Brain Pain discussion

The word “nigger” shows up many times throughout the book and is used by white characters and black characters alike. In the Jason section (part 3) it is used in a particularly derogatory and hateful way by Jason Compson.

Many people discount Faulkner’s body of work for his free use of the word in his books. Faulkner’s work is set in a fictional county in Mississippi in the 19th and early 20th century. The history of that time involves slavery and later violent racial segregation. As offensive as the word may be in our time, it’s presence in Faulkner’s work is an accurate representation of American history.

Whatever your own opinions may be, I believe we can discuss this word and its history in the context of the times and places that Faulkner’s fiction represents.

Please share your comments in a respectful manner.

It's a hateful disgusting derogatory word - for English speakers. However, it's a fact of history. I don't think books should be censored, especially books written a century ago when the words were common in everyday use. But I think copious notes and explanations should be included with all future printings. This word IS a special category of pain, still ongoing and sensitive. Some older people are confused at its apparent name-calling status, believing it as neutral of a word as tree. Others who speak a foreign language use words that sound like it, but are in fact simply their word to describe black people and is not derogatory any more than White is (normally).

Recently, a public figure used the word 'niggardly' and set off a firestorm because many people thought it was the actual N word. I saw on CNN someone raging over niggardly while the more literate commentator tried in vain to explain what the word in question meant. Once he was able to explain adequately, the other person was angry because she then felt he was publicly humiliating her with her ignorance.

The word 'Gay' has changed as well, so that I heard a conversation in my own family where shock was expressed that homosexuality was discussed in 1860 in a classic book. This person in my family is fundamentalist, and she felt public schools were a devil's recruitment center because of her misunderstanding of the older definition. I kept quiet. What could I say until we were alone, and of course, she still was humiliated.

Many people are not readers, so what they understand of history or literature is at the level of elementary school. It's not only a problem of word meaning migration, or a slavery word for expressing an overt superiority.

What I'm mystified by is the use of the word among black people themselves, both as an endearment and an insult. I'm part Native American, and at least in my circle in the past we didnt use racial derogatory names for ourselves, except when expressing that a person was doing too much white ass licking.

Some of these upsets that pass through society leave me full of despair.

April the Cheshire Meow wrote: "It's a hateful disgusting derogatory word - for English speakers. However, it's a fact of history. I don't think books should be censored, especially books written a century ago when the words were..."

Racist epithets will likely exist as long as there are groups in competition/conflict. Racial, religious, ethnic, socioeconomic differences are breeding grounds for mistrust, fear, violence, and so on. Where, if anywhere in the world, do derogatory words of one kind or another not exist? We are angry and aggressive creatures and express our negative feelings about others in nasty little labels.

"I don't think books should be censored, especially books written a century ago" BOOKS SHOULD NOT BE CENSORED PERIOD..NO MATTER WHEN WRITTEN..

Dan wrote: ""I don't think books should be censored, especially books written a century ago" BOOKS SHOULD NOT BE CENSORED PERIOD..NO MATTER WHEN WRITTEN.."

True that.

When Faulkner was writing, "nigger" was a part of their everyday language. Now, in the U.S., it is considered a taboo and is labeled "hate speech". Yet, it is all over pop music, films, and so on, so it's designation as hate speech is user-dependent. A strange situation.

For written work, if the writer is black, then they can use "nigger" as part of their personal experience. What if a white writer uses it as dialogue among black characters? Or uses it as hate speech dialogue among neo-nazi characters?

A massive ethical can-o-worms, no?

aPriL MEOWS often with scratching wrote: "What I'm mystified by is the use of the word among black people themselves, both as an endearment and an insult. ..."

This also mystifies me. I attended Job Corps when I was young and everywhere you went you would hear this word being used in that way. But oh the furor that would arise if a white person (trying to fit in) was to use it like the African American kids were using it. I have also come upon this word being used in period Children's books. Such as The Story of Doctor Dolittle and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In fact these books have been banned at times because of this one word that fit the time period.

