What is beauty? It is as Keats states “beauty is truth and truth beauty?” If so, does that mean that the presence of beauty is largely cyclical or even the personification of the adage “what comes around goes around?” Or does beauty dwell in the eye of the beholder? If so, could it be an aberration in the lens that makes every face you encounter have an aura surrounding it? When looking for beauty in literature it is safe to say - it occurs in the most unpredictable corners and inopportune times. Beauty is often best discovered in the darkest places.
As we have discussed before (the unreliable narrators, the “not-person”/ ghost threads, and the addition of the short story “Wash,”) William Faulkner’s puzzle-piece history/mystery “Absalom, Absalom!” is one piece of literature that merits multiple attempts at analysis. (In fact, the beauty in that aspect, is that it always keeps you looking for another discovery which never lets you experience the work the same way twice.)
Faulkner’s retelling of the history of the “man-horse-demon” Thomas Sutpen and the arduous life around his estate Sutpen’s Hundred is purposefully told out of sequence. The idea is not to confuse, but to give it a certain individual flow that would restrict the use of “and then” or “this was followed” as joiners. Instead, Faulkner strives for more poetic connection like a wealth of assonance (“old ghost times,”) and consonance (sometimes linking words in appositives like in Greek tragedy — “faint sulphur-reek.”) However, linguistically speaking, Faulkner’s largest advantage continues to be word choice. When he employs “effluvium” or “docility,” it is often matched by trios of actions in his lists (“Immobile, bearded, and palm–lifted.”) This flow of pinpoint accuracy and rhythm makes reading “Absalom, Absalom!” much like a river ride-at times as you brave each crashing wave. While at others, you might have to swim back a few pages to try to get the swell of information as it is being dictated.
Another unique aspect of “Absalom, Absalom!” is the structure of the entire plot being revealed almost completely in the first chapter. Since it follows no chronology, the “storyteller” hints are your guide. Seemingly at random, Faulkner is telling this sordid tale as if it were stream-of-consciousness writing. However, careful consideration should be given to the fact that those experiences are generally told in the order they occurred (James Joyce’s “The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” or more modern experiments like the punctuation-free “Ducks, Newburyport” from Lucy Ellmann which uses “the fact that” joiner some 19000 times.). “Absalom, Absalom!” is visiting the past, near past, and present sometimes all within the same paragraph. We are learning the history of Sutpen as it was “observed” by Miss Rosa Coldfield and “handed down” to Quentin Compson. In addition, the young Compson is telling portions to his friend Shreve. Sutpen needs to be a giant ogre-like creature to match the mythic pull of this story. Sutpen is wrestling, building his homestead and a racetrack, and committed to his cause to a fault. Faulkner needs various details to spread across the interpretations of each narrator so that what each focuses upon often reveals their motive or even sympathy for this near-Neanderthal man whose type is about to become history.
In dealing with just the first two chapters, we have to stop and start multiple times. On first pass, it becomes obvious what Faulkner’s flow may be but the details are there to be missed in its mesmerizing tone. Even outside of the inner dialogue regularly being in opposition to what the narrator says, the repetition of words also greatly contributes to lulling you into this dream “split land” where pride has a separate compass and a whim can affect decisions for generations. So Faulkner also communicates their confusion in his “code.” The ongoing use of words like “disease” represents an unknown, undiagnosed sickness that permeates everything - even this history. While the fact that anyone could carve beautiful, stately homes out of this uncivilized “virgin land” is implied, perhaps the sacrifice and loss that erected those structures we admire as beauty is now above the roots of ugliness in the mud is finally digestible. Faulkner is dishing out the dichotomy of life before and after the Civil War. He asks questions about the way of life, while always noting that it is inevitable that the next generation of the family will destroy it.
There is nothing to illustrate the importance of why here. Only life before and after, tradition, and a hideous wealth base are vanquished from the system like the DNA of disease. Quentin is open to interpretation and, therefore the easiest to inhabit. While you read, you might continue to ask the question, “Is this his life?” A tragedy of Biblical proportions is unfolding before his eyes, and the first reaction is recoil. How we deal with this information is perhaps close to how Quentin does. There is a morbid fascination with these bleak tales of hope and lives sussed out like the extinguishing of a candle. They are weirdly black and white at times almost arousing disbelief. Even the cultural observations can feel like a mismatch such as “drunken fools covered with diamonds throwing away their cotton” as early as 1833.
As we read this material again (and again, we heartily acknowledge that rereading is necessary,) Faulkner describes the environment with near poetic bliss. At times, you might find this beauty to be overwhelming. However, you may need to savor these wafts of wistaria as a bridge to discovering the dark beauty in the savage construction and unequivocally false life enacted at his centerpiece, Sutpen’s Hundred.
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Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
NEW MUSIC This Week
THE SMILE - Wall of Eyes [BLUE LP/CD] (XL/Redeye) • Whether it remains a Radiohead side-project or not, Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and jazz drummer Tom Skinner are practicing a wholly different chemistry. Credibly, anything Yorke sings will sound like Radiohead (or even those he had a hand in like Clark’s underrated “Sus Dog.”) Greenwood has a growing reputation as a creator of sound and can parlay hidden ideas into his music. However, “Wall of Eyes” is weirdly accessible. The title cut could fit into Yorke’s solo debut “The Eraser” or the moody Radiohead album “A Moon Shaped Pool.” “Friend of a Friend” is Folksy and completely different emoting Randy Newman in its piano and the Beatles in its arrangement. While “Bending Hectic” is Jeff Buckley-esque with Yorke in a lower register until its thrilling ending. A collection of ideas from the road, the trio has done an excellent job of preserving their vitality and expanding on their musicality with strings and things without making them overbearing or otherwise artificial.
