Brain Pain discussion

This discussion covers Part Two: June Second, 1910 (The Quentin section)

One of Faulkner’s early mentors was Philip Stone who encouraged him in his poetry writing and reportedly introduced him to James Joyce’s work. Whether or not he knew of Ulysses before writing this novel, the influence of Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness technique is strongly evident in the Quentin section. At times, even more difficult to follow than the Benjy section, Faulkner put his spin on the s-o-c technique and made it his own.

Quentin has made a decision to end his life. Instead of following his daily routine, he prepares his affairs, packs his belongings, and sends a letter to his father. He takes a train ride out of Cambridge, perhaps as a final excursion before his suicide. He encounters a young girl who he assumes is lost and needs his help. Much like his inability to help his own sister Caddie, he is unable to help the young girl. Throughout the day his mind streams all the drama, confusion, guilt, and trauma of his life with his family. He is unable to reconcile his perceived failure to protect Caddie, his father’s nihilistic views, and the shame Caddie has brought upon the family. The section is a hard to read jumble which matches Quentin’s state of mind on his final day.

Jim wrote: "This discussion covers Part Two: June Second, 1910 (Thee. Quentin section)

One of Faulkner’s early mentors was Philip Stone who encouraged him in his poetry writing and reportedly introduced him ..."

Quentin seems to Benjy in his noticing of shadows but the opposite of Benjy in his emphasis on time.

Jim, thanks for the summary - I'm relieved to find I made more or less the same sense of this as you; though I also had the impression of something incestuous between Quentin and Caddy - in his head, at least, if not in their actions.

I found, as with the Benjy section, that it's necessary to let go of trying to understand, just let it happen and some sort of sense emerges. What also emerges in this section is the strength of emotions. It changes in degree of comprehensibility as we move through this section, too. There's a kind of crescendo of anguish and confusion which is mirrored in the break up of rational discourse, and a calming down along with greater clarity towards the end, after Q has been involved in a fight, which obviously temporarily helped him express some of the warring passions he's dealing with.

The comparison with Joyce (whom I'm struggling with at the same time): I'm so far finding Bloom's meandering through the day much less interesting than Faulkner's characters. It seems to me because Bloom/Joyce faithfully reflects pretty average daily internal commentary; whereas Faulkner is writing a tragedy. And no doubt the cleverness of Joyce's writing is largely passing me by!

Why am I not receiving updates for these discussions? I started wondering why nobody was posting on the TSATF threads and came here now only to discover that for some reason, I've just not been notified. ( I do have it ticked to send them).

Grrr

While emotion was indeed successfully emoted, and Q's distress loud and clear, I never will take punctuation for granted again.