CRACKERS!

“ In my opinion this humble uneducated colored woman has more brains in her head than a thousand of these sign-waving, folksong-singing Harvard dropouts who keep showing up on our doorsteps to tell us how to lead our lives.” (99)

I believe this moment is a perfect example of how many white southerners were completely brainwashed at this time, while others disapproved of the environment the lived in, but couldn’t get around it. Orley continually attempts to show how a newspaper article they are reading is accurate, by saying that the majority of blacks in the south really do disapprove of being told to protest the way they are treated by whites. He represents the uneducated southern community that has been taught to accept that there is nothing wrong with the southern way of life that has been around forever. However, we are also given Riley’s point of view, one that sees that the newspaper is doing nothing more than presenting the people with the South’s form of yellow journalism. When they have a white man interview his black maid to express how she feels about the protest marches, it is clear that she wasn’t going to say how she truly felt. Riley says that the woman is trapped. Trapped by crackers on the left and right of her. Crackers write the news and crackers read the news. But nobody can get away from this news, because as he eloquently puts it, “All of us are stuck in a goddam cracker box!” They were all raised to think and be like “crackers” and there was no possible way to escape it.

Discussion Question: Does identifying as a southerner at this time force you to embrace the “emblem of the Confederacy” that Orley seems to love so much? Was there any way to avoid this “cracker” way of thinking?

How to change stuff?

"You're going to have to go, Sammy. You can't live or work here at the church anymore. When my phone starts ringing this morning I need to be able to say you're already packing."
"Today? You want me out today?"
"It's a delicate political situation. Please understand"(122-123).

In retrospect, the civil rights movement may seem to have been morally black and white: you were either in support of or against racial equality. However, when Father Morris, who had up until this point been portrayed as a staunch advocate of gay and black rights, is faced with the difficulty of dissociating with Sammy after a slew of negative publicity, we are reminded that things were far more complex. In the days of ruthless lynching and mob violence, even associating with the wrong person was a life or death matter.

It could be argued that Sammy made himself a dangerous target with his "outrageous" behavior, but his behavior was only a reaction to the recent acts of violence committed against civil rights protesters. The whole movement seems to have been tempered by a tension between peaceful protest and the oftentimes necessary use of force and violence against vicious racists and gay bashers, which often excited even more violence in return. We see this tension earlier on, when Reverend Pepper, who emphasizes the nonviolent nature of the "crusade," tells Toland that he thinks Mabel ought to be disincluded from further demonstrations because of a rumor circulating about her having hit a police dog with a brick in her purse. Toland comes to her defense, "But to tell the truth, I don't see much wrong with hittin' a dog when it's snappin' its teeth at you" (110). Reverend Pepper explains that, while he understands Toland's logic, he feels that the pitfall of civil rights protesters is "tak[ing] their bait," "their" referring to "the opposition." He feels that responding to violence with violence, even when seemingly necessary, is holding the whole movement back and potentially subjecting them to more violence; what protesters ought to be doing is wielding "psychological leverage" against their oppressors by remaining peaceful no matter what.


Let's talk about the (in?)effectiveness of the "Occupy" movement! I know it's nothing near the civil rights movement, but it's worth talking for reasons discussed above. Should they be more extreme or forceful to get their point across? Is violence sometimes a necessary evil? Is anyone taking their peaceful occupation seriously? How best to go about catalyzing social change? Is it necessary to "speak the language" of those to whom you're trying to appeal? Do Toland and co. make any efforts to speak the language of their oppressors?

Lauren Gore

"Scrub yourself good. Then you can play with Ben some more. It was confusing(141)."

This part of the novel reminded me of the rising conflicting thoughts many of the characters we've read about have experienced. Whether they were colored or white, many of the characters had ideas with which they weren't completely content with. Toland's mom is an example of this. She is completely appalled by the game her son and Ben have engaged in, but she still gets upset when Toland's sister calls them "nigger clothes". She also sends Toland in to change and bathe, but he can play with Ben again once he's done. It seems like her reaction to the situation is directly influenced by her upbringing, but there is also a glimpse of progression in her views. This has been an ongoing trend in the majority of the pieces we've been reading: the embodiment of the Old South, but also its shift into a more modern era.

