Read for the first time this morning
An interview in the Paris Review with William Faulkner, 1956.
FAULKNER
Life is not interested in good and evil. Don Quixote was
constantly choosing between good and evil, but then he was choosing
in his dream state. He was mad. He entered reality only when
he was so busy trying to cope with people that he had no time to
distinguish between good and evil. Since people exist only in life,
they must devote their time simply to being alive. Life is motion,
and motion is concerned with what makes man move—which is
ambition, power, pleasure. What time a man can devote to morality,
he must take by force from the motion of which he is a part.
He is compelled to make choices between good and evil sooner or
later, because moral conscience demands that from him in order
that he can live with himself tomorrow. His moral conscience is the
curse he had to accept from the gods in order to gain from them
the right to dream.
INTERVIEWER
Could you explain more what you mean by motion in relation
to the artist?
FAULKNER
The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by
artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later,
when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. Since man
is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave
something behind him that is immortal since it will always move.
This is the artist’s way of scribbling “Kilroy was here” on the wall
of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must
someday pass.
Entire Interview: William Faulkner Interview
Chris
FAULKNER
Life is not interested in good and evil. Don Quixote was
constantly choosing between good and evil, but then he was choosing
in his dream state. He was mad. He entered reality only when
he was so busy trying to cope with people that he had no time to
distinguish between good and evil. Since people exist only in life,
they must devote their time simply to being alive. Life is motion,
and motion is concerned with what makes man move—which is
ambition, power, pleasure. What time a man can devote to morality,
he must take by force from the motion of which he is a part.
He is compelled to make choices between good and evil sooner or
later, because moral conscience demands that from him in order
that he can live with himself tomorrow. His moral conscience is the
curse he had to accept from the gods in order to gain from them
the right to dream.
INTERVIEWER
Could you explain more what you mean by motion in relation
to the artist?
FAULKNER
The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by
artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later,
when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. Since man
is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave
something behind him that is immortal since it will always move.
This is the artist’s way of scribbling “Kilroy was here” on the wall
of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must
someday pass.
Entire Interview: William Faulkner Interview
Chris
Labels: Faulkner, motion, the right to dream
posted by Chris at
8:07 PM
5 Comments:
jesus christ.... such eccentric ideas semi defined in essentially two paragraphs. Such an odd message.... To gain immortality, mortals must arrest motion aka life. Since Life is not interested in good and evil... when we freeze life via film, we can truly define our moral conscience for that split moment. Our dream state (nonreality), which debates upon good and evil, will be captured and exposed for all to view. That is Faulkner's Immortality.
My thoughts are: if reality is made for people driven by ambition, power, pleasure, then everyone else is in this dream state....but if you are able to capture this dream, you will have control over life itself. no?
Such wonderful turn of events for the dreamers... makes me want to quit my day job and etch my name on the wall, "Jenny was here."
Jenny, I love you!
=) thank you Kwok!
"Jenny was here"...in my heart.
lol... that's it. I'm moving to NY.
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