Jackson Jambalaya

Seriously, Kingfish. Worst weekend ever!!!

Another 'out of towner' who is instantly an expert on the Delta and life there. Pluto is barely, if at all, in the Delta and this guy, although he penned an interesting book, came and went, cashed in and has forever explained to us what hicks we are for not knowing who and what we are.

At least hear learned how to hunt.

Author rave about his love for the Delta and how it became a part of him, then moved to Jackson after book published. Like all other yanks, he finds Delta a nice place to visit but didn't want to live there.

If you frequent this page, do you have a Life?

KF, do you recommend Dispatches? It's on my list.

So.....the book is 'on your list' but you're waiting for a recommendation from a blog owner? Got it.

Pluto is between the hills of Lexington and the swamps east of Belzoni. Although it technically lies in the western edge of Holmes County (considered a part-Delta county because that's where 'flat' begins coming out of the hills), it's hardly considered 'true Delta' and has never been inhabited by what are considered Delta folks or ways of life.

There's also probably a book out there somewhere by an expert on Eudora Welty written by somebody from England who visited her house forty years ago, viewed her flower garden, saw her grave at Greenwood Cemetery and read two of her books.

Then there are also people who claim Oxford is in the Delta. har.

I was reluctant to read it, dreading yet another example of just what 5:42 describes. As a Southerner, I am deeply and thoroughly weary of being a zoo animal for cynical outsiders to observe. But I did read Grant's book, and must admit I enjoyed it. Could not put it down, in fact. Good writing is relentless in its grip, and resistance is futile. "Against time we pitch our craft," someone once wrote, and I ended up being glad Richard Grant pitched his in Pluto for a bit. And by the way, 9:00, he and his wife moved to Jackson because they had a baby and needed to be near doctors and decent private schools. And he isn't a Yank, you numbskull: he is British.

11:40 Eudora Welty's grave was open for visits forty years ago? Wow! that's planning ahead.

The British are the original yanks 'you numbskull' Ophelia!! 'Private Schools?' Do you realize what you just suggested. And 'decent' ones even. Where do you think the privileged white children in the Durant, Lexington, Tchula area attend school? Did they all move to Jackson?

He 'pitched a craft' alright. A craft peculiar to those who tactfully invade an area, scoop up it's aura in three weeks, pretend to assimilate (as all good immigrants should) and manage to roll written word off the tongue to fill enough pages to make a bundle.

Otherwise, he's just another outsider who wound up in a place where he had no business being and spent a year or two trying to figure out gumbo-mud.

I read it after several of my more conservative friends recommended it, but I grew weary of the issue of race. The author writes as though racism is a notion completely foreign to him but can see nothing else in the Delta. About midway through, it's all he can focus on. I finished it, but loathed it upon closing.

Evidently I didn't read the same book some of you did. I felt he gave a good account of sophistication mixed with farm life that is found in the delta or "near" delta. He also did what I thought was a good job of showing the relationship between black and white families living there. There were many more positives than negatives.

8:35

I'm with you. It is a good, thoughtful outsider view. Guessing most comments here written by people who did not read it.

Agree with 8:35. RG spent several years in the Delta, experiencing a much different side than most of us have had the "pleasure". I'd bet most modern day Delta dwellers who post here at JJ haven't heated their homes strictly with wood for multiple winters, or attempted to work a large enough garden to sustain 2 adults, or stepped foot into Po Monkey's on a night which wasn't hosted by some organization such as Delta Music Institute. Grant didn't just stick his pinky toe in.

To those trashing his conviction to write on the Delta, his length of stay or his decision to move his family to Jackson, please remember being "Delta" means more than having a hunting camp on flat land and eating at Doe's, Lusco's or Crawdad's once in a blue moon. Grant focused much of his writing about race from the angle of interpersonal relationships, instead of institutional and systemic racism...most of us could agree that's a much better light for MS to be shown in. He also wrote candidly about our race issues being a 2-way street. Sure, he's British, an outsider, and a pretty well self described liberal. But, being those things enabled him to articulate a well-rounded perspective about the subject. Otherwise, his opinions would be pigeon-holed by every reader outside the Deep South.

Well said, 10:15. Thanks for that. The book is a good read and an interesting, fair perspective. I was dubious at first, but was drawn into it the more I read. I used to spend a lot of time in that part of the Delta and he nailed it.

I haven't read it, admittedly, but Ophelia's lament about being zoo animals for people from New York, LA, etc. rings true with me, too. The number of movies, TV shows, and other mass media offerings regarding Mississippi that didn't center (at least in part) on race or poverty would number in the single digits.

We get it - Mississippi is poor, we have a racial history, we aren't southern California or New York City. We don't need yet another person from "out there" to lecture us yet again.