Question: Why did Toland's mom react this way and what might have influenced her views?

"But to tell the truth, I don't see much wrong with hittin' a dog when it's snapping its teeth at you" (110)

This quote by Toland is a perfect parallel to the situation that he is going through. The snapping dog represents the bigoted/racist whites, who consistently undermine the rights of the blacks. I thought this was a pretty big step for Toland, who has never been comfortable with openly siding with any group. This is a conscious decision he has made about his sympathies and one that allows him to question his own actions and whether they are adequate. This quote highlights the fact that an oppressed group of people will only take so much before they lash out against the people snapping at them. It is also interesting to see the underlying futility in all this - for all their sit-ins and demonstrations, everything ends up being talked through but nothing much ends up being done. It makes me wonder what stance the book is going to take on race relations.

Question: based on what we've read so far, do you think (racially), the book will have a (relatively) happy ending? What direction do you think the book is going in?

Illusions and Twisted Logic

"Later I'd look back nostalgically at the way my dad always took time to explain stuff to me in his fucked-up way (3)."

I literally laughed out loud when I came across this line (and I was at Flightpath, so I got some dirty looks) because it stated exactly what I was thinking. Even though Toland's dad assures him that their gardener, Stetson, is to be respected, he still makes a point to mention that white people's brains are more developed than black people's brains ("It's been scientifically proven!"). I see a recurring theme of irony in the library that Toland's parents keep but never use, the Rhombus that everyone knows is a gay bar but that the police ignore as long as everyone pretends to be straight, the fact that Toland continues to hide his sexuality despite that his friends probably won't care if he is gay, and the Chopper's excuse for closing down the park ("renovation and beautification") when in reality he is just trying to stop protesters from gathering. It seems that most of the "upstanding" citizens of the South in the novel (Toland included) like to pretend that everything is perfect and pretty and "Godly" in their world as long as African-Americans aren't allowed civil rights, despite the fact that everyone knows that the world is more complicated than that. I think that the above quote from Toland's father exemplifies this idealistic but twisted mentality because his father, like many southerners at the time and some today, acts as if the world is in perfect order with African-Americans that are smart enough to be respected but not developed enough to be equal with white people, when the truth is that his logic is, as Toland so eloquently puts it, "fucked-up."

Discussion Question: How do the illusions that the characters uphold (the library, the Rhombus, the park, etc.) reflect an image of the South as a whole? Why would southerners feel the need to project an image that even they know is unrealistic?

"I went through a period of looking back and wondering if all that wrestling with Ben was what made me a homo!" (5)

I left my book out on the living room counter over the weekend, and someone got a conversation started by commenting: "Are you really reading a comic book for your class?". I assured them It was for my southern literature class and that this wasn't too weird for an English class to do. They then picked it up and randomly flipped it open to a scene in the middle of the book. It had naked men in bed together. Everyone then concluded I was lying, being further confused when I told them it was really all about the civil rights movement of the 60's, and the parallels of being pro-civil rights and being homosexual during that time. I can't really blame them for the confusion.

This novel is in a unique genre of literature, and this uniqueness is what makes it do what it does so well. It pokes and prods at our social norms, while poking and prodding at social norms of the southern 60's. We are thrown into one of the most controversial groups of people you could probably hang out with in that time, in a genre that is not widely read and, given the substance of this one, controversial. The surprise I got when I first found out Toland was gay (above quote), that same surprise, runs throughout the book. It was a pretty shocking first section to a pretty shockingly ignorant and hateful time period towards both gays and blacks. It is fit for its task.

Q: So, does this being a comic book then make it more accessible?

-Hunter

Reconciliation

"Behind y-?! What's he--?? I don't...You just stood there while he got in a few more KICKS!...An' Don't you go spreadin' LIES about me either FAGGOT!"

