What Would Faulkner Do?

WWFD?
Oprah has announced that her Summer 2005 Book Club will comprise Faulkner's difficult yet beautiful books The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, and Light in August. Lucky for the multitudes, Oprah has chosen not to begin the assignment with The Sound and the Fury but with As I Lay Dying, a choice that, entertainingly, mimics the order in which I read Faulkner, beginning when I was fourteen. I am reminded of the many heated debates Christian and I engaged in during our long drives in the West regarding the importance of Faulkner (or lack thereof from one perspective). Will this truly mean a renaissance of Faulkner's popularity outside of Southern Literature classes? What will the average Oprah Book Club reader get out of The Sound and the Fury? Does this "average Oprah Book Club reader" actually exist? And what went into Ms. Winfrey's decision to revisit Yoknapatawpha County? I am just endlessly intrigued by this. I don't know why I should be. Oprah has not ever really shied away from chosing difficult books. She has variously chosen Anna Karenina, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and She's Come Undone (an intense read, if not exactly Tolstoy). So I'm not sure why the choice of Faulkner merited blogging, except to express my hope/fear that this could mean the emergence of an unlikely subculture of Faulkner enthusiasts.