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
Wow!! Hadn't seen this before.
ReplyDeleteI was reminded of what used to be called "found poetry" & "found art":
"found poetry" was where, as an example, a news blip could be converted into a poem
"found art" where, as an example, an old wooden kitchen table could be sanded down and used as a "canvas" for a wood carving such as a pastoral scene
There is no end to the creativity some people can resort to!
Looks like literary "steampunk."
ReplyDeleteThere are people in the world who look at a book differently than we do, that's for sure!
ReplyDelete