"Today our tragedy consists of a general and universal physical fear sustained for so long that we can even bear it. There are no more problems of the spirit." William Faulkner's reflections on the tragic fate of a species condemned to die destroyed by his enemies or to bear the blame for the destruction of his neighbor is a constant both in his work and, fundamentally, in his public interventions and non-fiction writings.
The consequences of World War II, the annihilation of thousands of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the start of a cold war marked by the nuclear threat marked the author of Sanctuary and The Wild Palms, the most European of North American writers in literature. contemporary and the great architect of a new narrative that marked the 20th century. He to the point of dedicating the reception speech for the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature to that unfortunate human condition and to literature as the only salvation table. It is the speech that we offer in its entirety.
For Faulkner, only the great and universal human aspirations that literature has reflected since its dawn can save humanity. Hence, he directs his speech to the new generations of writers to recover truly human values, individuality and free will, in the face of uncritical uniformity.
“The correct track is the one that leads to life, to the light of the sun. One cannot suffer incessantly from the cold”, he pointed out shortly before dying, torn between the business of war and the blind alley of pacifism, the commodification of fiction, which led him to become a Hollywood screenwriter, and the nightmare of alcohol.
”I believe that this honor is not conferred on my person, but on my work; the work of a lifetime in the agony and vicissitudes of the human spirit, not for glory and not for profit at all, but to create from the elements of the human spirit something that did not exist. So this distinction is mine only as a deposit. It will not be difficult to find, for the monetary part that it entails, a destination in accordance with the lofty purposes of its origin.
"But I would also like to do the same with renown, taking advantage of this moment as a pinnacle from which to listen to the young men and women who are dedicated to the same struggle and toil, among whom there is already one who will one day stand here where I am." I'm.
”Our current tragedy is a general fear throughout the world, suffered for so long that we have already learned to bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit; only this question remains: when will they eliminate me? Because of it, today's young writer or writer has forgotten the problems of contradictory feelings in the human heart, which alone can be the subject of good literature, since they alone are worth writing about and justify agony and pain. toils.
”That young writer must once again penetrate them. To learn that the greatest weakness is to be afraid, and after learning it to forget that fear forever, to leave no room in his writer's arsenal except for the ancient truths and realities of the heart, the eternal universal truths without which all history is ephemeral and predestined. to failure: love and honor, mercy and pride, compassion and sacrifice.
”As long as he does not do so, he will continue to work under a curse. She will not write of love, but of sensuality, of defeats in which no one loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His sorrows will not be universal sorrows and will not leave a mark. He will not write about the heart, but about the glands.
”As long as he does not grasp these things again, he will continue to write as if he were among men only observing the end of humanity. I refuse to accept the end of humanity.
“It is easy to say that man is immortal because he will endure; that when the last trumpet of destruction has sounded and its echo has died away amid the last useless rocks left by the tide and reddened by the twilight rays, still another sound will be heard: that of his feeble and inextinguishable voice still speaking.
”I also refuse to accept this.
“I believe that man will not simply endure, but will prevail. I believe that he is immortal not because he is the only creature that has an inextinguishable voice but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion, sacrifice and perseverance.
”The duty of the poet and the writer is to write about these attributes. Both have the privilege of helping man to persevere, lifting his heart, reminding him of the courage and honor, hope and pride, compassion, pity and sacrifice that have been the glory of his past.
"The writer's voice should not simply tell the story of man, it should serve as support, be one of the columns that sustain him to persevere and prevail."
