They had become archetypes, legendary heroes and villains, symbolical figures and grossly caricatured figures. It is true that Faulkner wrote about them with glittering brilliance, with flashes of demonic power, with frequent spasms of cruel and gusty humor and with compassion for the suffering of mortal men. He was probably as near to a genius as can be found among American writers. He scorned to write as well as he could. Characters with the same names seem like different people in different books.
Dates are confused.
Anecdotes are repeated and contradict each other. This kind of sloppiness irritated many non-Faulknerians. But their chief objections were two. The famous Faulkner style was more than many could put up with. Its marathon sentences, its peculiar words used peculiarly, its turgid incoherence and its thick viscosity repelled.