In 1947 William Faulkner, on the cusp of finally receiving the honors due to him for his earlier writing addressed an English class at Ole Miss saying the work of Shakespeare is "a casebook for mankind." While the allusions to the Bard are numerous in his canon ("The Sound and The Fury" is derived from the most famous speech in The Scottish Play,) there are aspects of Faulkner as a tragedian that most notably echo Shakespeare.
A missing viewpoint from 1936's "Absalom! Absalom!" comes in the 1933 short story "Wash." While "Wash" lacks the symbolism-blended stream of consciousness of the book, it tells its story through the details left up to the imagination. It is important to separate that in "Absalom! Absalom!, Thomas Sutpen is a legend, a myth that is larger than life." The air of brutality and barbarism of a man who carved his kingdom out of the thick forest of Northwest Yoknapatawpha County in the 19th Century. Faulkner is leaping in and out of time to tell this story:
It was a summer of wisteria. The twilight was full of it and the smell of his father's cigar as they sat on the front gallery after supper until it would be time for Quentin to start, while in the deep shaggy lawn below the veranda the fireflies blew and drifted in soft random -- the odor, the scent, which five months later Mr. Compson's letter would carry up from Mississippi and over the long iron New England snow and into Quentin's sitting- room at Harvard.
In "Wash," there are no leaps in time within a sentence. In fact, there is very little descriptive detail and more strategic pauses - like a drama that needs to give its audience time to read, re-read, think, and savor. The character of Thomas Sutpen could be seen as both the American Dream or its nightmare. In "Absalom! Absalom!," we see how materialistic Sutpen could be holding a French architect hostage until his mansion is fully realized. In "Wash," Faulkner gives us an image in pieces of that world in collapse after Col Sutpen returns from the Civil War as Wash carries a drunk and disheveled Col. Sutpen into his house
The daughter would meet them and hold open the door without a word. He (Wash) would carry his burden (Col. Sutpen) through the once white formal entrance, surmounted by a fanlight imported piece by piece from Europe with a board now nailed over a missing pane.
"Wash" is a tragedy two-fold. Our protagonist (like many in Faulkner) is painfully "white trash" at the bottom of the caste system. Col. Sutpen gives him a dilapidated old fishing camp lodge in which no one else would dare to live. Whether Wash's life is a lie or not, we can never honestly tell until his granddaughter comes around. However, Wash's position is always at the feet of the Colonel. Even though they spend hours together, Wash is always kneeling on a post or sitting on a leftover crate or keg.
As you read, it makes you wonder what was Wash's purpose. He lives in squalor, doubt, alone, and with no real worthy relationship except perhaps his family. When Thomas Sutpen's land is plentiful, Wash cannot even set foot in the big house. When Sutpen leaves for the war, everyone questions why Wash did not go as well. His only defense and rationalization are to lie and say that he is looking after the Colonel's place. Here is where the first element of tragedy slips in from Faulkner. When General Williams Sherman passes through, everything goes with him and the Federal troops. Nothing is left behind.
Col. Sutpen returns to a house where his wife is dead after a war where his son was killed. Wash is there to meet him quickly erecting another lie as told in Faulkner's vernacular, "Well, Kernel," Wash said, "they kilt us but they ain't whupped us yit, air they?" Despite Sutpen's change in fortune, Wash is steadfast accompanying him daily to the "little store which Sutpen managed to set on up on the highroad." Then, invariably, they will close the business and drink from a jug in the back until Wash has to walk back to the mansion to get a wagon to bring the Colonel back home. Both fathers and both misunderstood, there is so much work to be done but survival is the new existence.
Col. Sutpen is uncomplicated. Without words, he seems to view everything in his midst as his property and nothing is beyond his right. Like a King overseeing the last vestiges of his kingdom, he is comforted by memories. We know that Wash is nearly the same age as the Colonel. Yet he seems to carry with him the understanding that he knows his place and must never take advantage of his relationship as the liege of the Colonel. Moreover, like Shakespeare, we are led to believe that because of this fact - Wash holds the Colonel in the highest regard.
When Wash's granddaughter Milly turns 15, Col. Sutpen wants her to give him the son that he has long wanted. Here we finally see a shard of disillusion from Wash as he confronts Col. Sutpen. Unlike the Colonel's habitual drunken trashing of the roadside store, Wash demonstrates a quiet, methodical fury. "I've knowed you for going on twenty years. I ain't never yit denied to do what you told me to do. And I'm a man nigh on sixty. And she ain't nothing but a fifteen-year-old gal."
