The narrator in William Faulkner's "A Rose For Emily" reflects the views the story's community holds of a town spinster. Emily Grierson was raised a member of Southern gentility. The Civil War damaged the family fortunes, however, so that the Grierson house is left to "stubborn and coquettish decay...an eyesore among eyesores". <1> Their fortunes may have declined, but the old Grierson pride still won't allow Emily, or her father, to accept marriage proposals for Emily they consider beneath them.
Thus, Emily is still without a husband at thirty. Then her father dies. The town that already felt that the Griersons "held themselves a little too high for what they really were", now savours a little schadenfreude. "When her father died...in a way, people were glad. Being left alone, and a pauper she too would know...of a penny more or less".
II.
Without her father to wield a horsewhip (literally) to keep unmarital male advances in check, Emily develops an "interest" in a local labourer, Homer Barron. The town is taken aback by Emily's actions, but really does not take them too seriously. "Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer".
Homer's not been taking his relations with Emily too seriously, either. The town hears him remark "that he was not a marrying man". Emily buys some poison, for "rats". And the town chorus is, "She will kill herself; and we said it would be the best thing". But Emily does not kill herself. Homer Barron disappears.
III.
Emily Grierson is first bound by the strictures of her upbringing, through the authority of her father. After her father's death, a binding in an other name follows, from a town community that considers her a "hereditary obligation", a "duty, and a care". As Emily's been raised to internalize certain codes of conduct, so also she is held to standards the community has set for a member of her class. There is shrewd insight, and much artistry in Faulkner's treatment of this kind of double bind, as elsewhere, in "A Rose For Emily".
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<1>Faulkner, William. "A Rose For Emily". The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction (1986).
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Way Cool
January in Canada, and Winter is on. This is swell if you like the season. Otherwise, you might be daydreaming about an escape from the cold. The Way Way Back (Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, 2013) is a dramedy set during a summer holiday, and for its running time, fits the bill of a sunny escape nicely.
II.
Way Back had me cheering for its success by an early scene, where 14-year old Duncan (Liam James) is crooning along to REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore". Then the camera widens our gaze, to reveal that the person who has caught Duncan in full singing feeling is the girl next-door, Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb). Susanna makes no comment, but she doesn't have to. Duncan's amusing embarrassment speaks for itself.
The child of a broken marriage, Duncan has been obliged to travel for summer vacation to a town near Cape Cod with his mother Pam (Toni Collette), her boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell) and Trent's daughter, Steph (Zoe Levin). Arriving at the house they'll be staying at for the duration, they meet the neighbours. Betty (Allison Janney) is an amiable boozer, a loose-talking single mom to Susanna and Peter (River Alexander). A married couple, Kip (Rob Corddry) and Joan (Amanda Peet) completes the group.
Duncan next meets the one other adult significant to his stay in town. But before we get to him, the film attends to the man who has already been seeking to be significant in Duncan's life - Pam's boyfriend. Trent proves himself a bully, in an uptight, petty sort of way. Later, he will put the cherry on his cake of virtues by displaying a cheating eye for the ladies.
Along comes the charismatic Owen (Sam Rockwell), who it would be polite to describe as an apprentice-adult. Owen works, sort of, at the town water park. With his lazy patter of quips he seems to be auditioning, badly as not, for a standup slot at a comedy club.
III.
That Owen is so obviously the hip slacker, who so obviously becomes a genial father-figure (who Duncan so obviously needs), demonstrates a larger point about how this film treats cinematic cliche. The coming of age summer movie: we know this story. But what Way Back does so well is to present familiar sights, sounds and situations just long enough to register with us, and then lets them fade away. This allows for a sense of space in the film, suffusing with a sweet nostalgia. It is a beguiling thing to watch build, even if it's only as real as The Way Way Back.
II.
Way Back had me cheering for its success by an early scene, where 14-year old Duncan (Liam James) is crooning along to REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore". Then the camera widens our gaze, to reveal that the person who has caught Duncan in full singing feeling is the girl next-door, Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb). Susanna makes no comment, but she doesn't have to. Duncan's amusing embarrassment speaks for itself.
The child of a broken marriage, Duncan has been obliged to travel for summer vacation to a town near Cape Cod with his mother Pam (Toni Collette), her boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell) and Trent's daughter, Steph (Zoe Levin). Arriving at the house they'll be staying at for the duration, they meet the neighbours. Betty (Allison Janney) is an amiable boozer, a loose-talking single mom to Susanna and Peter (River Alexander). A married couple, Kip (Rob Corddry) and Joan (Amanda Peet) completes the group.
Duncan next meets the one other adult significant to his stay in town. But before we get to him, the film attends to the man who has already been seeking to be significant in Duncan's life - Pam's boyfriend. Trent proves himself a bully, in an uptight, petty sort of way. Later, he will put the cherry on his cake of virtues by displaying a cheating eye for the ladies.
Along comes the charismatic Owen (Sam Rockwell), who it would be polite to describe as an apprentice-adult. Owen works, sort of, at the town water park. With his lazy patter of quips he seems to be auditioning, badly as not, for a standup slot at a comedy club.
III.
That Owen is so obviously the hip slacker, who so obviously becomes a genial father-figure (who Duncan so obviously needs), demonstrates a larger point about how this film treats cinematic cliche. The coming of age summer movie: we know this story. But what Way Back does so well is to present familiar sights, sounds and situations just long enough to register with us, and then lets them fade away. This allows for a sense of space in the film, suffusing with a sweet nostalgia. It is a beguiling thing to watch build, even if it's only as real as The Way Way Back.
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