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Were Faulkner's works socially acceptable in his time?

William Faulkner's works tended to be critically well-received through his entire career, although they were not initially financially successful. Although Faulkner's frank discussions of racial issues and especially miscegenation would have offended some southerners, and some of the acts in the novels, such as the antics with the coffin in As I Lay Dying and the detailed description of Ike Snopes' sexual act with a cow in The Hamlet, would have been considered crude...

William Faulkner's works tended to be critically well-received through his entire career, although they were not initially financially successful. Although Faulkner's frank discussions of racial issues and especially miscegenation would have offended some southerners, and some of the acts in the novels, such as the antics with the coffin in As I Lay Dying and the detailed description of Ike Snopes' sexual act with a cow in The Hamlet, would have been considered crude in some circles, most readers felt that they were justified in the way that they were faithful to the premises of the novels rather than merely gratuitous grotesquery.


Faulkner's use of the word "nigger" was also justified by its faithfulness to how specific characters would have thought and its dramatic effect, as in the famous scene in Absalom, Absalom! where Henry is speaking to his half-black half-brother Bon:



[Henry says]:  — You are my brother.


[Bon responds]: — No I’m not. I’m the nigger that’s going to sleep with your sister. 



Although the word itself is taboo, Bon's use of it is dramatically justified.


Especially outside the deep south, the difficulty Faulkner had in finding acceptance for his work had more to do with the complex unconventional narrative structures of the novels than with social prejudices.

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