Holidays in Cosmopolis: The Sound and the Fury

by Tony Chavira

In William Faulkner’s novel The Sound and Fury, each main member of the Compson family is a complete wreck of a person in his or her own way. The youngest brother is mentally handicapped and a shame to his family because of that, but he’s unique in that he perceives all time at once: memories of his brothers and sister melt into one sad and looming stream of consciousness. So despite growing older, the way his family interacts (unpleasantly) with him remains the same. The oldest brother is a genius of unknown proportions, but—by attempting to preserve his honorable Southern heritage while shifting away from the destructive, ignorant nature of his family culture—he has developed a terrible depression. The middle brother, unable to get attention for being intellectually above or below average, is the favorite of their jealous and bitter mother. Over time, he becomes jealous and bitter himself, and gains control of the family’s dwindling assets and reputation. From the viewpoint of their black maid, the family is representative of an entire diminishing southern culture. A culture that struggles to juggle paradoxes: retaining prestige and honor while being conniving and cruel; striving for faith and virginity while dealing with suicide and promiscuity.

Father Compson is a reckless alcoholic. Mother Compson is a bitter hypochondriac. Both are secretly nihilists who crave the outward visage of a wholesome, traditional Southern family. The Compson children are walking contradictions: people forced to compare their family’s prestige during a time of racial domination to the realities of ignorance and hatred imbedded in that culture. The youngest, retarded brother is unable to perceive it fully, and this saves him from having to confront these terrible clashes of morality. The oldest brother is unable to restore parity between his culture’s mix of innocence and ignorance, and commits suicide. The middle brother, while becoming head of the household, slips further into the ugliness of that culture, favoring material wealth and social standing over those around him.

The events of this year have starkly reflected the themes in the The Sound and the Fury. We have lacked a real, intellectually conservative debate on important issues, and instead get the bitter nihilism of lawmakers looking to maintain the status quo for the sake of power and control. Though it was published in 1929, The Sound and the Fury presents a set of worldviews that are still politically potent.

Not to say that it’s necessarily wrong. But sometimes we operate our lives under a certain set of badly informed assumptions based on past traditions. Our cars require gas. Our homes regain the value they had at the height of economic boom. Social Security lasts forever. We can prevent our enemies from getting nuclear weapons. We defend our allies to the death. Abstinence-only education prevents pregnancies. The earth’s climate cannot change rapidly. The military is not a place for gay people. The United States is the largest economy in the world. We can completely end worldwide terrorism. If we keep on doing what we’re doing, consuming the things we’ve always consumed, and wanting the things we’ve always wanted, things will somehow go back to the way they were during an older, idyllic time. These are traditionally American assumptions.

But times change; that’s what modernism’s all about. At some point, we’re all going to have to face the music: that we live in the future and not the past. Many of these traditions might just be wrong. Attempting to preserve them and preserve a government culture that never actually existed completely ignores the possibilities for revolutionarily positive change. Fear of long-term, structural change causes some people to obsess over these “traditional” values or ideas, but when you get down to it, they may not apply to us any longer.

Everyone is fearful in their own way. Change is scary, and represents death: the death of a habit, the death of an idea, the death of a way of life. Despite that fear, some things you simply cannot argue with. Despite that fear, the world is going to change, whether you like it or not. The BP oil spill showed us that multinational corporations have the power to screw up the environment. It can happen, and has. WikiLeaks has shown us that our national security networks are not impenetrable. The Chinese economy has shown us that we are not the only economic superpower in the world. The Catholic Church has shown us that faith-based institutions can lie to you on a horrific, disgusting scale.

The United States government knows we’re dealing with hard financial times, and is taking measures to balance every budget it has. But we still need firefighters, police officers, food and drug administrators, environmental auditors, corporate tax auditors, transportation agents, a well structured military, streamlined state programs, a solid community college system, building and safety departments, water sanitation workers, street repair and sanitation workers, disease control specialists, nuclear scientists, judges, criminal lawyers, subsidized farmers, ATF agents, city planners and designers, mayors, civil rights lawyers, copyright and patent officers, federal student loan officers, fish and wildlife agents, geologists and their surveys, teachers, principals, school counselors, and a board of education that listens to local community members. We enjoy going to botanical gardens, libraries, historical landmarks, national and state forests, city parks, government job fairs, beaches and coastal areas, veteran hospitals, visitor centers, national, state, county, and city museums. And though none of those things come cheap, we expect them anyway.

In America, we tell ourselves that we’re capitalists, and we think that everyone’s on the same page when it comes to that. We think we pay our too-high taxes when we need to, and then go out in the world to make a ton of money for ourselves like the good little social Darwinists we consider ourselves to be.

But Americans are clearly in denial. Unabashed capitalism almost completely ruined our economy, and the reality of this is causing free market intellectuals to question the intentions and usefulness of laissez-faire capitalism. Coming to grips with this realization is imploding the intellectual wing of many conservative movements. Others, in true nationalistic fashion, cannot conceive of an America that is not constantly “on top.” These people know the world is different now, but cannot seem to come to grips with the concept that it won’t go back to something that never existed. What’s worse, these same people cannot see that society was not better off during their seemingly idyllic past. But that’s just it: change (even positive change) simply isn’t a part of that reality. They cannot see it changing, physically or psychologically.

Lastly, we know that some people deal with the changing world cynically and/or opportunistically. In The Sound and the Fury, the middle brother forces his sister to give up her daughter’s guardianship so he can steal her support payments. When his niece runs away and steals back her own money along with his life savings, he is trapped. Capturing her would require admitting that he had been stealing from her all along, and so, rather than press the issue with police, he gives up pursuit and disowns her.

What else could he do though? His financial future was solely dependent on swindling the person who—financially—depended on him the most, and that lack of honesty and foresight ultimately lead to their family’s further downfall.

These holidays, I’d like you to remember that the world will change throughout the course of your life. And you will encounter people who will desperately struggle to maintain the status quo, citing “tradition.” Many are not doing it for their own benefit. Some simply do not know any other way. Some cannot come to grips with the reality of that change. Some cannot envision an alternative to the reality they’re experiencing. Some can only approach change cynically. Or worst of all, some may be afraid of that change, and lash out against it violently.

But during these times, we cannot be self-destructive, deliberately ignorant, or cynical about the process of change. Instead, we need to think about the greater good and be bold about the decisions we make. Despite whatever fears you may have as a liberal-minded reader of FourStory, next year isn’t a step in the wrong direction. By its very nature, every step into the future is a step forward, and one way or another we all must come to grips with that.

So Happy 2011. Another decade forward.

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