Back when Obama was running, Bill Maher sent Nancy Pelosi's daughter to visit Mis'sippi and talk to the people. They treated it as if they were visiting an alien planet and despite their claims that she talked to the first people she saw, they cherry picked some of the most Green Acres/Dukes of Hazzard types they could find.

If a man from London moved to a Chicago slum for 6 months and wrote about it, then moved to nicer, safer environs, they'd say he was patronizing the poor minority community. But they can squat in small town Mississippi for six months and everyone who passed through the state once on their way to Disney World feels justified in their stereotypes of the state.

@ 2:44; No, you numbskull. Welty's grave has not been opened for any purpose, much less that of visits. As Kingfish often admonishes us, 'learn to read you dumbass!'. Nothing was said about her house being visited while she was dead forty years ago. Understanding sentence structure is not your strong suit.

The intent of the suggestion was that in order to become an expert on Welty, some writer might have visited her house forty years ago and also might have strolled passed her grave in Greenwood Cemetery.

At least you didn't get your draws in a wad and exclaim SHE IS NOT BURIED IN GREENWOOD!

And who among us could pass 'this' up at 10:15, "....he's British, an outsider, and a pretty well self described liberal. But, being those things enabled him to articulate a well-rounded perspective about the subject."

So, being a yankee Brit and a liberal, enables a writer to be 'articulate' and display subject perspective? How does a Brit call BULLSHIT on a post?

I think 10:15 is the same guy stealing newspapers in Bellhaven.

"Understanding sentence structure is not your strong suit. "

Actually that sentence is one long run-on sentence that seems to indicate all the actions listed happened in one busy trip ("There's also probably a book out there somewhere by an expert on Eudora Welty written by somebody from England who visited her house forty years ago, viewed her flower garden, saw her grave at Greenwood Cemetery and read two of her books." Nothing indicates the writer came back forty years later for a look at her grave. That means the grave he saw forty years ago, when she was still alive, was "open" (aka "unoccupied").

I hope that it is just one angry loon who keeps posting these hostile comments blasting people who point out the poor writing he displays.

1:07 - I figure you are the same angry loon who keeps showing up with rhetorical, goofy posts that have nothing at all to do with the subject being discussed. In this case, you miss the point altogether but want to derail the conversation by discussing sentence length. Is this something your freshman English Comp class at Belhaven requires or are you just bored? The mayor needs Project Managers yet here you sit.

Eleven twenty-six, I know you by heart. But about the cherry-picking of yokels for interviews by the likes of Nancy Pelosi's daughter, it was more a case of plucking the low-hangin' fruit. (I was on the point of apologizing for mixing metaphors, but...not sure I did!) Anyway, Mississippi shall ever be the Struwwelpeter, and those of us who chose to pitch our tents here just shrug, laugh, and go on about our bidness. I still say Richard Grant was, if nything, kind to us!

10:15 here. @11:42 - You said "So, being a yankee Brit and a liberal, enables a writer to be 'articulate' and display subject perspective?"

Negative. I said "those things enabled him to articulate a well-rounded perspective about the subject." There's vast difference between my comment and what you erroneously deduced. The next sentence of my post explained how-so, stating no one outside of the Deep South wants to read a deep southerner's opinion about the Deep South. Grant was born in Malaysia, raised for a time in Kuwait, educated in Britain, and has since roamed all over the world. I would argue his experiences have given him a broader perspective than 99% of the planet, Mississippians included. Express disgust for all facets of Grant and his book if you must, but I enjoyed the read and respect his determination to balance respectfully assimilating with staying true to his beliefs.

"Staying true to his beliefs" has nothing at all to do with his ability to understand and write. If he came to the Delta with a preconceived notion, which surely he did, and you call that 'his beliefs' then you are both dunces.

I got your sentence almost exact except for rearranging a couple of words in the last of it. I left out 'well rounded' and added 'Yankee'. Nothing changed in what you implied. You're obviously the kind of guy who rushed out and bought "I'm OK - You're OK" when you couldn't figure yourself out or your purpose in life. So you relied on a cheap paperback to educate you.

But, do go ahead and enjoy the meaty reality brought to us by people who know literally nothing about who we are, deeper than the surface (Born in Maylasia indeed). Go ahead now. You've been handled. Don't start slinging your arms around and admonishing me. If you do, you'll be asked to put your nose in that circle on the blackboard, Delta style.

5:51- People like you are the exact reason someone like Grant would come here with preconceived notions. As long as all are upstanding, honest and hardworking, there's a value in variety. Appreciate it or not, matters not to me because you're the only one who's the lesser for it.

I've tried to make sense of the post at 6:24, but, alas, have given up.