Where exactly is the South? Why do southerners so love it? Why have
more and more blacks been moving there? Is the southerner's
reputation for laziness really deserved? Those who know Reed
(Sociology/University of North Carolina) only as the author of
Southern Folk; Plain & Fancy (1986) - a vastly entertaining
collection of southern stereotypes - will be gratifyingly surprised
with the present essays, which effortlessly cut through a century's
worth of bias to answer the above questions and more. Reed insists
that to ask "Where is the South?" is pointless. Southerners, he
contends, are America's only genuine ethnic group and are bound
together by culture - patterns of diet, religion, music, manners,
and the like - rather than by geography. There are sizable southern
enclaves in Ypsilanti, Michigan; in Bakersfield, California; in
Brooklyn; and in many other places. Asked what they like about the
South, southerners who live below the Mason-Dixon Line invariably
speak of the pleasant natural conditions and the amiable people:
"It's green, clean-looking, not eaten-up with pollution"; "I have a
great feeling of being respected and welcomed here." What about
returning blacks? Reed says that the years 1963-65 evidenced a
watershed reversal of white prejudice; that "more blacks now hold
public office in the South than any other region"; and that
"average black incomes in the South have exceeded those in the
Midwest, and increased in the 1980's while declining elsewhere in
the US." And as for southerners' supposed laziness, Reed notes that
they watch less TV and listen to less radio than their compatriots.
The author also quotes a 1973 Harris poll that found favorite
pastimes to include fixing things around the house; helping others;
eating; developing one's personality; having a good time with
friends and family; taking naps; and "just doing nothing."
Wonderfully authentic: an admirably lighthearted supplement to W.J.
Cash's classic The Mind of the South. (Kirkus Reviews)
The Kansas City Star calls John Shelton Reed "an H. L. Mencken of
Dixie." "A writer this funny is dangerous," says the Raleigh News
and Observer. Here Reed is in peak form as he takes a hard, often
humorous look at a region he claims has created its own
quasi-ethnic group: the American Southerner. Is the South changing?
You bet, says Reed. Industrialism, urbanization, and desegregation
are just a few of the things that have changed it almost beyond
recognition. In fact, one constant in the South is change. "Those
who like their boundaries well defined should not attempt to talk
about Southerners," writes Reed. But for those willing to ask some
difficult questions about the life and culture of the elusive
Southerner, this is the place to start. Where is the South? Does it
begin at the Mason-Dixon Line or the "Hell, yes!" line - where
people begin to answer that way when asked if they're Southerners?
Is it where kudzu grows? Or where bourbon is preferred over scotch?
How do Southerners come by their reputation for laziness? What
happens to Southern ways when Southerners leave the South - or
Yankees come to it? How does the rest of the world perceive
Southern women? To address that question Reed examines the Southern
belles and good ol' girls who have made it into the page of
Playboy. (Sorry, pictures not included.). In the title piece of
this collection, Reed peruses country music lyrics to explore white
Southern attitudes toward violence, from more-or-less-traditional
homicides - romantic triangles and lovers' quarrels - to brawls
that target everything from dogs to vending machines. And he cites
his own "My Tears Spoiled My Aim" as one of the great unrecorded
country songs of our time: My tears spoiled my aim; that's why
you're not dead. I blew a hole in the wall two feet above the bed.
I couldn't see where you were at, my tears were fallin' so. I tried
to shoot by ear, but y'all were lyin' low. Perhaps one of the
things that best defines the South is like my favorite pair of blue
jeans," says Reed. "it's shrunk some, faded a bit, got a few holes
in it. It doesn't look much like it used to, but it's more
comfortable, and there's probably a lot of wear left in it." My
Tears Spoiled My Aim will leave you chuckling - and reflecting - as
one of the most perceptive observers of the South shows that no
matter how much it changes, it's still the South.
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