We have read through Nordan's prose journey to reconcile his own southern, racial, and class identity in the midsts of a time of turmoil. He works through this by highlighting different characters in his fictional town that are partially autobiographical, and partially "magical" (although we have contemplated the nature of this word and the role it plays in Wolf Whistle, I think much can be read into his application of this technique)

Cruse, on the other hand, uses not only dialogue heavy prose, but illustrations to work through his own sexual identity coupled with race and southernism during the same time. He even references Emmitt Till in the novel as being a large part of the main character's thoughts and dreams as well as his fixation on "the skull" during his childhood. Toland is in the midst of many different battles: those within himself and those social issues on the brink of explosion.

We also see in this excerpt the inability of a police officer to reconcile his own sexual identity, and the violence that ensues due to the social pressures placed upon him.


Question: How much of southern identity is reconciliation? Does identifying as a "southerner" require you to accept evils as well as the beauty that sparks within these evils that we have seen highlighted in many of our readings? Furthermore, is this simply a condition of humanity, and not something special to southerners at all? 

Maybe life was better outside of the South...

"Alice had never seen a colored woman wearing such nice clothes, a dark straight skirt and silk blouse and a light seersucker jacket. Maybe it was true that life was better outside the South. Maybe, somehow, the world really was a place of hope and light, if only the geography were different from what Alice knew about. Well, it couldn't be any worse (246)."

Alice has become accustomed to her life in the South and doesn't know any different. Her classroom field-trips consist of boat rides through sea human waste and a funeral parlor. There is a naïveté, due to the lack of exposure, that allows for such field-trips to take place. So upon setting eyes on Bobo's mom, she sees a woman of color dress differently to what she is use to seeing. This seems to allow her to see past her surroundings. Alice is already upset with the murder of the young child and the trial injustice soon approaching. However, seeing this woman, welcomes a different perspective to the world she thought to know. But given her present situation in the courtroom, she figured that whatever the North had to offer wasn't any worse than what she was already experiencing.

Could this sighting have encouraged Alice to leave her job as teacher and move on, and perhaps, also give her the courage to speak to Sally Anne?

I was the sorriest post in the class

"They were in the sorriest state in the nation."

Just after sun down, I was on the patio with my nose in my eye phone, and my father walked out and said would I like to watch the Daily Show with him. So consumed was I by ruminations of the South and murder and black and white, I ignored his question altogether and proceeded to tell him all about Emmett Till and what had happened, as though he'd never heard it. Give me some credit though, I was telling it in a new way. I had chosen a fresh and important climax for my story, that being Mamie Till's quote, saying no don't touch him up, I want everyone to see him. I want everyone to see what they did to my boy. And everyone did see, but it was her courage, her outrage in place of acceptance, that made the difference. I could see my effort to make this story one of might in the face of adversity had failed. My father said, not altogether heartfelt, "Uhg. It sure is terrible what people do to each other." Then I heard Jon Stewart and Rush Limbaugh and a few bleeps and a few more laughs.

Is that what we're supposed to take from this book? Is it a tragedy about a travesty? Or is it a condemnation of the South, as the above quote would imply? I check one and am more apt to side with two, especially after the quote from Nordan that Noah showed us before break. I will allow one possibility though - Just like I did, but in his own way and for some other or any reason, is Nordan trying to draw something entirely new out of the Emmett Till story?

Alice

leaned first one way and then the other, down the line of children. She said, "Is everybody understanding this?"

One child said, "The misuse of power is the root of all evil?"

Alice said, "Well--" (246)

Alice and her students are an interesting group of characters in Wolf-Whistle. Alice on the one hand seems to be a magical force of good, (amongst a cast with its fair amount of awfulness) while on the other, she seems pretty socially ignorant and naive. She seems to understand the emotional damage that might accompany taking a group of kids to, say a mortician, and yet she continues with her hilariously-terrible teaching plan, which in itself is not awful because of inaccuracies, the epithets are indeed very true of the world, however the extremity of these philosophical consequences that come from the mouth of the children in relation to what simply just happens, around them, sheds light on what Nordan seems to be saying of the South and of the human condition. That the lessons are awful because they have to be given, and anyone will learn to live with the injustice of human action if it is all that they know. It is Alice's social ignorance that allows for the juxtaposition, -- the terrible-ness with the innocence of childhood, -- or rather the ability of the children to see what is in in front of them better than those in charge of raising them. What seems important about the children in Alice's class is their ability to be influenced by what the rest of the characters consider to be the norm for human action.

