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A spiral within a drop
This was the hardest emblem to create. The five armed spiral accomplishes the complexity of varying speeds while also representing the five family members of the Bundren family who are the main story tellers. As was already alluded, all five begin from a central point, in this case Addie’s death. Each of the spirals expands away from the other spirals to show that while all of the narration is catalyzed by one point they manifest differently.
The water droplet is the microcosmic representation of the story arc which depicts the Bundren’s coming to a felled bridge, attempting to find an alternate route, but ultimately returning to the first path to attempt to ford the river. The droplet literally gives visual clues to water, but the tear shape also lends itself to the idea that a single event may contain multiple perspectives all moving at different paces. The droplet nature also lends itself to the idea that this is simply one event in a pond of multiple others, and when it finally incorporates into the whole it will loose its form.
Whirlpool, the maker of fridges and other home appliances, uses a spiral that floats about the ‘W’ of its name in its logo. On the surface this whirlpool is representative of the ‘whirlpool’ of water created in such devices as washing machines so as to remind the customer what the company produces. This particular spiral is actually two clockwise spirals that meet in the center.
Appliances have not seen a whole lot of innovation over the past years. In particular, major household appliances that are seen as necessary seem to have hit a threshold. The spiral and its implicit ties to five and regeneration invite the viewer to imagine the company growing with the times and regenerating its past success. To avoid the cold negative connotations of a technology company the spiral also brings an organic feel to the company.
As a technology company the spiral can represent quick growth during technological advancement and also a more sober, conservative growth during tough economic times (such as these). While technology is firmly based in science, to many the function of these technologies is ‘magical’ and the whirlpool with its five guided spiral is representative of that mysticism.
Whirlpool's Logo
There is no set number for quickness. The number four with its geometric square is the best at visualizing the stagnant nature of certain parts of the book, while the number five and the spiral with geometrically larger arms could represent the rapid pace of other parts. The number one could also work to represent those sections which are disjointed and yet related. A line is the quickest path between two points, and so the number one also represents the quick pace of certain sections.
Five wins out over the other numbers for a few reasons though. Since a spiral (the visual of five) starts at a point it effectively encompasses the number one. Depending on which direction a person ‘reads’ the spiral also determines the speed. Reading outwards shows ‘looser’ slower spirals while reading in shows ‘tighter’ faster spirals. The spiral emanates from the center just as the story emanates from Addie.
While five represents regeneration Faulkner’s story is seemingly about degeneration. The body of Addie degenerates, Darl descends into madness, and even Cash’s leg disintegrates. However there is growth and regeneration within the novel. Dewey-Dell is carrying on the biological regeneration of human kind in her womb. Vardman and Cash’s minds become more sharply honed and mature to fill the gap of maturity left after Darl is declared crazy and is carted off. Anse even takes on another wife to fill the void left by Addie.
Faulkner writes of the funeral procession with particular emphasis not on the procession but on the times when the family stops and is deterred from it’s completion. Normally such a plot would fall under the umbrella of a slow pace, but the way in which Faulkner narrates these events creates a temporal whirlpool; at times quick, then slow, and sometimes plain stagnant. There are 5 children a husband and wife and various characters from assorted towns through which the novel is characterized and each has a specific pace that they set.
At the quickest end of the spectrum is the youngest Bundren, Vardman, who is incapable of creating coherent thoughts. This trait shows in his chapters which are riddled with incomplete thoughts, broken grammar, and disconnected timelines. The shortest but perhaps most all-encompassing chapter of the book merely states “My mother is a fish” (84) and is accredited to Vardman. This simple sentence seems stagnant and doesn’t move the actual plot of the story but sheds light on Vardman’s final understanding that (like the fish he helped slaughter) his mother is dead. Grammatically Vardman’s sections rarely contain punctuation and give the impression of a quick stream of consciousness rant rather than a maturely formed thought. Also his sense of time jumps, at times describing a few minutes in a line, other times traversing hours in a single sentence.
Moving to a more stagnant pace we arrive at passages by the townsfolk and Addie herself. Each townie is privy to only a select portion of the Bundren quest and are what I would call dead ends. The sections work to intensify select scenes but are incomplete. They are a focal point in the stream of the story but as they move nowhere and seemingly come from nowhere they are akin to stagnant pools which the Bundren stream feeds and then departs from. Addie, who is at the center of the novel (thematically and literally, her section is about halfway through the book) is another dead end pool. Interestingly though her juxtaposition in the novel is one of only a handful of a-chronological chapter. This is trivially true as her death inspires the book, but the placement of her chapter at the middle of the book seems to anchor all of the movement (whether fast or slow) in something concrete (that is the past, which cannot change).
Finally, Darl, the ‘quote’ deepest ‘end quote’ character slows down the plot pace but continues to carry it to an end. His descriptive use of language narrates the major scenes of the novel such as the fording of the flooded river. These scenes action take place in a set amount of time but Darl drags them out in his carefully used language.
Thus, as with all the other experiences of Faulkner, quickness is exposed to be a dynamic range from the stopped pools of the past to the quickly bubbling brook of the present and all speeds in between.
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