generosity and sacrifice aren’t always what it’s cracked up to be, but it’s a story of misunderstanding that builds to a punchline. It’s all a joke.
And not a particularly profound one from Faulkner’s larger canon. While it can be argued as to whether the lines are entirely humorous, there are moments throughout “As I Lay Dying” where the Bundren family reflect something offbeat. There’s family members that turn into animals, or the delicious final line that is so shocking until you study its meaning. The former reflects the development of mental problems while the latter undercuts the emotional journey that every character has faced over the past novel. These lines share a similar goal to Grier proclaiming proudly that he’s now known as an arsonist. The only difference is that it’s not saying anything on par with what Faulkner has said better before and with slighter language. It’s fun, but it also feels much more disposable.
With that said, Faulkner praised the editors for including it in “Collected Stories” after originally being published in The Saturday Evening Post, where he recalls laughing immensely over the use of mules and shingles.
Shifting attention, “Shingles for the Lord” is the first example here of The Grier Family. Given that it also takes place on The Grier Farm, this is a location that will be returned to now and then throughout the journey. These stories will include: “By the People,” “Shall Not Perish,” “Two Soldiers,” and the novel “The Mansion.” Unlike the more populated Snopes Family which has 67 different relatives appear, the key characters will pull from a smaller body. Faulkner has been known to adapt even the most established of characters to fit the texts, and Res Grier is said to be a major example of that. For now, he’s a trickster and a cock-eyed optimist. He’ll change into someone who’s more hard working and even has his name changed in “The Mansion” from Res to Eck Grier. For a meticulous author, he’s not all that precious about his characters.
With that said, this is also the first example in the collection of another Faulkner staple. Like all great authors, he has built his own world around his characters, and here we get a glimpse into Yoknapatawpha County. The name is derived from two Chickasaw words Yocana and petopha which means split land, though Faulkner once told the University of Virginia that it meant “water flows slow through flat land.” It was the original name of the actual Yocona River.
As one can guess based on Faulkner’s residency in The South, Yoknapatawpha takes place in a similar area and is used as a breeding ground for inspiration. Much like how “Barn Burning” reflected a shift in how The South dealt with the labor shortage following Reconstruction, “Shingles for the Lord” is also dealing with conflicts around having to pay workers and what would be considered fair when they were still used to having slaves. Faulkner is dealing with complicated issues and in that way, this story has some usefulness. It comments on the idea of paying for work, even referencing the W.P.A., which was invented during The Great Depression by President Roosevelt to help workers. There’s the sense that it’s trying to approach the idea of equal pay for equal work. The South is a land that was still new to this sort of economy, and it’s interesting to see how diversely Faulkner treats this landscape.
There’s not enough yet to better explore Yoknapatawpha County in this column, but it’s interesting how only two stories in the world feels intertwined. On the one hand, “Shingles for the Lord” reflects a range that this anthology could possess. On the other, it is a chance to show that no matter how these stories play out, there’s a good chance that there will be a need for an encyclopedic understanding of every family, noticing their recurrence (even in brief sentences) and how they have changed over centuries. There’s a lot to unpack, though this story doesn’t necessarily have the most in a direct sense. It’s one that may grow appreciable as the journey continues and Res Grier potentially becomes more endearing. For now, he’s just a silly arsonist whose consequences don’t seem to matter. Given how dense this landscape is, I’m sure I will find some significance somewhere down the road in someone else’s tale. That’s just the way Faulkner does things.
Coming Up Next: "The Tall Man"
Comments
Post a Comment