People hating on the South really angers me to no end. Mostly because they usually have never spent any time there. I know several academics, including friends, who say they will never apply for a job in the South. On one level, that's fine--more jobs for me! Especially since every town with more than 10,000 people seems to have a college. But it's also just stupid--ignorance and contempt for an entire part of your country that you aren't even beginning to try and understand. Sure the South has problems. But California doesn't? Nice governor you all have there.
I could go on, but I'll stop now.
It's a bit of a stretch to make that letter representative of the class divide. I think she's just an ass, and probably a snob (but that goes without saying since she bothered to write into Gourmet magazine). Your analysis may be 100% dead-on, but I always wonder when reading posts like this how using generalizations like "she's from Rolling Hills, CA" is somehow an apt argument when attacking the generalizations of someone else.
I'm definitely with Erik on the hating of the South. It's not the food or the culture why you should bag on the south (both of which I happen to enjoy), it's their idiotic obsession with SEC football that should be at the center of every South related jab.
the culinary diversity of the South alone is a subject worthy of a book. Too bad Waverly Root is dead. He's one of the few writers who could have done it justice. Off the bat I'm thinking of the West African, Huguenot, English, Spanish, and Moravian contributions.
Growing up down here, you begin to wonder why the South was unfairly burdened with so many dumbasses. Then a truckload of dumbasses from another part of the country shows up.
Awesome post. My favorite thing about food is that is can represent all the culture, politics, and bias we carry around with us... and we can express them in an instant without really realizing it. Great catch on that exchange in Gourmet.
Now on a more positive note, nothing can bring folks together quite like food can, either. I spent two years quieting down old-school ranchers-turned-develpers and new-school hippie farmers who hated each other simply by bringing chile to all our meetings. It didn't solve our big problems in that room, but I like to think it helped bridge the divide a little bit for the next utopian planner who tries to do the same thing. And when the two folks fighting over development issues run into each other at their kids' school, commenting on the great enchiladas they had last week is infinitely better than launching threats or attacks about the meeting next week.
As a liberal myself, I'm a little confused by the part of the post where you assume that M-Dub "self-identifies as liberal." There's no doubt that lots of rich people from California are the kind of jerk that writes in to Gourmet to flaunt their dubious taste and judgment by offering an opinion nobody asked for. It's also certainly possible that she's a (self-proclaimed) liberal, although it's not the way I'd bet. Rich people in Southern California are at least as likely to vote Republican; these are the stomping grounds of "B-1 Bob" Dornan, for years the craziest wingnut in Congress.
However, while we're getting our textual-interpretive freak on, let's note that the way you've framed the issue presented by the letter - that it "speak[s] to real issues regarding the class divide" - ends by associating liberal politics with an elitist boob who "considers those red states in the "southern part of the United States" to be backwards and unsophisticated." This is exactly the way Republicans have been framing political discourse in this country for decades - that liberals are effete snobs who look down on the "real Americans" that (not coincidentally) live in heavily Republican states. I'm frankly surprised to find a reification of this largely erroneous Republican talking point appended to your analysis for no readily discernably purpose.
There are snobs everywhere who hold the attitudes you see in Ms. W's silly letter. Many of them are conservatives who hold in contempt the very people whose political support they depend on. Whether Ms. W is a conservative, a liberal, or (most likely) doesn't worry herself with politics at all, she is still a nincompoop.
As someone who has lived extensively in the South (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee) before settling in New York, I also take offense at those have never spent any time in the South outside of southern Florida or Atlanta and have preconceptions about it.
There's also a racial component in the letter writer's comment. As Aaron notes, there's a strong West African component to southern cuisine. Okra, peanuts and any number of spices common to southern cooking have their roots in Africa.
I also have no use for the term "redneck." It is a class-based term for poor white southerners (who comprise half of my ancestry, btw) and perpetuates a stereotype.
Finally, many years ago I worked for a lecture agency that represented among others, Claire Bloom when she was involved with Phillip Roth. She did a one-woman show called "Shakespeare's Women," in which she interpreted several of Shakespeare's most important woman characters. My sales territory covered the South and every major university wanted to have her there: Ole Miss, U of AL, Georgia, UNC, UTenn, Emory, Tulane, LSU, etc.
Roth replied "She has no desire to do any dates in the South." I told my boss that I would like to hear her say that, but Roth, a sexist swine if there ever was one wouldn't budge.
I would gladly rate the works of Faulkner, Welty and O'Connor more favorably than anything of Roth's.
Aaron, thanks for getting your freak on!
You're right, of course, about framing. I'm projecting a little to the kind of rich So Cal liberal with which I am really familiar (they are certainly not the majority, but it is a particular genus that does exist). And Gustav called me out on letting my blue collar working class biases show a little much as well. Your point about the "reification of this largely erroneous talking point" is well taken, but there remains a real divide that isn't completely fictional. It's the "liberals driving Hondas" argument-- auto workers from the Rust Belt hate that most of the people in largely democratic states like CA don't drive union made cars.
