Long Time Leaving (62 page)
Authors: Roy Blount Jr.
And, hell, I know, you don't have to tell me: neither does this fable. It doesn't have a moral. Doesn't have anything to sell. Just raises questions:
What happened to that alliance between Southern liberals and Enlightened forces? Did the Southerners denature the mix? Or did the Enlightened ones fail to pick up on what the Southern ones brought to the party? Maybe the Southern liberals should have said, up front, that people who think it's enlightened to say, “Of course, we don't like country music” need diversity training. As they do.
Let me make it clear, however, that I think (and this is why I have so much trouble trying to tell a great story: I'm always worrying about making clear what I think) that people who
do
like most
contemporary
country music (what we might call post-nasal-drippy pop-quasi-country), need diversity training real bad.
But, wait, this just in:
The forces of Enlightenment huffed, and puffed, and said unto the rest of America:
“We're Enlightened, why aren't you?”
And the forces of Hate or Faith sniffed, and snorted, and said:
“Don't hold your breath till we turn blue.”
And then the Lord sent a Great Flood. To the South. And the Knothead did not Get It.
Roy Blount Jr. is a columnist for
The Oxford American,
a panelist on NPR's
Wait, Wait …Don't Tell Me,
and president of the Authors Guild. A Georgian who lives in Massachusetts, he has contributed to
The New Yorker
and
The Southern Review,
has written books set in Pittsburgh and New Orleans, and has been named a Literary Light by the Boston Public Library and elected to the Fellowship of Southern Writers. This is his twentieth book. You can visit his Web site at www.royblountjr.com
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A.
K
NOPF
Copyright © 2006 by Roy Blount Jr.
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by
Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.,
New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada
Limited, Toronto.
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered
trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Blount, Roy.
Long time leaving : dispatches from up South /
by Roy Blount, Jr.—1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN
: 978-0-307-49660-7
1. Southern States—Civilization. 2. Northeastern States-
Civilization. 3. Group identity—Southern States.
4. Group identity—Northeastern States. 5. North and
south. 6. National characteristics, American. 7. Blount,
Roy. 8. Southern States— Civilization—Humor.
9. Northeastern States—Civilization—Humor. I. Title.
F
209.5
B
58 2007
975—dc22 2007006799
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