Best Lessons From Southern Literature

Now, just like any other culture, we take our storytelling very seriously in the south. Throughout my career as an English major, I have heard southern authors dismissed as pathetic loonies who only landed publishing deals because some crackpot felt bad for all of them. I can't exactly just accept that all writers from the entire region could be likened to The Jersey Shore's Snooki, so I'd like to share a few of my own thoughts on why some southern authors aren't completely useless.

5 Best Lessons From Southern Literature:

5. Anne Rice - Evil is bad. Real bad.

I've never been much of an Anne Rice fan, but it seems that I am the only one who isn't. If your mother doesn't have an entire collection of the New Orleans' author's novels, something is wrong. Rice's books are all about vampires, God, a struggle between being good and evil, and transformation. After her first novel, Interview With A Vampire was released in 1976 she went on to write. A lot. And she's now an incredibly popular writer, with 100 million copies of her books sold.
"My vampire novels and other novels I’ve written... are attempting to be transformative stories… All these novels involve a strong moral compass. Evil is never glorified in these books; on the contrary, the continuing battle against evil is the subject of the work. The search for the good is the subject of the work… Interview with the Vampire... is about the near despair of an alienated being who searches the world for some hope that his existence can have meaning. His vampire nature is clearly a metaphor for human consciousness or moral awareness."
So, aside from the fact that vampires have become very annoying as of late, her novels have a very heartwarming theme: Don't be bad. Even if you're perfectly good at it.

4. Cormac McCarthy: Act hopeful, even when everyone around you is a cannibal.


The Road was probably the most depressing novel I have ever come into contact with. McCarthy, a fellow Tennessean, really drops a bomb with this one. That being said, it's an incredible one. And I don't want to spoil the ending (it's happy...sort of), but it concludes the story with hope. Somehow. After roving across the desert for months and avoiding being murdered by cannibals in an hellish and post-apocalyptic setting, a father and son finally reach what they've been searching for: The sea. So after assuming they will have to commit suicide to avoid the pain of murder, they eventually do make it. So what's the moral of the story? Even if cannibals are trying to eat you left and right, you still have to act like you have hope. Because you might just earn a spot on Oprah's book list like McCarthy. Or maybe just the no-fly list.


3. Harper Lee: Being brave sometimes means you know you'll fail.


I've only met one person over the age of 12 who hasn't yet read To Kill A Mockingbird. By this I mean, everyone's read To Kill A Mockingbird, and for a good reason. It's full of lessons that make it a delectable work of art. Alabama's very own Lee had it published in July, 1960, and it's been a staple in high schools ever since. One character of immense literary speculation, Atticus Finch is a lawyer who is unlike literally any other because he believes in equality under the law (which literally everyone around him thinks is insane). As he prepares to defend an innocent man who has been wrongfully accused, he tells Jem and Scout, "Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do." Finch knows that failure is imminent, but he still powers through the case because he knows he has to since no one else will. In case you forgot your middle school education, that is some seriously cool stuff. 


Unfortunately this post was deleted after I published it last week (Thanks Blogger!) but the last two Southern Literature lessons will be here to blow your mind very shortly.