Talk:Light in August

Light in August has been listed as one of the Language and literature good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
November 30, 2012	Good article nominee	Listed

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Racial Themes/Blackness as impurity[edit]

I just considerably bulked up the sectionn on racial issues in the book. It is probably the most important and most used symbolism in the book, yet there was very little on it. It's a tocuhy subject, so I want others to play around with it and expand it. -Terry 12:46, 31 December 2005

I didn't find much light in this book

The light in august isn't a very bright light. i actually found the book to be extremely dark. My name is Edwin and I have a problem. I am addicted to literature! someone else with this problem, please reach out and leave a message! thanks love you lots and lots!

I read this story for school, and honsetly didn't really enjoy it (i would much rather have a stephen king). though one thing did stick out to me, if Joe Christmas is suposed to represent Jesus Christ, then his foil character, Lena Grove, would have to be his antithesis, The devil. anyone else think this? Lena is always portrayed as inocent and naieve even though from the begining she is an unmarried pregnant woman, not very naieve to me, but the devil is just the same as her, always tempting and beautiful. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.145.157.237 (talk) 19:07, 27 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:Light3etfg3.jpg[edit]

Image:Light3etfg3.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 23:46, 13 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Title/Pregnancy[edit]

In reference to the use of "light" as a slang word for pregnancy Faulkner stated, "I have never heard of that" (Faulkner in the University, p. 265), and affirmed that the word refers to the literal 2 or 3 days of "light" in August, during the "Blackberry Winter." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.188.186.11 (talk) 17:24, 23 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why is almost the entire intro devoted to a discussion of the origin of the title of the book which concludes that the anecdote discussed is "probably apocryphal"? I don't think that belongs in the intro. Also, something is either apocryphal or it isn't apocryphal, but it's not "probably apocryphal". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.157.55.127 (talk) 01:43, 13 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Lacking sources, not neutral POV[edit]

Almost the whole article is made up of opinions, not supported by any outside source, about the style, structure, themes, and symbolism of the book. Unfortunately I think it needs to be completely rewritten. Statements about the symbolism of the book, and other expressions of literary criticism, have no place in an encyclopedia article unless you are quoting properly cited sources. --Sylvia A (talk) 08:03, 27 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No reception?[edit]

I really like having literary criticism of the novel in the article, but I understand that it can't be original research or opinions. One thing that is definitely missing is an account of how the book was received at the time of its publication. See The Great Gatsby's article for an example of what I mean. Koifishkid (talk) 01:33, 6 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Some comments and suggestions[edit]

I'm not an expert on these book articles, but here are some thoughts after a quick look. I have a few suggestions about how to expand it further/make it more accessible to those who aren't familiar with the subject matter.

WP:OVERLINKING seems to be a bit of an issue here, double check for common words that can be de-linked.
The lead seems a bit bare, I'd suggest trying to expand it a bit.
I'd also consider trying to condense the number of paragraphs in the plot section.
Perhaps mention the German translation (from See also) in the prose, like you do the French.
I see "Southern Gothic" mentioned in the infobox and category, but, unless I'm mistaken, I don't think it's been worked into the prose--might want to add that.
Adding more details from period reviews might be useful, perhaps someone with Highbeam/Questia/JSTOR could help?
Are there many similarities between this and his other works? The impression that I got was that it was, but if more could be said about its place among Faulkner's body or literature that might be nice. (Of course, it all depends on the availability of sourcing.)
On that note, you state that "Though not typically considered Faulkner's best novel, Light in August was recognized early on as being "a major text, central to any understanding or evaluation of his career as a whole."" You should probably attribute that quote in-text. Also, are there any commentators who do consider it his best novel?
You mention that it is a modernist book, perhaps you could add more about that? For example, was it an early modernist work or was it written in the heyday of modernism? etc.
"Many of the early critics ... focused on Faulkner's technical innovation in the field of narrative but missed or ignored the regional details and interconnectedness of the characters and setting to other works by the author." Could you say more about how the novel was innovative or interconnected? (No need to add too much, of course.)
A more general note, for non-American readers some mention of the state of race relations then/in that region might be helpful.
Noting where Faulkner was from might be helpful too.
Overall, looks pretty strong--good work! The Call of Cthulhu (talk) 20:47, 21 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you – all extremely helpful suggestions! I'll work on incorporating these in :) Accedie^{talk to me} 19:00, 24 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

GA Review[edit]

This review is transcluded from Talk:Light in August/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Tomcat7 (talk · contribs) 14:10, 30 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

It is reasonably well written.
a (prose): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):
It is factually accurate and verifiable.
a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):
It is broad in its coverage.
a (major aspects): b (focused):
It follows the neutral point of view policy.
Fair representation without bias:
It is stable.
No edit wars, etc.:
It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.
a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
Overall:
Pass/Fail:

I think the second paragraph of the lead is a bit too large.
All references, except 15, do not point to any citation. Most of them do not have either dates or pages, so that explains the errors
Overall I don't see any remarkable issues.

Lede[edit]

The lede to the article has too much of an extensive plot summary. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.190.181.180 (talk) 12:58, 17 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Was any of Faulkner's works really "banned" in Nazi Germany?[edit]

The article's author maintains that ′soon after′ an initial phase of approval, ′Faulkner's works were banned by the Nazis′. This, however, would have meant that he and/or his books would have been blacklisted by the ′Reichsschrifttumskammer′. I can find no proof for this. On the contrary, Faulkner's works seem to have been available in Germany throughout the Nazi era. Apparently they were not removed from public libraries either. The Nazi authorities' misinterpretation of Faulkner's political views and intentions seems to have lasted to the very end. The fact that, not only in ′Light in August′, Faulkner's characters make frequent use of the "N" word (faithfully reproduced in the German translation by Franz Fein) may have contributed to misunterstanding him as a racist author, while he was only reflecting common racism in the American South of his days.92.79.101.164 (talk) 08:47, 18 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

It's referenced so check the reference. See A William Faulkner Encyclopedia, pages 146-7. LiteratureCompanion (talk) 13:31, 18 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]