Why does Nordan need the voice of the Alice's school children? How might the line, "The greatest depth of our loss is the beginning of true freedom," relate to rest of the novel?"

" Now why do you reckon Bob's gone remind Solon of a plastic Jesus, colored child like he was and Jesus white as the day is long? Solon didn't claim to have no analytical mind, he just meant to pay the boy a compliment, if he wanted to take it that way. Seem like there was a song about plastic Jesus, won't they? Solon looked around in his head for the tune....Well sure, that was it. Bobo the Plastic Jesus, sho nuff. Solon wondered had anybody else ever noticed the resemblance." (169)


To me Nordan is alluding that Bobo is savior to the black race in this bit of Solon's inner dialogue. We have learned that it is Emmet Till's death that propels the civil rights movement into existence, ushering in a new fight for freedom for blacks all across the country. His death was a wake up call to both black and whites to the insanity of the social situation in the country. The song Solon remembers sings of the plastic Jesus resting on the dashboard of the car, an instrument used to signify hope. Nordan is stating that Bobo's horrific death is, in an paradoxical way, a beginning of hope for the black people of America.

The song "Plastic Jesu" itself is fitting to the blog as it is "southern" in feel,. Here in the video it is played by Paul Newman on a banjo, in the film Cool Hand Luke. Newman's character seems to be in a time of despair, so it is fitting for this portion of the book as well.




Q: Am I right about the symbolization or is this just Solon being his normal bogus self?

Brace yourself, this post is not as funny as usual. How could it be, I'm doing homework during Spring Break

"The next shot was worse, didn't even hit the truck, that boy's losing his touch. Then the next one hit him high on the left side, and Solon thought, 'Well, now I know what it sounds like when a rib breaks. It sounds like a banjo string, real bad out of tune.' This was the shot that turned him over on the seat, flop. Shock, it's not such a bad thing, really, shock ain't."

If you read an encyclopedia article about the murder of Emmit Till, you will likely discount Lewis Nordan's revitalization of the event.

But reading the article in Look magazine is a whole different story. When I skimmed over the Wikipedia article on Emmit Till I didn't see "Bobo" anywhere, but sure enough, the Look article refers to Emmit as "Bobo Till" almost exclusively. Nordan's description of the initial conflict between Bobo and Carolyn (Sally Anne Montberclair) also bears a closer resemblance to the Look account than the historical archive. The Look writers concluded their description of the incident with much emphasis on the "wolf-whistle" that Bobo made to Carolyn. Nordan chose this colloquialization for his book's title.

I went to the Look article to find an explanation for Nordan's Solon character, and although I think I found it, I will stop short of telling what I found and instead ask the class...

How historically accurate do you think this account is, and what purpose do you think Nordan's embellishments serve? The only hint I'll give is that the exchange of fire between Bobo and "Solon" both did and didn't take place.

Wisdom, by Solon Gregg

“It scared him to think that murder and suicide might be just another vain dream, an ideal hope that, once it was accomplished, would turn out to be just like New Orleans, just like everything else in this life, nowhere near what it was cracked up to be, and only another way of feeling bad about himself” (109).

I found the 5th chapter to be incredibly engaging. The stream of Solon Gregg’s thoughts about murdering himself and his family was given in such a hopeful way, giving a disturbing look into the way people like Solon Gregg can think. In this particular quote, he seems to have a moment of clarity, reflecting on his past decisions that have brought him only pain and misery. I semi thought that after this he would decide to turn from his ways, but of course that won’t happen (at least yet). He then quickly pushes aside this thought when, according to Solon, God miraculously gives him the perfect opportunity to go through with his murder suicide, saying, “In Jesus all things were possible, if you only believed” (125). The way he rationalized his actions, despite having at least a small amount of wisdom displayed in this quote (the first one), was terrifying to say the least. Besides saying he is psychopathic, why would he move so quickly from his point of clarity to intentions of murdering Bobo, his family, and himself?

