Comments on: Southern Gothic on steroids http://sherrychandler.com/2008/06/26/southern-gothic-on-steroids/ "On the last day of the world I would want to plant a tree.” — W.S. Merwin Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:21:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: sherry http://sherrychandler.com/2008/06/26/southern-gothic-on-steroids/comment-page-1/#comment-48447 sherry Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:24:42 +0000 http://sherrychandler.com/?p=3018#comment-48447 @MSW: Never good to hold a work of art to a socialogical standard, I suppose, but I was struck by the idea that all this anguish could be reduced to just another set of Southern eccentricities. Made me think of the neighbor we had when we lived in the Hyde Park area of Chicago. She was from New York City, and she said to me very emphatically one time, "Don't tell me that that stuff in Faulkner really happens because I know very well it does not." @MSW: Never good to hold a work of art to a socialogical standard, I suppose, but I was struck by the idea that all this anguish could be reduced to just another set of Southern eccentricities. Made me think of the neighbor we had when we lived in the Hyde Park area of Chicago. She was from New York City, and she said to me very emphatically one time, “Don’t tell me that that stuff in Faulkner really happens because I know very well it does not.”

]]> By: MSW http://sherrychandler.com/2008/06/26/southern-gothic-on-steroids/comment-page-1/#comment-48443 MSW Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:03:16 +0000 http://sherrychandler.com/?p=3018#comment-48443 The shame of it is, when I read that story, it was just one out of a large number of other stories I had to read, and so it never really stood out for me. I barely remembered it, until I read the parts you posted from it. So I don't know whether, in my experience, it moved much beyond the "St. Joseph's" reading or not. Because I sometimes got the feeling that those people down at MSU who most identified themselves as Southern writers, did so because it was the cool thing to do. They might have had some genuine understanding of their subject matter, especially those who came from rural Western Kentucky. But I got the sense that they were focused much more on becoming the Next Great Author, than on telling anything like the truth. Though, to be fair, the reason I have always been inclined to reject the title of Southern Writer for myself is because I don't think I can do it justice, myself. The shame of it is, when I read that story, it was just one out of a large number of other stories I had to read, and so it never really stood out for me. I barely remembered it, until I read the parts you posted from it. So I don’t know whether, in my experience, it moved much beyond the “St. Joseph’s” reading or not. Because I sometimes got the feeling that those people down at MSU who most identified themselves as Southern writers, did so because it was the cool thing to do. They might have had some genuine understanding of their subject matter, especially those who came from rural Western Kentucky. But I got the sense that they were focused much more on becoming the Next Great Author, than on telling anything like the truth.

Though, to be fair, the reason I have always been inclined to reject the title of Southern Writer for myself is because I don’t think I can do it justice, myself.

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