Maybe Francis Fukuyama was right?
It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer. Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions. I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters. Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs. Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77. I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not. Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi
I was stunned to see this book at the top of the American History best-selling list at amazon.
ReplyDeleteIt pretty much is how at feels over at Melba these days.
Is it just me, or does that cover "read" as Nazi propaganda?
ReplyDeleteI think ol' Glenn is just trying to "stir us up," but yes there is an oddly fascist tone to the cover. Yet, woe be it to anyone to accuse these right-wing pundits of such.
ReplyDeleteAgain, the amazing part is how much creedence mainstream media gives these guys.