I can identify very well with Miss Emily. She was the oldest member of a small town, living in the past but unwilling to be fooled by the present. I was the oldest girl in my tiny branch, daydreaming in sacrament and yet somehow remaining young women class president every year. We were both subject to circulating gossip because of our odd actions in usually predictable situations. Miss Emily and I were often on the receiving end of questioning stares and curious glances.
My fictional companion was the enigma that gave the town’s inhabitants a good story to chatter about. By becoming uninvolved with anyone in the town, she became the life of the very establishment she shunned. Her lack of participation in the gossip became the very generator spilling out “She will kill herself” and “She will marry him”.
In my branch, I was the girl who cut off all her hair and wore skull gloves in the chapel. While everyone else was skipping off to combined activity, I drug my feet and scowled the entire time. People would laugh at my lack of sociality and I found out later that they would regularly ask my mother “what is wrong with poor Catelyn?”
People thrive on rumors. Excitement builds as we reach the climax of a conversation spinning around gossip. We’re very interested in finding fault in others as it helps pull the focus away from ourselves. And we also like a good story that surprises us at every turn.
Just like the townspeople finding the gray hair in the pillow, as readers, we like to imagine the worst and then jump in surprise when the writer can take a completely different turn-or at least I like that. While I read, I partake in a mental, one-way gossip of sorts. I automatically assume that the protagonist is no knight in shining armor (because what good character is?) and is eventually going to catch me off guard in one big shebang.
If I reach the end of a book with not a single “Wow, wasn’t expecting that” moment, I get as disappointed as my roommates when they find out that so-and-so didn’t really participate in “recreational kissing” with the boy in building 8. And just as let down as the people in my branch were when they realized that I was only a rebellious teenager and didn’t have a mental malfunction.
Faulkner realized this while he was writing “A Rose for Emily”. The rumors that make a small town go round will also dig into a reader’s brain and drag them further and further into the storyline.
I agree with the statement that people thrive on rumors. It's kind of like schadenfreude, happiness at the misfortune of others. People love to know that someone else is more wicked or sinful or dirty than they are so they can experience some form of gratification. I don't know why this happens. Faulkner really captures the whole small town rumor mill idea.
ReplyDeleteI like how you said that you kind of one-way gossip about the characters in the books you read. I do the same thing, and I am glad to know that it is normal. But the sad thing is, I (admittedly) do this to other people. Like the townspeople, I form these conclusions about people based on first impressions or Facebook profiles. It's definitely unhealthy. So it seems that Faulkner noticed a prevalent theme that you picked up on quite nicely: people thrive on rumors. So hopefully, I can take this story and learn to stop judging people...hopefully.
ReplyDeleteYeah i totally agree with the whole thing about rumors, like you and Brandon said. I think this also is kind of pointed out by the way that you finish the story still wondering exactly what happened. I'm still not sure whether she killed her husband or not, and I'm still curious about it. While it's nothing spectacular for readers to be interested in how a story ends, i feel like I finished it in a kind of prying, gossipy type way, you know? It all goes to show that people want to know as much as they can about other people, as much for entertainment purposes as a point of comparison for yourself.
ReplyDeletePeople do thrive on rumors. They live for the possibility that someone may have done something they wouldn't dare do. We pass gossip around because it makes for good stories, it makes the teller of the gossip seem "in the know", and it creates drama and excitement in a boring or routine day.
ReplyDeleteI too gossip about story book characters. I believe most people do. As you're reading you make assumptions about the characters before the author tells you what REALLY happened. You guess the storyline and it is this that really drives a novel.