Gone With The Wind?

Recently, PBS aired a biography of Margaret Mitchell, author of the blockbuster novel Gone with the Wind. A long (1,000 pages) romantic tale set in the South during the Civil War and the period of Reconstruction, it called attention to a genre of Southern literature.

I watched my mother read Gone With the Wind back in 1937. She was cleaning our little house out on West Kennedy in Kingsville, Texas. She’d sweep for a minute and then turn back to the kitchen table where the book lay. She’d read a page and then go back to sweeping.

Some of mother’s ancestors were Old South, from Virginia and Louisiana. They lost all during the Civil War and migrated to East Texas to start over. Margaret Mitchell’s descriptions of plantation life intrigued my mother, who’d heard family tales of slavery days (most of which weren’t passed on to me).

The PBS program piqued my curiosity. I downloaded a free e-book copy of GWTW and struggled through it.

It’s a terrible book. Extremely verbose with a weak plot – it really is a romance, not a war story at all. Most disturbing to me is Mitchell’s description of Blacks. She was writing in the early 1930’s in a Jim Crow period, and perhaps expressing the sentiments of her times, but even so I don’t recommend reading it.

GWTW remains a problem for southern writers who must contend with its fame. The Civil War still hangs like a pall over the South. Georgia’s premiere author, Philip Lee Williams, remarked to me, “Dac, you Westerners got over the Civil War. We never have.”

Okay, so now I’ve ordered a copy of the anti-GWTW: “The Wind Done Gone.”

Margaret Mitchell was struck by an automobile in downtown Atlanta and killed in 1947. Just a few blocks away, a teenage Martin Luther King was growing to manhood. Distance is measured in more than miles.

Dac Crossley
7/17/2011.

“Everyone has his day, and some days last longer than others.” – Winston Churchill.

Comments

[Dac Crossley]

Augie - I'm reading "The Wind Done Gone." Surprisingly good, but hard to follow if you haven't read GWTW itself.

[Augie]

Dac all I can say "Thank You". Hollywood possesses a knack of glamorizing issues that are important, and can change history to meets its own demand (or what they think the public want to see or hear) The Civil War had to occur, and sadly bitterness still lingers

[Cheryl C. Malandrinos]

Janice, that curtain rod scene from the Carol Burnett show is hilarious.

[Cheryl C. Malandrinos]

Dac, when I said I loved that era, I meant that I love studying it. Granted, it's a terrible part of our history, but it's still America's history. That's also why I enjoy reading books set during that time period. I have an entire shelf of books about the conflict and some fictional titles set during that era.

There's still so much I haven't read about it, but part of what the Civil War shows is that the principles this country was founded on work. The South had the freedom to secede and fight for its way of life. I don't believe it was the right way of life, but they were able to do that without the risk of some evil dictator killing them and their families to surpress a rebellion.

Many lives were eventually lost as a result, but then the Union won and the country focused on Reconstruction. Was it perfect? No, but is shows that our country can overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.

[Dac Crossley]

That's why I read it, Janice. Out of curiosity, after the TV special on Margaret Mitchell. Reading it was something of a chore.

The KJ Bible holds some of our oldest literature. The language soars. I scowled when I heard about the current push to revise the New Testament (remove "the woman taken in adultery"). On reflection - we've been revising "God's Word" for two thousand years. Why stop now?

[Janice Pulliam]

to continue---
If you didn't know that bit about the curtain dress from GWTW, you'd miss out on one of the most brilliant funny bits ever.

[Janice Pulliam]

I think people should read GWTW, or at least see the movie, because it's part of our literary heritage, like it or not. Similarly, I think atheists should read at least some of the Bible, just so they know what all the fuss is about. Both are part of our cultural heritage as Americans.

To me, the funniest part of the Carol Burnett spoof is when she comes down the stairs in the dress made from draperies (with curtain rod still attached) and says, "I saw it in the window and couldn't resist it." So many cross-references all balled into one hilarity.

[Dac Crossley]

No, L. J., I don't want to revise history. People are part of the milieu they participate in, I know. I do not judge by my own standards. But I don't think MM was necessarily representative of her time - just her particular milieu. Does that make sense?

It isn't a very good book anyway - not up to the standards of her contemporaries.

[L. J. Martin]

Dac, are you a revisionist as far as history goes? Do you agree with changing the text of Mark Twain's books? Are we a country who sticks their heads in the sand and says "it didn't happen?" Until we stand hand in hand with blacks and they and we accept our history for what it was, we're not going to be a sophisticated people. And if you want to "slog thorugh" you can "slog through" about anything written during that time frame. It was the style. You can't knock success, unless you feel above the "people" who determine what consists of "popular fiction."

[bactrim online]

Recently, PBS aired a biography of Margaret Mitchell, author of the blockbuster novel Gone with the Wind. A long (1,000 pages) romantic tale set in the South during the Civil War and the period of Reconstruction, it called attention to...

[J. R. Lindermuth]

Couldn't agree more, Dac. There are many much better novels about the war--from both the northern and southern viewpoint. Unfortunately, they never get the press GWTW does.

[Dac Crossley]

Joe - did you ever see Carol Burnett's spoof of GWTW. When Rhett starts "I don't gi.." and Scarlett slams the door shut? And says, "What did he mean, I don't gi?"

[Joe Cobb Crawford]

Never read the book- Much too long. Bet your Mom was still sweeping/reading GWTW when WWII started. Watched the movie several times- Mostly just to hear Clark Gable's classic ending line: "Frankly my dear, I don't ..."

[Genie]

It's a historical romance. Not bad if you skip all the war stuff (just kidding). It seems to be more memorable because she didn't stop at happily ever after.

[Dac Crossley]

Cheryl - what do you like about the Civil War era? The up-close and personal battle sites? The idiotic plan to secede from the Union? The daring, if clumsy, Confederate cavalry?

[Cheryl C. Malandrinos]

I have to be honest and admit I can't watch Gone with the Wind and I don't even want to approach the book. I've seen bits of pieces of the movie on TV. Though I love the Civil War era and have read many nonfiction titles and fictional ones set during that time period, Scarlett and Rhett have never intrigued me.

[Dac Crossley]

Thanks, Julian. Don't read the book. Glad to hear from another displaced Texan.

[Julian Baird]

The GWTW blog is a really good one, Dac! I was very moved by the ending comparison you draw. Glad to be related to you!

Your cousin Julian

[Dac Crossley]

You are right, Paige. The Congress decided to punish the South - as if the scorched earth policies weren't bad enough. Shelby Foote describes people, black and white, wandering aimlessly in burnt-out cities, nothing to eat, no homes, all destroyed.
No wonder they went West.

[Paige]

Oh, I am crushed. I am staggering under the blow as I try to sop up the blood gushing from
my wounds.

Yes, GWTS is flowery and overdone. And the South had a hard recovery and long memory because we were the occupied country. After WWI & II, the US sent money to aid the occupied countries. After the failed Southern Revolution, we had Yankee carpetbaggers arrive to strip the South of what little it had left.

But back to writing... Unfortunately GWTW will probably continue to reign as the premier Southern literature. Just be happy we have other better examples to showcase!