Post by Chris_Wendt on Apr 16, 2014 20:17:15 GMT -5
William Faulkner, Nobel Laureate, is far and away my favorite author. Go Down, Moses was one of his many works, a collection that includes The Bear, his most popular story, set in mythical Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. I have read all of Faulkner's works, including a compendium of his letters and personal papers, among which were the epitaph he wrote for his friend and fellow Nobel Laureate, Albert Camus, a moving piece which I have used at special funerals, including my mother's. I have traveled to Oxford, Mississippi to visit Faulkner's home with its magnificent roan oak-lined driveway and I have even entered the national William Faulkner literary contest, and written several pieces in his inimitable style. Reading (and writing like) William Faulkner requires an insanely broad and deep vocabulary, one which far surpassed even that which I accumulated at St. Frances de Chantal grammar school and at Chaminade; a vocabulary which can only be ultimately attained by reading Faulkner with a yellow legal pad at hand, and a good dictionary nearby, to learn for yourself the lessons of diction for which Faulkner became famous.
Within the next four or five years, the Wantagh Public Library and all of our school libraries will be able to throw away or burn all of Faulkner's works. This is because the SAT, like the ACT, has decided to eliminate the need for high school students to develop a truly excellent vocabulary, an essential prerequisite for easily reading any Faulkner novel or short story. I will have to stop posting here and on Patch and Facebook, because, over time, fewer and fewer people will be able to comprehend what I write, plus, I will have retired and moved away to pursue golf, fishing, and photography.
With profound sadness and mild outrage,
Chris Wendt
Within the next four or five years, the Wantagh Public Library and all of our school libraries will be able to throw away or burn all of Faulkner's works. This is because the SAT, like the ACT, has decided to eliminate the need for high school students to develop a truly excellent vocabulary, an essential prerequisite for easily reading any Faulkner novel or short story. I will have to stop posting here and on Patch and Facebook, because, over time, fewer and fewer people will be able to comprehend what I write, plus, I will have retired and moved away to pursue golf, fishing, and photography.
With profound sadness and mild outrage,
Chris Wendt