Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

latimesblogs.latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 29 posts

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#11

Post by Dirlewanger »

JorgeGT wrote: post #5
_Microft wrote: post #3

Are there any books that use different fonts or font sizes to convey for example feelings of a character? Large bold font when they feel strong; tiny, scribbled text when they feel frightened, and so on? There might be a few things that could be explored here, turning a book from a simple way to present text into an indispensable part of the piece it contains.

I'm thinking of Death in Terry Pratchett's Discworld , who speaks in sᴍᴀʟʟ ᴄᴀᴘs.

And if you want a perfectly cast voice in your head for him, play Discworld II for the PC.

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#12

Post by short_sells_poo »

JorgeGT wrote: post #5
_Microft wrote: post #3

Are there any books that use different fonts or font sizes to convey for example feelings of a character? Large bold font when they feel strong; tiny, scribbled text when they feel frightened, and so on? There might be a few things that could be explored here, turning a book from a simple way to present text into an indispensable part of the piece it contains.

I'm thinking of Death in Terry Pratchett's Discworld , who speaks in sᴍᴀʟʟ ᴄᴀᴘs.

I found Sir Terry to be great with various mannerisms and speech patterns he devised for his characters. Just this small detail can add so much memorability to a character who may have been relatively minor otherwise. Like Inigo Skimmer's regular "mmh-mmph" in The Fifth Elephant which could be a sarcastic snigger or a nervous laugh and to some degree it is left up to the imagination of the reader to interpret it based. It somehow makes the character relatable and realistic.

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#13

Post by zaven »

I’ve attempted to read The Sound and the Fury twice over the years: once giving up part way through Benjy's section, and the second time tapping out shortly after finishing it. Very validating to read that even the editor mentioned here found it tremendously confusing!

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#14

Post by kingbirdy »

_Microft wrote: post #3

Are there any books that use different fonts or font sizes to convey for example feelings of a character? Large bold font when they feel strong; tiny, scribbled text when they feel frightened, and so on? There might be a few things that could be explored here, turning a book from a simple way to present text into an indispensable part of the piece it contains.

I believe this was done occasionally in A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#15

Post by dwhitney »

I loved this book when I read it in college. Things people should know:

* It's funny. * Benjy is just one of the characters. He has mental issues, which make his chapters more difficult, but the other characters' chapters are straight forward, give you context, and push the story forward. * Benjy's chapters aren't really that difficult. * It's been 20 years since I read this so everything I've written here may be wrong :)

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#18

Post by teddyh »

Dirlewanger wrote: post #11
JorgeGT wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm thinking of Death in Terry Pratchett's Discworld , who speaks in sᴍᴀʟʟ ᴄᴀᴘs.

And if you want a perfectly cast voice in your head for him, play Discworld II for the PC.

According to IMDB¹, that was Rob Brydon. Although I thought that the voice of Death in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather (2006) was good (by Ian Richardson).

1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0199468/

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#19

Post by ubermonkey »

Folio Society editions are amazingly gorgeous. I have a few, but none that cost $345.

Two things about the linked article:

1. The lede is just bad. Why would dense writing be in tension with winning a Nobel?

2. That the Folio Society consulted Noel Polk on this is an excellent sign. Polk, who sadly passed away in 2012, was one of the foremost Faulkner scholars. I had the pleasure of knowing him as I was growing up; his kids were a couple years behind me in school, and we attended the same church. I knew he was an English professor, but I had no idea of his stature until I picked up a copy of _As I Lay Dying_ for class, and saw it had a forward by Dr Polk.

Sadly, this edition of TSATF is long since sold out.

Post reply on HN