(Honda and Toyota have a lot of assembly plants in the US, but most are non-union). Buying an American made car may seem to many like needless patriotism, but it's a big political issue in the Midwest because it's linked to livelihood and the viability of union manufacturing. There are a number of differences between large voting blocs that don't fit neatly into our rigid two-party system. The right has put the screws to the issue and magnified it to absurdity, but that doesn't mean there isn't some truth to it.
(And FYI, I'm not calling out people who drive non-union made cars, I'm just providing an example)
In any event, as you said, her political alignment doesn't really matter and we have no way of knowing anyway. Thanks for the comment!
Roth is an asshole, but he's still the greatest living American novelist. He's the perfect example of how I feel about many artists: I may love their work but I hope I never know them. But being a bad person doesn't affect my thoughts about the art. And Roth is just fantastic.
I'm glad you qualified that as "living."
AnthonyS' last post got me curious about wages between the union and non-union auto plants here in the US.
It seems the recent economic troubles of the major US auto companies have caused some massive wage cuts. The bankruptcy troubles of massive parts supplier Delphi a couple years ago led to existing job wages to be cut from $26/hr to about $16/hr, with new hires posted at between $10 and $14/hr.
And this article from AutoBlog from 2007 basically reported that in 2006, for the first time, "non-unionized workers at a foreign-owned assembly plant made more than members of the United Auto Workers union make on average in a year".
What an unfortunate reality. This is of course a very complicated situation, and I will let AnthonyS (an expert on the subject) add a more contextualized commentary. But what catches my attention is the dichotomy between these foreign-owned non-union jobs and our own American brand of anti-union stalwarts like Wal-mart. Toyota despite not having unionized workers is managing to pay better than its unionized counterparts, while Wal-mart uses their non-unionized status as an excuse to pay their employees as little as possible and with as little benefits as possible.
This is of course, just an observation and certainly doesn't constitute any fully realized argument, but if I may: Fuck Wal-Mart. Fucking pay your employees!
I do like him better than Faulkner if that's what you are hinting at.
Give me Faulkner and O'Connor any day over Roth. Also, one of the most inspirational bits of writing I have ever read that I reread regularly is Faulkner's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech.
Gotta agree to disagree . . .
The cuts in wages for new hires were part of the new UAW contracts that were voted in a year or so ago; basically what happened is those workers near retirement took a buyout lump sum offered by the Big Three in exchange for approving the new "new-hire" wages. So, basically, the old timers sold out the future of unionized labor in a big way.
While your point about wages is true, the also ignores many of the benefits of UAW plants (aside from negotiating)-- subpay, health insurance funded by the union during layoffs, better job security, etc. The foreign automakers, paradoxically, are much better companies from an ethical standpoint, but that could change with a simple switch of leadership. At least UAW workers have some power dealing with craptastically managed American autoworkers, and non-union wages are faced with upwards pressure from the UAW. If Honda and Toyota ever lose their market share, watch out-- things could be drastically different.
And Randy, I'm with you on Faulkner and Welty.
AnthonyS,
But not O'Connor, too? :-(
While it's good that Toyota pays decent wages, it's almost always true that a worker under a union contract is better off than a non-union worker. Don't underestimate the importance of union representation and greater job security.
Just to throw my 2 cents in: Carson McCullers is the most underrated and forgotten Southern novelist of the 20th century.
Faulkner is a fucking amazing writer.
I can't say that about many.
Randy -- ashamed to say I haven't read any-- I'm going to an art festival residency on Sunday for three weeks and will have a lot of time to read, so I promise you I will fix that!
I'm feeling really called out here on my Southern literature. I haven't read any Welty, O'Connor, or McCullers. And I call myself an American historian...
I didn't bring up better salaries from Toyota as some sort of non-union endorsement, but as a "for shame" to corporate America and our spineless government that have allowed unions to become marginalized and weakened. It is distressing that horribly run and greedy corporations are able to renege on union contracts with tacit government approval.
I am merely musing that given the opportunity to fuck employees, Toyota did not while Wal-Mart does.
Erik, Erik, Erik...
While I am on the other side of the coin, having never read Roth, I have to say that Faulkner changed my entire idea of what a novel could be.
And sit down with some O'Connor, already. You will be glad you did.
That's cool, Erik. I feel you with the Southern authors. I've read Roth, Faulkner, and Welty, and I know of Carson McCullers but have never read her. But I have no clue who O'Connor is supposed to be.
I know:
Carroll O'Connor
John Cardinal O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sinead O'Connor
I even know Tairrdelbach mac Ruaidri Ua Conchobair, a 12th c. High King of Ireland, who is also known as Turlough O'Connor.
But I can't think of a southern author named O'Connor.
Flannery O'Connor.
Maybe I'll take some to Bolivia this summer.
