Light In August Lesson Plan

Discuss Mrs. Beard's comment that if Byron "had more than mansense [he] would know that women dont mean anything when they talk. It's menfolks that take talking serious" (419).

This is one of the most succinct ways in which the novel ties the pursuit of knowledge to language and men, and the gift of intuition to silence and women. Mrs. Beard is likely not saying that women speak idly or foolishly, but rather that they speak about things of no real consequence because they understand that language cannot properly account for reality, particularly the existential and metaphysical aspects of reality that men busy themselves with trying to understand (i.e. try to capture...