Comments on: Oxford American on Southern Literature

By: Peyton

Peyton — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:53:30 +0000

More Professor indeed! I was glad to see you get blurbed in this particular OA ish when I finally picked it up this weekend. I just wanted to send you a major thanks for introducing me to Jujitsu a few years back, as it is a rare and unexpected treat to be sure. It deserves a 23-point pitch all its own.

I finished The Moviegoer after moving to NOLA over the summer, and I’m definitely enjoying the Southern lit kick I’ve been on as of late. Would you say that The Last Gentleman is a good followup to Percy’s debut, or is there a better candidate before tackling your personal fave?

And even more importantly: If you didn’t nominate Howard Cruse’s Stuck Rubber Baby – who the heck did?

Hoping you’ll get this comment on such an old post…

– Peyton J.

By: gorjus

gorjus — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:56:30 +0000

I bought this stupid thang just ‘cuz you was up in it. NEXT TIME MORE PROF. FURY, REGIONAL PUBLICATION.

By: Professor Fury

Professor Fury — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:30:27 +0000

Good questions and suggestions all, Betsy! But yeah, deciding what the point of "southern" is is part of the point, I think. For myself I would have no prob with a novelist from Vietnam writing a great novel about the South and that novel making the list. Richard Wright made the Top 5 Nonfiction list for Black Boy; his Native Son received votes and finished in the top 50, but I don't really get that one since none of it takes place in the South. Again, I think sometimes people were voting for "southern writer" v. "southern novel," and all kinds of questions of definition get caught up in that. Here are the expanded results, though, where many of the authors and texts you picked out are listed.

By: Betsy DeGeorge

Betsy DeGeorge — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:29:13 +0000

Oh, and how about Black Thunder by Arna Bontemps and Quest for the Silver Fleece by W.E.B. DuBois (If you don’t have to be Southern to be a Southern writer)?

By: Betsy DeGeorge

Betsy DeGeorge — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:01:24 +0000

Well, what an interesting post and conversation. I agree wholeheartedly with you Prof that one book per author per list is only fair. As I Lay Dying needs to go, please! Travesty that Welty isn’t listed. These are strange results indeed. I guess I don’t think that the specs for the list are really helpful. If you say Southern literature is about the south, you could have an author on the list from say, Vietnam—which would be ok, but isn’t really the point, is it? Or is it? If it is books about the south, where is Harriet Beecher Stowe. And if it is books about the south and doesn’t include Toni Morrison, isn’t really strange? What about Cormac? Where are the southern boundaries? And where is Richard Wright—maybe his best books are about the north? Oh, and I 100% agree with Fury on the Walker Percy selection. I hope your voice for Butler back in print makes it so. Also, do you think a case should be made for Lee Smith.

By: Professor Fury

Professor Fury — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:21:32 +0000

Thanks for the note, Jessica—you guys will not be disappointed. Very much looking forward to seeing the expanded list. And yeah, heed gorjus’s advice. Gorj, I dunno—I hope soon! I gotta write some more stuff about Nightshade first.

By: gorjus

gorjus — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:23:36 +0000

That’s a great blurb. And Jessica, I’d also seek out Living In Little Rock with Miss Little Rock, which is arguable the more “modern” work—instead of J4C’s 1960’s Jackson, Miss. civil rights background, it’s a very 1990’s Arkansas. Troubling and possibly great.

Prof., when you gonna start writing about that book?

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:09:02 +0000

I was one of the 5 OA interns that worked on the issue—and I had a large part in this poll. Just wanted to say that is was your passionate blurb that inspired us all to search for copies of JUJITSU FOR CHRIST for our own collections.

PS—Don’t forget to check the website in the next few days for a complete list of ranked books. Personally, I found 11-50+ to be the most interesting.

By: Professor Fury

Professor Fury — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:21:01 +0000

Here's Michelle Richmond's ballot; I could kick myself for forgetting The Known World, though I'd be hard pressed to say what I'd eliminate for it. And I'm surprised Beloved didn't turn up in the final top 10 (though again the question of Morrison's "southernness" may have been at issue for a lot of the judges).

By: bulb

bulb — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:49:08 +0000

Gonna have to get this OA issue and finally get a copy of the Butler novel. I learned all about the New New South from former colleague and Pocahantas hubbie Jon Smith.