Misery Loves Company (Southern Lit) is about a trip down South...through Southern Literature. More about that...
Misery Loves Company
SOUTHERN GOTHIC
Flannery O'Conner and Carson McCullars, whose one-time home I lived in for a while, are big influences. I used to ask "Why am I a FREAK MAGNET?" The answer is found somewhere in Southern Gothic.
Misery Loves Company
(Southern Lit)
by Deborah Wilbrink c. 2013 (BMI)
I headed South to renew my roots, dressed in shorts and cowgirl boots
But all I found was Misery; and Misery, she loves company.
“Look-a here sister, drag up a chair…”
But the porch she set on was naked and bare
Squatted on the steps, pulled on the bottle
And out poured tales, wailing full throttle
As I Lay Dying, Their Eyes Were Watching God
To Kill a Mockingbird, In Cold, Wise Blood
President’s Daughter, All the King’s Men
You Can’t Go Home Again, Massa’ Huckleberry Finn
Streetcar Named Desire down Tobacco Road
Confederate Dead can’t hear Tate’s Ode
Everything That Rises, Gone With the Wind
Awakening, to a Clock without Hands
It took so long to hear that my heart went numb
Stuck fingers in my ears; played deaf and dumb
Thanked Miz Misery; started my way home
North to Music City where the story-singers come
I headed South to renew my roots, dressed in shorts and cowgirl boots
But all I found was Misery; and Misery, she loves company.
Paid my visit to Miz Misery; Southern Lit keeping us company
Misery Loves Company
ALLUSIONS
I'm a fan of Southern Gothic literature, with its strange but true characters. In the late 90s, I lived in the house where Carson McCullers once lived. Book titles in Misery Loves Company include one of hers, Clock Without Hands:
VERSE 1
As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner, 1930
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston, 1937
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee, 1960
In Cold Blood – Truman Capote, 1966
Wise Blood – Flannery O’Conner, 1952
Clotel: or the President’s Daughter – William Wells Brown, 1853
All the King’s Men – Robert Penn Warren, 1946
You Can’t Go Home Again – Thomas Wolfe, 1940
Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain (S. L. Clemens), 1885
VERSE 2
Streetcar Named Desire – Tennessee Williams, 1947
Tobacco Road- Erskine Caldwell, 1932
Ode to the Confederate Dead – Allen Tate, 1928
Everything That Rises Must Converge – Flannery O’Conner, 1965
Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell, 1936
Awakening – Kate Chopin, 1899
Clock without Hands – Carson McCullers, 1961
“Southern Gothic literature is a genre of Southern writing. The stories often focus on grotesque themes. While it may include supernatural elements, it mainly focuses on damaged, even delusional, characters.” - Wilson, Roark, and Katie Surber. Southern Gothic Literature