Confederate Buzzards

"Rage Gage didn't like cutting hair up underneath no bunch of buzzards. Especially buzzards named after white men. He wondered why the scientists down in Jackson couldn't be naming a few buzzards after colored people. Ain't like they don't have plenty of buzzards to go around. Half them buzzards ain't even got a name. That's the truth (90-91)."

The recurrence of the buzzards in this story struck me as odd in our first reading, and this scene in Rage Gage's barbershop confirmed that there has to be something more to the scavenging birds than eating dead armadillos. To me, there is a connection between the buzzards and the white people, specifically the original Confederate soldiers whose corpses drew them into Mississippi in the first place. The birds are described as "part of the glorious history of the South (68)", just as Confederate soldiers are, and some of them are said to be so old that they are actually the same birds who feasted on the dead soldiers. I find this detail important because it gives the reader an idea that the soldiers who fought to defend slavery are still around, at least in spirit, and the next description of the younger birds who wander aimlessly in the world, longing for freedom and purpose that their ancestors had, could be compared to the descendants of old white Southerners who still have trouble finding a place in the modernized and, in some places, racially integrated world. I think that Rage Gage has the same feeling about the buzzards, and it doesn't help that half of them are named after white government representatives of Mississippi. Rather than naming the other half after black people, as Rage Gage suggests, I feel like the rest of the buzzards represent the poor white class who have no better standards of living than their black neighbors, but who continue to loom over places like Rage Gage's barbershop and wait for their chance to assert what power their skin color gives them.

Discussion question: Could the section about the buzzard named Ross Barnett be connected to Solon Gregg's own story as he visits Lord Montberclair? If not, why does it exist?

Family Ties

"Alice imagined that this was the way that wives and husbands talked after supper. She thought this was the way she would have confided in Dr. Dust, if they were married, if something had scared her." (85)

Maybe it's just me, but I can't shake the feeling that Wolf Whistle is haunted by the specter of incest. Solon's recollection of his abusive father is the big example, of course, but there are a number of smaller and subtler moments in the novel which hint at the same issue- Joyce and Cloyce's rhyme about Eugene Brister kissing his sister, for example (84). When Alice imagines herself speaking to her uncle as a wife would speak to her husband, one begins to wonder what Nordan is saying about family relationships, and connections between people in general. On some level, Wolf Whistle is a novel about people who don't know how to relate to each other. "Are we alone in this world?" and "everyone is alone in this world" are codas which appear frequently throughout; relationships between blacks and whites shift disastrously and arbitrarily; along with Alice's estrangement from Dr. Dust, Nordan takes pains to render the splintering and chaotic dynamic of the Gregg family, as well as Lord Montberclair's anxieties, by turns violent and tender, regarding his relationship with his wife. With childlike innocence, Red worries that Runt is angry with him. Wolf Whistle is full of characters who try to connect with each other and often go about it in the wrong way. Romantic and sexual relationships, friendships, familial love, and interracial harmonies seem to be built on shaky, shifting, and unsteady foundations. Alice whispers "I love you" to pillows and parrots because she can't say it to Dr. Dust. She talks to her uncle like a husband because the people in Wolf Whistle have trouble knowing how families and marriages and friendships and societies are put together.

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

Questions: What do Alice's anxieties about family and love tell us about relationships in Wolf Whistle? What sort of portrait of social connections is Nordan painting?

