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Time to read a Faulkner’s “The Hamlet” again, for the portrait of that great American Capitalist Flem Snopes. Flem is the son of Ab Snopes, the barely competent dirt farmer and utterly inept wannabe horse dealer whose one talent is titanic vindictiveness, scorched-earth rage.... https://twitter.com/mr_electrico/status/1273461914941763584
But it’s not the earth that Ab Snopes burns; its the barns do anybody who rents a farm to him and makes the mistake of crossing this desperate reckless rage. When the Snopeses arrive in Frenchman’s Bend Flem leverages this threat into a white collar job at his landlord’s store.2/
Varner’s store is the center of an empire of exploitation kept at just barely tolerable levels. Varner cheats but within bounds and takes no more trouble over the store than is necessary to his comfort. Flem starts as a store clerk but soon becomes... a management consultant. 3/
There is a lot of passion in this novel but the one person who doesn’t have any is Flem. He is single minded in pursuit of money, he’s pure calculation. You might remember the dream sequence when he arrives in hell, to reclaim the soul he sold to Satan...4/
They look for it but all they find is a greasy stain in an empty matchbox so Flem forecloses on Hell. In the real world he’s been monetizing the entire economy of Frenchman’s Bend and everybody owes him money. 5/
Flem has figured out that there is more money to be made trafficking in debt than in cans of sardines or plough line or any of the necessities of life or even the cotton being farmed. Even the blacksmiths shop becomes a nonfuctioning money-extracting private equity operation.6/
And so this man is just consuming everything, indifferent to what anything is in itself. This is the entire point of the Eula Varner narrative. He takes everything that people desire, even beauty, the earth’s generous bounty, and he has no desire, no enjoyment.
OK so we get to the wild horses section, when Flem and Eula come back from Texas accompanied by the new baby, a string of completely weird looking wild horses, and a Texan of extremely dubious character. It’s spring, planting season. 8/
At the auction Henry Armstid, one of the poorest farmers, mugs snatches the knitting money she has been saving up to buy clothes for the children and uses it to buy one of the horses. Neither a Flem nor the Texan will help him catch it and when he tries he breaks his leg.9/
This is a catastrophe. He can’t afford to pay someone to do the work, and if he doesn’t have a crop he doesn’t have anything to borrow against in order to subsist through the planting season
So his family starts being hungry today o’clock.10/
So his family starts being hungry today o’clock.10/
Henry’s wife asks the Texan and Flem to take the horse back and give them the money. She’s begging. The whole town is watching. Both men deny ownership of the horses. She doesn’t fight back,she doesn’t argue. She starts to walk away and Flem calls her back and gives her...11/
...a couple sticks of candy.
That $1200 you got was your candy from Flem Snopes.
If you get more you might start believing you have a right to it, and capital does not intend to tolerate that belief.
End of thread.
That $1200 you got was your candy from Flem Snopes.
If you get more you might start believing you have a right to it, and capital does not intend to tolerate that belief.
End of thread.
