Original artwork, not a still
The Wild Palms ‧ 1939
Between grief and nothing I will take grief.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Harry's choice is the book's whole bargain: love that cost everything is still worth remembering in pain. It is quoted at funerals and on break-up posts because it says the thing grief hardly lets people say, that suffering is proof something mattered.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for The Wild PalmsShow the scene
The line belongs to Harry Wilbourne, the doomed lover in the Wild Palms half of William Faulkner's 1939 novel The Wild Palms. Charlotte dies after the abortion he attempted on her, and Harry is sentenced to fifty years' hard labour. Charlotte's husband slips him a cyanide pill so that he can take the easy way out; Harry refuses it and tells himself he will keep his grief rather than have nothing. The novel was later reissued under Faulkner's own title, If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem, from 1990.
Sources (1)
- Wikipedia: The Wild PalmsPlot summary, Wild Palms strand; publicationReference checked
Context reviewed
