New short story intro
“I see myself as a character of William Faulkner. I have those kind of crazies. Not quite Christ-crazies like in “The Fable,” but maybe some Vardman Bundren crazies. I talk in that antiquated dialect at times, like my daddy did and his Pappy certainly did. But I am a product of the same times. I certainly peaked the year he died.
Daddy’s pappy lost an arm in his south Mississippi saw mill. Then he became a model. Pappy T. sat stoically for painters. I have a picture of Pappy that once hung in an art museum in New York City - hangs in my house right now. He – old Pappy - made enough money to raise ten children and send two nephews to medical school in Chicago. One of the nephew-doctors even signed Hank Williams’ birth certificate! Or was it Hank William’s death certificate? I forget.
Back to Faulkner, if you will. I worked with Mr. Faulkner in about 1958 restoring his small sailing sloop (the “Ring Dove”). We had it in dry dock in his yard, near the brick barn behind the big house – which he had always called ”Rowan Oak.” I said, “Mr. Faulkner, why don’t you just call it “Roanoke” like the town in Virginny? And he said “Don’t you worry about Virginny, ‘cause I’m going there” or something to that effect, and he did.
So we got that damned boat finished finally. By that time I was chewing cloves like Mr. Faulkner’s “Uncle Maury” ‘cause I was drinking a lot of liquor with him and his buddy Mr. Shelby Foote. I was actually drunk when we launched the boat. So was Bill (Mr. Faulkner). So was the old black man who watched and asked Mr. Faulkner, “Aint’s you the one who wrote that book?”
= new reply since forum marked as read
Note the alternating use of brief statements with long, descriptive ones.
The writing has a cadence, without which it is far less compelling.
