I can scream like a cicada, gin the seed right out the boll

[sovay]

This thing where I missed out on most of the Western canon in school turns up in the weirdest places. After knowing the song for at least fifteen years, I just learned this morning that the Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Wash Jones" was inspired by—or at least shares a name with—a character in William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (1936), which I have never read. I always just thought of it as a great American trickster song. I was talking to an oak tree when a cypress butted in. Out of car parts, a raven made a nest inside my skin. To understand me better, you all ought to follow me home. I make a wish, I clean the fish, Lord, that's why they call me Wash Jones. It was the first song I heard by the group, even before their legendary "Hell," and it guaranteed I would look for the rest of their music, which did seem to come from some time-slipped, hot-jazz, hallucinogenic South; I like it even in its earlier version. I suppose I should read more Faulkner one of these days.

I hate apartment-hunting, but it is once again my plan for the rest of the day. Autolycus is sacked out on my desk and Hestia has claimed the cool dark space under the bed; they blink at me sleepily as I move around the room. I tell them they have no idea what I do for their sakes. They are good cats, even if you can't trust Autolycus with a yogurt drink.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

...whereas I have read the Faulkner (my father sent it to me, when I was at boarding school and he was remarrying; it's complicated, but I got a lot of books), and don't know the music at all.

[sovay]

...whereas I have read the Faulkner (my father sent it to me, when I was at boarding school and he was remarrying; it's complicated, but I got a lot of books), and don't know the music at all.

What did you think of the novel? Rather obviously, I recommend the song!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I was ... a little bit consumed by Faulkner. I was a teenager, and willing to be led by the nose by my dad (because he'd left home, and what contact else did we have?), and I am not at all sure at this distance how reliable my judgement was; but Absalom, Absalom! and As I Lay Dying are engraved in my mind as criteria, I guess. This was how the thing was done, and the thing was worth doing, oh so much worth the doing.