His standoff with the Colonel is impressive. We see the Colonel through Faulkner's words as "arrogant" and Wash's logic as sound until the Colonel asks "So that's why you are afraid of me?" However, then Wash melts like the coward he is. Now, like a character from The Bard who has dared to tempt his fate, Wash lives further outside the system. His lies have created a drama for all to watch (like three actors that came and went upon a stage.") Beneath this false front, Wash's inner voice hears the "audience" saying "Wash Jones has fixed old Sutpen at last. Hit taken him twenty years, but he has done hit at last."
The day of the granddaughter Milly giving birth arrives. They summon help to Wash's crazy house down in the hollow. The Colonel arrives on horseback. Wash waits outside while the Colonel discovers - another girl.
Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
NEW MUSIC This Week
DAVE MATTHEWS BAND - Walk Around the Moon [CLEAR LP/CD](RCA)
The tenth album from DMB finds the band in a different place (Boyd Tinsley has been replaced by Buddy Strong) but working on music that most of the group helps write. Gluing it all back together is longtime producer John Alagia. The moody "Monsters" and serpentine "Madman's Eyes" throwback to the muscular "Stand Up" days. With 12 originals (some with parts dating all the way back to 2006,) "Moon" shoots to become their record-setting eighth straight #1 album.
GHOST - Phantomime [LP/CD](Loma Vista)
With a rollout that included a fake YouTube radio/call-in show, video teasers and the announcement of their first (American) Gold record, Ghost kicks off their worldwide Summer tour with another covers EP. More varied than usual, "Phantomime" boasts new versions of Genesis' "Jesus He Loves Me," Iron Maiden's "The Phantom of the Opera," Television's "See No Evil," The Stranglers "Hanging Around," and Tina Turner's "We Don't Need Another Hero." Who knows if this could become Ghost's first-ever American #1 album?
PAUL SIMON - Seven Psalms [LP/CD](Owl/Legacy)
Up late for a few nights, Paul Simon had a dream about one continuous acoustic composition. As he continued to work on this idea, he would awaken in the middle of the night. In these quiet, meditative hours, Simon reached for the Book of Psalms and it inspired his lyrics. Now fully expanded to 33 minutes, Simon finished his latest album with the help of Wynton Marsalis and his wife, Edie Brickell.
TINARIWEN - Amatssou [LP/CD](Wedge)
The pioneers of Desert Blues return with an album that says pure of their Touareg music but incorporates American Roots music within. Working with Daniel Lanois, there are hints of banjo ("Kek Alghalm,") and fiddle ("Tenere Den") on "Amatssou." Given recent events in their war-ravaged homeland, their message of power stays the same - clearly with the hope that its more "world"-like appearance can get the word out around the world.
MILK CARTON KIDS - I Only See The Moon [LP/CD](Far Cry/Thirty Tigers/The Orchard)
With their hushed harmonies and plucked guitars, the Grammy-nominated duo of Pattengale and Joey Ryan revisit Folk's hootenanny heyday of the Sixties. The Simon & Garfunkel-like "When You're Gone" is neatly augmented with Bluegrass instruments and flourishes. "All of the Time in the World to Kill" is a subtle but classic Folksinger take on aging and living through adversity.
MARTY STUART AND HIS FABULOUS
SUPERLATIVES - Altitude [LP/CD](Snakefarm/UME)
Country Music legend Marty Stuart has never been one to take the path everyone else does. Inspired by his 2018 collaboration with Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn, "Altitude" pays tribute to the Byrds' 1968 classic "Sweethearts of the Rodeo" ("Sitting Alone") and other classic late Sixties Nashville country (the title track.") Still, Stuart can kick up a head of steam on a "Marty Party"-style rocker ("Country Star.")
Surprise of the Week
PHOTON BAND - Pure Photonic Matter, Vol. 2 [CD](Darla/AMPED)
Pop usually benefits from being clear and shimmering. Former Lilys member Art DeFuria’s Pure Pop actually works better in its dense four-track lo-fi style mix. “I Was Free, I Was Fried” is a fist-pumping Glam rocker whose overdriven guitar lick sounds straight out of post-Dolls Seventies Los Angeles. “What’s A Body To Do?” has a load of lysergic fun with its strikes and lengthy fade-in before snapping into a wah-wah-driven Power Pop. The Who-like punch of “Out of My Head” boasts a memorable Garage-style verse before morphing into its own sparkling 1966 radio song (with an amazing solo.) DeFuria may be paying tribute to his idols, but mixing the Kinks’ wisecracking lyrics with a Jimi Hendrix-style Psychedelic Pop (“Set It Free (The Energy)”) is truly brilliant. “When I Fall Out Of The Sky” is equally massive guitar Pop bounced down to make it crunchy, and keep the harmonies crisp. However, the real secret weapon is that subdued guitar solo that matches the bittersweet lyrics so perfectly. With its weird interludes, sincere balladry, and wise organization, “Pure Photonic” is a classic Pop/Rock homage to DeFuria’s musical and emotional inspirations.