The thing about racial slurs is that the people they're addressed to can and often do reclaim them and use the as empowering tools - when the people who've been using that racial slur as an insult for centuries, it's just that - an insult. It's important for everyone to realize their complicity to racism in all its manifestations, including language - honestly, not using a certain word / words is extremely easy and takes absolutely no effort. From my (luckily limited) experience with hateful language, I can say that words often have different meanings for different groups of people. I'm from Romania currently living in Scotland and I cringe whenever somebody calls me 'Eastern European', especially if that person is British or American, because there's a lot of xenophobia tied up in that term, the 'you're the evil, non-European invader come to steal our jobs and destroy our democracy' rhetoric just starts playing in my head whenever I hear that phrase - because I've heard that kind of rhetoric directed at me (or people like me) so many times. But I will sometimes identify as 'Eastern European', especially when talking about experiences of immigration etc, because 90% of the time, even when Brits / Americans try to be 'polite' or 'sensitive' and use less offensive language, they still think of me as being 'Eastern European' - and their attitude and the way that attitude is reflected in discriminatory legislation affects my life, including my perception of my identity to a very high degree.

Andreea wrote: "The thing about racial slurs is that the people they're addressed to can and often do reclaim them and use the as empowering tools - when the people who've been using that racial slur as an insult ..."

I've always had mixed feelings about the reclamation/empowerment idea. Yes, reclaiming 'nigga', 'queer' and so on have their political and psychological power, they also keep the words alive and I think that makes it difficult to close gaps between groups.

I haven't been in Europe long enough to hear 'Eastern European' used in the way you describe. My great-grandparents all emigrated to the U.S. in the 1890's from 8 different central and eastern European countries - Germany, Poland, Italy, Sicily, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, and Slovakia. In their time, they were the invading hordes stealing jobs, like working in the coal mines, sweat shops, domestics and so on. Their children - my grandparents - were those dirty-faced children working in the mills in Jacob Riis' photographs.

In Faulkner, the word 'nigger' has a very different meaning from the economic antagonism of recent immigrants. In the U.S., African slaves were looked at as being an inferior sub-species. The biggest fear was of miscegenation and the corruption of the white race. In Absalom, Absalom!, the whole saga of Thomas Sutpen hinges on the subject of white people being made 'impure' by having any 'nigger' blood in their family. This is the ugliness of 19th century American history and is why the word is so charged with controversy.

OMG this conversation is definitely being had by white people.

Anyway though: as another white person, I went on this Hemingway / Faulkner / Steinbeck kick* and Faulkner's the only dude who even really has black people in his books. And not only that: Dilsey (the mom servant, and by default the matriarch of the whole Compson family) is (arguably, but not much arguably) the only likable or competent person in the book. Right?

So...nigger meant what it meant and now it means what it means. It was cool for Twain's characters to say it, and it's cool for Faulkner's to say it, and it's cool for you to write a story tomorrow where dudes say it. Stories are about what they're about, and I think Faulkner is really trying to deal with black people in a way most other white writers weren't. I give him a lot of respect for it. I think he had his shit in the right place.

* I also went on this Harlem Renaissance kick, I read Cane and Nella Larsen and Black No More and Their Eyes Were Watching God. Just, y'know, so you don't think I'm racist.

Alex wrote: "OMG this conversation is definitely being had by white people.

Anyway though: as another white person, I went on this Hemingway / Faulkner / Steinbeck kick* and Faulkner's the only dude who even ..."

True that meanings change with time. Although it has never been a positive word since it serves to define and oppress one group versus another.

I actually started this topic because many people are so violently opposed to the word that they dismiss Faulkner and Twain as being too racist to warrant a serious reading.

And the sad thing is that those are two of the only white writers to engage with race in some sort of meaningful way. Sigh.