"He could do this one job, snuff the nigger, then come cruising back into town in that sweet little El Camino, tool on over to his house, and how would you say it, close down his family life forever, end on a positive note." (124)

I found this moment worth mentioning because of what we talked about, concerning Solon's character, during last class. Solon seems to have an endless barrage of malicious ideas running through his head at all times and he convinces himself that he is a decent person by taking note of the crimes which he does not commit because they are to heinous even for him. In this moment he comes to the conclusion that he and his family should just quit while they aren't too far behind and commit mass suicide or more like let themsleves be murdered so that Solon can forgive himself for their murders by killing himself last. This would somehow justify his crimes and put him at peace with his family and God. Interestingly enough he realizes that his daughter might want to get married instead of ending her life at fifteen and Solon seems to be okay with this. He even decides to give her the blood money he's going to earn as a wedding present. This type of negatively-reinforced rationalization, provides Solon with the motivation to continue doing the horrible things he enjoys doing and in some moments seems proud of. So far, this book seems to be full of characters who are extremely distant from the other characters in the novel. No one in this book seems to really like each other and most of them certainly dont trust one another. If i ever visit this town i might want to carry a concealed handgununder my shirt too.

Question: How does the apparent distance between characters quide the story's action and why does Solon feel the need to convince himself that he really isn't that bad of a criminal?

Why be Funny?

"It was a happy dream, and filled with hope, although Solon wondered where he had come up with so many bullets. He must have won the bullet lottery. And he must have gotten holt of a heavier pistol too, .38 caliber at least, Solon would have to guess, judging by the amount of carnage" (Nordan 110).

Lying abruptly within the surreal crisis that Solon experiences during his time in the Arrow Hotel, this passage highlights one of the most fascinating dualities in Wolf Whistle, the existence of humor within such great sadness. Obviously, Nordan writes the story as a retelling of the Emmett Till saga predating the Civil Rights Movement but does so through a bizarrely comic means. Here in the story, Solon is contemplating murdering his family as well as himself, yet Nordan decides to frequently inject his pitch black sense of humor throughout. For instance, he coins the term "bullet lottery" (110). Although the humor is indeed pervasive, it never seems to wholly undermine or derail the flow of the story. Somehow the gonzo sense of humor meshes well with the telling of the story and in a way helps the reader better understand the state of mind of characters like Solon.

Discussion Question: Much has been made of the profound impact that the Emmett Till trial had on Nordan, why then does he decide to fill his retelling of the story with wild humor as well as profound sadness and horror?

Vulgarity & Me

"Some days you just have to hang in there for a while, and endure the worst that life has to offer, self-doubt and hard luck and low self-esteem, the whole shooting match, before events just seem to turn themselves around 180 percent...and good things start to happening, you couldn't stop them if you tried."

Rather than take a quote from the work of literature assigned for the week, I thought I would mix things up a bit and take a quote from Prevention magazine. This quote emanated from the legislative lips of Sarah Palin. I expect the reflective downtroddenness she exhibits referred to her failed presidential bid and her daughter's unexpected pregnancy, while the upbeat resoluteness at the end referred to the quickly approaching bear-poaching season.

Just joking! This quote is the omniscient narrator of Wolf Whistle divulging Solon's thoughts. And Solon's reflective downtroddenness concerns his toaster strudeled son and his inability to exact informant's spoils from Lord Montberclair, while the upbeat resoluteness refers to his ability to extract hitman's spoils from Lord Montberclair for murdering bobo and his whole family and himself but not Wanda, if, and only if, she chooses not to be murdered.

I'm wondering what Nordan's characterizations are trying to say about the South. He depicts scenes of chaos - both in the southern streets and in southern minds, but to what end? The quote is something that anyone - you me Sarah Palin and even Solon - can agree with and relate to. This humanization of Solon we cannot turn a blind eye to, although at the same time, he is vicious and depraved. My conclusion is that the contrast only helps the reader to see, that the chaotic slums and murderous thoughts could encroach upon their back alley and frontal lobe, should they have lived in the South at that time. The humanization serves as authentication.

How much of Solon do you see in yourself, or, do you consider him a redeemable/redeemed character?

Sherman's March

“Well, you never solve everything, Ross. You never solve everything. The only thing you've got is a chance for a few passionate hits. You see how foolish it all is. You see what the army comes to. The bunkers, the island, the burned-out house. Hell, it's all a tragedy. It's just a matter of how you get through it. And the most interesting way to get through it is to say, "I can't help it. I'm full of passion and I'm gonna die this moment." It's the only way to pretend you're alive. It's the only way to not be alone and depressed.”