What Trend said about Carson McCullers: The Member of the Wedding, Ballad of the Sad Cafe and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter are quintessentially southern masterpieces.
Sarah J,
Not to mention the fine dialogue Faulkner wrote along with Leigh Brackett for the film version of The Big Sleep.
Wait a minute, Roth is America's greatest living novelist? Did Pynchon die and nobody told me?
Erik - I love that I'm not the only one who thinks you've been reading too much Roth. 
Pynchon--totally overrated.
Sorry, E. I have to come down solidly in the pro-Pynchon camp, here. Also: Don DeLillo.
That's just the kind of obfuscatory, elitist snob I am.
Toni Fucking Morrison, while we're at great living novelists.
Erik: Despite my best hopes, Pynchon turned out to be a limited artist. Gravity's Rainbow is both worthwhile poetic history and sloppy Kesey-like beat maundering. But I'll be damned if he doesn't catch the absolute terror of knowing your enemy has a bizarre mastery of technology.
You start quizzing astrologers, parapsychologists, preachers and charlatans to determine if you can offset the advantage, because they've already gutted your armed forces, and your ruling class has deep, abiding ties with the enemy's political aims.
Sadly, I believe it's where Pynchon blew his wad. But I'd be happy to have written such a versatile book.
Pynchon or DeLillo must have. Or Art Spiegelman or Chris Ware. And if you don't think Maus or Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth qualify as literature, you've got some reading to do.
I've read three of four Roth novels, halfway through the third the voice started getting monotonous. I can't say I'd go out of my way to read another.
Erik, you will damn hell ass love Flannery O'Connor.
Also great Southern fiction: Confederacy of Dunces. How could we forget?
And Pynchon is less overrated than Salinger.
I love this discussion.
I love this blog.
Thanks for inviting me to join the party.
I guess I should read Roth and Pynchon, though, so I can come back and explain exactly why Faulkner is better.
Sarah: a Southerner under the influence of toxic amounts of alcohol, copious shade, and the premature death of an uncle will turn out reams of Faulkner.
I admired him when I was young, but then I encountered Joyce. They are very similar, except for the dealbreaker of alcohol tolerance.
Working on Confederacy of Dunces at last - the first chapter alone is one of the funniest pieces of writing, fiction or otherwise, I've ever read. Can't wait for the rest!
God, I love this thread!
Maybe Faulkner wasn't as stylistically extraordinary as Joyce, but I still think he was the better writer. And I say that as someone who is a freak for Ulysses.
Also, summer is coming up (for those of you in non-tropical Northern latitudes), and there comes a point in every summer when it's too goddamn hot to read anything but Faulkner. I don't think that you can say that about any aspect of the weather and Joyce.
I love Ulysses, but I read Faulkner first. And Joyce is Irish. Plus, I think Faulkner has more books that are excellent and yet more accessible. Although you've reminded me that I have yet to tackle Finnegans Wake...
Oh, come on, Murderface, shitty rainy weather always brings out the Joyce.
(I studied Irish literature. Considered getting my master's in that rather then journalism for a while.)
Man, I think we should instigate a weekly literature thread.
Gravity's Rainbow is excellent, but Mason & Dixon is better. Read that one and then see if you think Pynchon is overrated.
Nabokov described Finnegan's Wake succinctly: A petrified superpun. If you aren't a master of the seventeen languages required to write it, it doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense to read it. If you quote it, you sound like John Lennon on amphetamines being dragged into the studio for a Beatles' Christmas record. I used to try and read a few pages of it nightly, until I finally decided Joyce had simply given up on the idea of semantic constraints, the English language, and checks from his publisher.
but that's why I find it intriguing. particularly the giving up on the idea of semantic constraints...
mmmmm, literature.
Finnegans Wake, dammit.
I wish you had a comment editing feature here. It would also be nice to have one for my life.
Is there such a thing as a comment editing feature? I would like it too, since who knows how many writing errors I've made in comments.
I don't know (and am not taking the time to investigate, as I am on my way to class) if haloscan supports comment editing. If not, you could change your comment management, but you might lose all previous comments.
A weekly literature thread sounds a capital idea.
Shitty rainy weather inspires Dickens more than Joyce, methinks. Why not compound the misery after all?
I read all the words of Finnegans Wake, but I can't say I really read the book. A petrified superpun sounds about right.
I haven't read Finnegan's Wake yet, but I plan to do what Muderface did. Has anybody here read Joseph Campbell's guide to Finnegan's Wake? I just read The Power of the Myth, and Campbell refers to it, and the research he did for it, several times.
If you've never read anything by Flannery O'Connor, I urge you to start with The Complete Short Stories of Flannery O'Connor. You might want to read Good Country People as the first one.
And Wise Blood is an excellent (albeit bizarre, but it's O'Connor) choice too.
My favorite O'Connor story is "A Good Man Is Hard To Find," for pure screwed-up-ness.
even thinking about it makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise.
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