“‘Now I want you to tell me just one more thing. Why do you hate the South?’ ‘I don’t hate it,’ Quentin said quickly, at once, immediately. ‘I don’t hate it,’ he said. I don’t hate it he thought, panting in the cold air, the iron New England dark. I don’t. I don’t! I don’t hate it! I don’t hate it!”
November 20th, 2008 @ 12:01 pm - by NMC · 8 Comments
I went to Faulkner for my quote of the day, because Dr. X went with Brad DeLong:
The whites in the heartland of today’s Republican Party just do not vote–and do not think–like the rest of us do. Richard Nixon wanted the Republican Party to lock up the South. Now it looks as though the South has locked up the Republican Party.
Filed Under: Herald & Examiner
Are you sure that’s authentic Faulkner, NMC? Apostrophes in the donts?
It’s authentic Faulkner– that’s Absolom, Absolom! famously so. I’ll check for the accuracy of the punctuation later.
the don’t hate it quote and “Tell me about the South” are the 2 cliches from that novel…
I know, just teasing you about the apostrophes.
Quentin just never could get out in front of his demons. Shoulda gotten a Harley.
or started trying to write it as fiction…
or taken up the practice at law…
(to pick how two of the models for him spent their lives, as opposed to filling their pockets with stones and jumping off a bridge)
“Dont” not “don’t,” as Lotus observes.
For years now I have wanted a T-shirt that says, “I dont hate the South. I don’t hate it! I dont!” Will have to get one made up sometime.
–Btw and in case it needs sayin’, Absalom, Absalom! is a magnificent book. I remember reading the first chapter aloud to myself in grad school, just savoring the cadences of the prose. It’s actually retarded my Faulkner appreciation, b/c instead of reading, say, Light in August, I just read AA again.
Great quote. And, Quentin Compson is a much more interesting character than Brad DeLong (no offense intended to Professor DeLong).