[lbo-talk] Wish I Was In Dixie (Re: The North's burden of enlightening the South (was Re: The "NAFTA Superhighway" Urban Myth)

B. docile_body at yahoo.com
Mon Nov 19 06:37:46 PST 2007


Andie, you basically reiterated what I said re: rock 'n roll (Carl Perkins from from Jackson, TN; Elvis from Tupelo, Miss; Billy Lee Riley, Arkansas; Orbison went to U. North Texas outside Dallas; and, yes, all gravitated to Memphis and Sun); Delta Blues, which I also mentioned; but one writer not mentioned is also Cormac McCarthy, who won the Pulitzer Prize this year, was born in TN, also received a McArthur Grant, and whose book _No Country For Old Men_ is now in theaters by way of the Coen brothers, apparently a fine film.

Having said that, and in answer to Doug, I did also say there's a lot about Southern culture I dislike as well, made pretty sure to qualify my statements. I've posted about things that suck, repeatedly. Like, for example, conservatives mobilizing against Rick Perry who tried give public school girls HPV vaccine. Conservatives mobilized against the GOP gov.; they thought if girls were immunized they'd become harlots, more likely to have sex. They shot that down. It's illegal to sell sex toys in TX; they must be sold as "novelties"; and "passion parties" (sex toy sales like tupperware parties) have been raided and shut down by the police. TX sodomy laws forced the Supreme Court;s hand. That's just a few among many. I've highlighted racist aspects constantly.

Having said that, I suspect folks highlight how odious the south is to prove how cosmopolitan they, by contrast, are. But often what the constant crapping-on-the-south shows is usually the exact opposite: their own provincialism.

-B.

andie nachgeborenen wrote:

"I grew up down South, and while if I never cross the Mason-Dixon line again it will be too soon (I may make an exception for New Orleans), I am more than aware of Dixie's contributions to US culture. Insofar as the US has a native artistic culture that isn't Jewish, it is largely Southern. Never mind Janis Joplin, listen to the people she listened too. The blues, Big Mama Thornton (Joplin's most direct inpiration), bluegrass, old-timy, and country music, rock n roll (Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Obison, and Carl Perkins were all Memphis products of Sun Records)"



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