QUEERING FAULKNER

Keith Vaughan 1912-1977
Head with raised arm (1947)

QUEERING FAULKNER
________________________

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“For Faulkner, writing
is a kind of doubling
in which the author’s
self…is the Other.”
—John T. Irwin,
Doubling and Incest

Quentin and Caddy

Quentin Compson’s love—
For Dalton Ames doubles his
Incest with Caddy.

Dalton Ames doubles—
The same incest on the bridge
Doing the down-low.

He gets to know them—
Gets to know both Quentin &
Caddy Compson too.

This doubling incest—
Haunts Quentin all the way
To Harvard & Shreve.

Then they both go down—
Not only on each other
But the Sutpens too.

Henry and Judith

Both Henry & Bon—
As well as Judith Sutpen
Incestuous pairs.

There aint no eunuchs—
When it comes to the way that
Doubling incest works.

Shreve can’t understand—
But he tries to anyway
To understand how…

Southern decadence—
Dominates the daily lives
Of Delta Bourbons.

Benjy and Jim Bond

Child idiot sex—
Why is it different than
Dalton & Quentin?

Or Henry & Bon—
Doing the down-low
In the Old Miss dorms?

Quentin & young Shreve—
Doing the down-low back then
In the Harvard dorms?

Uncle Buck & Billy—
Doing the down-low going
Down on Moses then?

Faulkner and Writing

The magical place—
Created in-between both
Incest & Color…

Interracial—
Intergenerational
Incestuously.

Deep South decadence—
Dixie Carib gone culture
Three hundred years later.

Mandingo breeders—
Verandah story tellers
Oral tradition?

Oral intercourse—
Darkly retelling stories
And slave narratives.

Springing from loins—
Of African kings, princes
As well as queen bees.

Faulkner as Queen Bee—
Deep South Scheherazade voice
Retelling it all…