Not knowing what to expect, after watching this film I was taken by idea that it was initially supposed to become a documentary about William Tecumseh Sherman’s march through and complete destruction of the South, but instead becomes something entirely different. McElwee dives into his and other’s personal emotions and takes us with him on his journey to replace the love he once had but lost. In an effort to recount the story of the general, we notice that McElwee in fact has some things in common with him. For one thing, they both embarked on their journey depressed and with a sense of failure. Both felt like they didn’t really belong. I find it interesting how Charleen encourages him to break away from this broken state of mind and be more passionate about things. “This place is like a tomb. No, it's not. It's like pubic hair. Part, part the bushes. Go into the place. Go with it, Ross. It's not like a tomb. That's the trouble with you. You don't know the difference between sex and death. Sex and death? Yes, and death. This is life, this isn't death. When it sits on your face, you can't tell which it is.” In this part of the film, although funny and bizarre, Charleen makes a good point.

On another note, women were important after the destruction of the South because most of the men were either wounded or dead. They are obviously a vital essence to the entire film and the women that McElwee encounters all seem to have something wrong or weird about them, it feels. It is as if he is wandering through the broken South that Sherman left behind in search for love, expecting to find someone sane enough to fit his expectations. They are either in love with an abusive boyfriend or are a bit ‘mentally strange’ themselves. The film does show us the culture and uniqueness of the South and for that I think it is pure gold. The camera captures genuine emotions and conversations that I don’t think I’ve seen much of in other films.

What role do the women play throughout the film?

(Besides McElwee's search for love) 

America of the '30s

“It reminds you a little bit of the America of the ’30s, people up here don’t realize that.”

I agree with some of my classmates when they say that at some point in this documentary, it seemed a bit pointless. But as it went on, I got the sense that McElwee was actually acting as a modern stand in for Sherman, traveling from city to city, observing different forms of southern culture in each place. The part that stuck out to me the most was when he meets Claudia, and she introduces him to her band of extreme survivalists who, if anything show that McEllwee himself isn’t nearly as strange as we thought. I saw a few of the characteristics that we used to describe the south on the first day of class in this little isolated settlement. Family is the dominant factor in this environment, reminding us a little of little house on the prairie. They are free from all regulation from the U.S. allowing them to shoot their guns whenever and wherever they like, manufacture their own alcohol whenever they want to drink it, and remain and isolated and have that sense of unity amongst their small settlement by keeping anybody they don’t want in with them out. This settlement relied on the bible for their information on the nuclear holocaust and the apocalypse, going back to the idea that the south is highly religious. I couldn’t help but laugh when one of the men was pleading to the federal government that they had better leave them alone, all while chewing on his Red Man tobacco in the woods, if that doesn’t exemplify southern stereotypes I don’t know what else does. The quote says it reminds them of America of the ‘30s, and to me it did, showing us that idea of the South never quite progressing with the rest of the U.S., still believing that at any time Nuclear Warfare was going to end civilization, an idea that had pretty much died out throughout the country some years back. This settlement, for better or worse, is to me what the south is. Although it is a different form of living than many of us are used to, these people know who they are, what the want, and are proud that the south is part of their identity.

Question: Did all of the cities seem like they were still in regression, favoring the pre-Sherman forms of themselves?

McElwee: Sherman's March

I also found myself having a hard time following this documentary. However, once the film started going, I was overwhelmed with the different personalities and perspectives he encountered along the way. I was surprised that McElwee was able to capture such intimate feelings through his eccentric appreciation for the details in life. Although the original purpose for his film was to look at the impact of the destructive march made by Union troops under General William T. Sherman, McElwee is able to present different Southern cultures and beliefs through the filming of different women. Despite the apparent forward motion of society that McElwee was displaying, there was a portion of the movie that caught my attention on the subject of Southern stereotypes: Pat is talking to her friend about her audition and how her roles were very limited due to her Southern accent. There was such an acceptance seen in her demeanor, that it was kind of hard to see how much of her culture still identifies her and limits her opportunities. She has big modern aspirations, but she is ultimately unable to pull away from her Southerness.

