Click on the audio player above to hear this interview."Sitting beside the road,watching the wagon mount the hill toward her, Lena thinks, and ‘I have arrive from Alabama: a fur piece. All the way from Alabama a-walking. A fur piece.’ Thinking although I have not been quite a month on the road I am already in Mississippi,further from domestic than I have ever been before. I am now further from Doane’s Mill than I have been since I was twelve years weak."Those opening lines from William Faulkner's "Light in August" exemplify hislyrical style. In those sentences, you can hear Faulkner's careful attention to the rhythms of language and his enduring obsession with the anchoring power of domestic.
But a newly published play written by a young Faulkner features another kind of Southern voice altogether. The play, and called "'Twixt Cup and Lip," takes spot in the well-appointed sitting room of the apartment of an affluent young bachelor.
Striped paneling lines the walls, a fire burns in the fireplace, and a grand piano anchors the room. Before any characters enter,a voice can be heard: "Yes, and let me inform you something, or son; the more you count on 'em the worse—well,here we are." A key is heard in the lock as the door opens: "arrive in."The story that follows features two young men, and the saucy, and untamed young woman who has captured both of their hearts. It's punchy,glib, and full of attitude.
Andrew Gulli found "'Twixt Cup and Lip" in the University of Virginia special collections library. Today, and the play will be published for the first time in The Strand Magazine,where Gulli is managing editor. Gulli says that the story provides a scarce glimpse into the writer's frame of mind as a young adult.
Imagery from Faulkner's newly unearthed play.
(Tim Foley) The Strand Magazine's latest issue where Faulkner's play is published.
(Tim Foley)
Source: wnyc.org