Imagination and Cruelty

"I use imagination when I have to and cruelty as a last resort."

William Faulkner

I recently read a killer article that consisted almost solely of a transcript of a "class" that a very fortunate group of writing students, studying at the University of Mississippi in 1947, had with William Faulkner (one of the writers that I revere with a fanboy-ish, Star Warsy type geekery minus the desire to count errors in his novels or recreate scenes on Youtube). As it is told, Faulkner banished the regular writing teacher and, left alone with the students, steered the "class" to consist of nothing more than his willingness to answer any question they put to him.

Nothing more needs to be said about this, about Faulkner, or about my continual desire to elevate him to a godlike status, except that few writers can twist the English language into such forceful and delicate passages that dance and destroy with equal power; and, therefore, he can answer any question, put to him by any student now living out their old age in a Southern nursing home, and I will fold my arms reverentially and listen.

So, here are some favourite excerpts from this question and answer session held in some chalk dust coated classroom in the heat of 1947 Mississippi:

Q: Why do you present the picture you do of our area?

WF: I have seen no other. I try to tell the truth of man. I use imagination when I have to and cruelty as a last resort. The area is incidental. That's just all I know.

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Q: How do you find time to write?

WF: You can always find time to write. Anybody who says he can't is living under false pretenses. To that extent depend on inspiration. Don't wait. When you have an inspiration put it down. Don't wait until later and when you have more time and then try to recapture the mood and add flourishes. You can never recapture the mood with the vividness of its first impression.

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Q: What is the best training for writing? Courses in writing? Or what?

WF: Read, read, read! Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad; see how they do it. When a carpenter learns his trade, he does so by observing. Read! You'll absorb it. Write. If it is good you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window.

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Q: Are we degenerating?

WF: No. Reading is something that is in a way necessary like heaven or a clean collar, but not important. We want culture but don't want to go to any trouble to get it. We prefer reading condensations.

Q: That sounds like a slam on our way of living.

WF: Our way of living needs slamming. Everybody's aim is to help people, turn them to heaven. You write to help people. The existence of this class in creative writing is good in that you take time off to learn to write and you are in a period where time is your most valuable possession.

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Q: What is the best age for writing?

WF: For fiction the best age is from 35-45. Your fire is not all used up and you know more. Fiction is slower. For poetry the best age is from 17 to 26. Poetry writing is more like a skyrocket with all your fire condensed in one rocket.

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Q: I understand you use a minimum of restrictions.

WF: I let the novel write itself - no length or style compunctions.

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Q: How do you like Hollywood?

WF: I don't like the climate, the people, their way of life. Nothing ever happens and then one morning you wake up and find that you are 65. I prefer Florida.

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Q: If you don't think it too personal, how do you rank yourself with contemporary writers?

WF: 1. Thomas Wolfe: he had much courage and wrote as if he didn't have long to live; 2. William Faulkner; 3. Dos Passos; 4. Ernest Hemingway: he has no courage, has never crawled out on a limb. He has never been known to use a word that might cause a reader to check with a dictionary to see if it is properly used. 5. John Steinbeck: at one time I had great hopes for him - now I don't know.

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Q: Mr. Faulkner, do you mind our repeating anything we have heard outside of class?

WF: No. It was true yesterday, is true today, and will be true tomorrow.