How much of this journey really compared with the actual Sherman's March?

Sherman's Search

Okay I don't remember the exact quote but it goes something like, "The crowd could tell the cavalry's legs from the infantry's legs because the infantry's calves were bigger." It is one of the rare scenes that McElwee (almost said Ross) actually discusses Sherman's battles and how gory it was with soldier's random dismember body parts laying all over the battle field.

First, let me say that this documentary was awesome. At times I wondered if he had planned this all out and he knew all along that he was going to go on a 'love' search but claim it was suppose to be about Sherman.

One reason I believe this documentary worked as well as it did was because there was such a dichotomy of themes. For a good bulk of the movie McElwee chases around five or six southern girls attempting to find love, but then there are these historical and at times violent scenes, such as above, interwoven within the love story (not to mention the random nuclear war dreams). Because of this I am still baffled as to what the exact point of this movie is, but I have a theory.

My theory is that McElwee wanted to document Sherman's love for the South versus his destruction of the South. McElwee frequently mentions that Sherman loved the south, he painted portraits of it's landscape, wrote letters to his friends up North about it's beauty, and even gave reasonable terms of surrender for the Confederate army. These reasonable terms caused people in the north to rebuke him, thus he was not at home in the North or the South. McElwee parallels Sherman. Both suffered for insomnia, fits of depression, and a sense of not belonging. So when McElwee's heart is broken by Anna he decides to leave off this path of destruction and focus on love.

Question: What do you think the point of this documentary is?

Sherman's Watch

I really don't know where to start with this post. The film was... interesting to say the least. It had ridiculously awkward one liners, my favorite one was "A sort of creeping psycho-sexual despair came over me." The odd form of this documentary made it hard to watch/analyse. At first I thought the documentary was pointless, just one attempt to find a girlfriend after another. However, after a while I began to notice just how political the piece was. It was political, not in it's observation of Sherman's South, but more in an observation of different southern cultures. We first McElwee family who appear to be more traditionally southern, each encounter we see after this one shows a different way of living in the South. Many of the people he comes into to contact with are more radical than I imagined the South in the 80's. For example, the Crusoeian islanders, or his protester ex -girlfriend. At the same time we see traditionalist view points on marriage, and government. Is this documentary a good representation of the South, or does his choice of interviews create a false southern image?

Turn the Damn Camera Off!

"Why don't you, for this first listening to DeeDee, forget the fucking film and listen to DeeDee.  This is your wife!  This is your betrothed!"  (1:38:34)

This quote, made by McElwee's friend/former teacher, Charlene, perfectly sums up my feelings towards our "lovesick" protagonist.  Every time he meets a new girl or pursues an old girlfriend, he has this camera on and asks them twenty questions.  And then he goes off and feels sorry for himself when they turn him down.  I don't know what everyone else thought, but I believed that all of these women were turning him down BECAUSE he had a camera constantly on them while they were together.

Perhaps these women felt, as they were talking to him, as if they were subjects in a creepy experiment as opposed to girls being flirted with by a generally nice guy.  If I were talking to a girl who had an interest in me, but would NOT STOP FILMING ME, I'd get out of there as quickly as I could.

It seems to me as if Ross McElwee, would have been luckier had he actually looked upon these women as actual women as opposed to possible objects to give his life meaning.  I just could not stop wondering why, when he felt connections with some of these women (no matter how oddball some of them may seem), he kept his camera on.  It was as if he was always looking at them through an audience's POV as opposed to his own, and that kept him emotionally separated from them.

I also want to know what the people who gave him the grant to make this film thought when they saw the finished product.  They gave McElwee a lot of money for the purpose of making a documentary on General Sherman's actual march.  Not a self-indulgent, metaphorical march through the South which supposedly parallels Sherman's.  Granted, it did go on to become acclaimed and win awards, but you have to wonder how they reacted.

Question: Do you believe that he would have had more luck with these women had he had his camera turned off?  Do you believe that he was generally in love with them, or that he looked upon them as objects in a search for the meaning of his life?