Keker’s sentencing remarks and Southern Literature
I’m not sure this is really a time to be asking for the likes of Faulkner to explain what I presume Keker thinks is a tragic fall by a self-made man. Because, really, the only of Faulkner’s books that comes to mind (unless you want to think Flem Snopes, and what kind of lawyer would compare his client to Flem Snopes?) is Sutpen and Absalom! Absalom!
And what is that about? Well, we can start with the title. Some of ya’ll may know it’s a biblical reference. Absalom was King David’s son. He led a rebellion against David and ultimately died in battle against his father; Absalom was caught on a tree by his own hair, and, hanging there, David’s troops killed him. The Faulkner novel itself is the story of Thomas Sutpen, a self-made man from a poor background whose efforts to build a dynasty are doomed when, among other turns in a very baroque plot, one of his sons murders another of his sons. The title invokes David’s anguish and grief over what he had done to his son.
This whole self-made father dooming his sons theme does not seem the one to strike right now.
FOLO
6/29/8
Magnolia Tribune