FUTURE ISLANDS - People Who Aren’t There Anymore [LP/CD](4AD/Redeye) • Baltimore’s Future Islands continues their improbable success as a Synth-Pop version of The National. Samuel T. Herring’s unique middle-octave raspy croon is their most standout facet. Nevertheless, their Eighties minimal music and sweeping choruses (“The Tower”) win you over once again.
KULA SHAKER - Natural Magick [LP/CD] (Strange Folk/ Thirty Tigers) • What followed BritPop’s mighty rise and fall in the Nineties gets short shrift for failing to bring the revolution back to its previous (and impossible) mid-nineties height. For the first time since their debut 25 years ago, British Psychedelic Pop Rockers Kula Shaker return to their original lineup. While KS has been making some great music since reconvening in 2022, “Magick” gets closest to capturing their original magic (“Tattva.”) Also hoping it is as varied in sound as their 2022 comeback album, “1st Congregational Church of Eternal Love and Free Hugs.”
TY SEGALL - Three Bells [LP/CD](Drag City/Redeye) • Quietly building himself up as a guitar hero first, then chucking it all to rock out on synths and produce, Ty Segall is the stalwart Garage/Trance rocker with an eye on the singles chart. Not that he would ever make an accessible album, but with subversive yet thunderous Poppy songs like “My Room” and “My Best Friend,” Segall deserves that Top 30 Alt showing.
RED CLAY STRAYS - Moment of Truth [LP/CD](Hbyco) • CHATHAM COUNTY LINE - Hiyo [LP/CD] (Yep Roc) • Roots rock roundup this week brings you two longtime promising groups who push Americana more in their direction than continue to bow down to its growing reliance on cliches and tropes. Raucous tremulant-voiced frontman Brandon Coleman leads them through some dark, bluesy Folk gone electric. While the songs are not the best written, the band gives it every ounce of their energy. One can only imagine the dynamics of the bracing title cut are triple the effect live.
Chatham County Line has long depended on their lush harmonies and borrowing of Folk melodies and murder-ballad storytelling. With bluegrass instruments at their reach, “Hiyo” finds a new sonic image that sends them into Cosmic Americana. It is a bold step to take after the entrancing beauty of “Strange Fascination” to crank up the reverb and effects to sing to the moon.
VEMOD - The Deepening [LP/DLX LP/DLX CD](Prophecy DEN) • MARDUK - Infernal Eternal [LP/CD](Century Media/AMPED) • The transition to a more palatable Black Metal continues with Norwegian ragers Vemod. While "The Deepening" is one long double-kick-soaked, gravel-voiced excursion into the great unknown. Its more ambient mixture of chorused guitars above the normal grind gives it the aural appearance of a giant black cloud on the horizon. The driving "Der guder, der" is melodic and never to a fault. At its heart (a/k/a minus vocals and drums) "True North Beckons" could be both a Nick Cave song and the grimmest shoegaze ever. However, that is what makes it work. "The Deepening" avoids the tritone chords for major Folk-based ones, and even swaps its locomotive pace for a 6/8 sway that will leave you wondering how they got away with it.
When you need to return to the full-metal bludgeon, this underrated live album from 2001 is a surprise in a catalog that is second-wave foundational Black Metal. Marduk is absolutely brutal live and it really shows here where the volume never changes (except for stops.) When they do slow down, it is generally to end a song. The live performance even translates well despite a very bright mix. This is raw and designed to obliterate, so sure tempos seem almost comedically high. But "Burn My Coffin" and the howling "The Sun Turns Black As Night" are bone-crushing especially given their twists, turns, and burning desire to turn you into ash.
REISSUE OF THE WEEK
BLACK SABBATH - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath [COLOR LP](Rhino) • When we discuss the history of Heavy Metal, the first six Sabbath albums are signposts in its development. When consumed together, their run from 1970-1975 most consistently personifies a band going off the rails. Emerging from the primordial murk of Earth, early Sabbath takes on a bluesy/jazzy undercurrent before the still-played chug of Geezer Butler and Bill Ward lays the foundation for everything Metal today. Critics finally woke up to Sabbath's bleak woozy promise on 1973's "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath." For the first time, you can hear Sabbath hit the wall creatively. "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" is a masterwork of their canon because it boldly refuses to match up. Where albums before managed to smoothly spiral down (1972's brilliant "Vol. 4") or give you breaks from the heaviness when it felt necessary. "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" is sinister and comes from the twin dark places of exhaustion and drug use. Are they stabbing each other in the back on "Killing Yourself To Live?" Is "Spiral Architect" Iommi's most successful move toward "outside influence" yet? And how dangerous is it that newly minted as a staple on AOR Radio, "Sabbra Cadabra" and "A National Acrobat" are the closest to singles - yet spin for nearly six minutes? "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" is a bold example of Sabbath disregarding all advice to stay on top of the charts and instead documenting a truly heavy period in their development. Unfortunately, it is also the first nail in the coffin of the relationship between Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne as the presence of synthesizers begins to sow the seeds of their doom.
