Life & Wisdom Quote by Cliff Fadiman

Fadiman’s line flatters Faulkner by refusing the cheap thrill. “Of course” is the sly tell: a critic’s raised eyebrow, pretending the point is obvious while nudging you to notice how rare it actually is. In a culture that often treats “creepy” as a bodily reflex - goosebumps, jump scares, viscera - Fadiman insists Faulkner’s horror operates higher up the nervous system, where dread is conceptual before it’s physical. The verb choice matters. “Creep” is not “terrorize.” It’s slow, insinuating, an invasion that happens while you’re still trying to be reasonable.

The sentence also performs a bit of classed gatekeeping, the kind midcentury literary criticism wore like a well-cut suit. “Mind” versus “flesh” draws a polite line between serious art and pulpy sensation, between the reader who wants to be startled and the reader who wants to be unsettled. Faulkner becomes the author for people who think of fear as an ethical and psychological problem, not a roller-coaster effect.

Contextually, it fits Faulkner’s strongest atmospheres: the South as a haunted moral geography, where violence, inheritance, and shame don’t explode so much as seep. Fadiman’s intent is to recalibrate expectations. If you come looking for monsters, you’ll miss the real one - the way Faulkner makes you complicit, forcing you to feel the dread of a consciousness trapped inside history. That’s why it works: it markets unease as intelligence, and it makes the reader proud to be disturbed.