All genius is local. Particular.
Genius loci translates spirit, or tutelary deity, of a place.
Old Folks wrote about the mullet culture. From Brenda's old home place in Parker,
where they had retired, to live, among her relatives and friends, their friends.
Owen and Balder's friends. Owen and Balder had grown up in Parker, among seine fishermen
and shrimpers, and had relatives who were oystermen, or owned seafood houses, in
Apalachicola. The Last Great Bay.
They hunted and fished. They gathered oysters
and scallops. They caught blue crabs.
Well, they grew up in Delray Beach
and in Parker.
So they'd seen development run rampant, in South Florida,
they'd seen an undeveloped area, in Northwest Florida, when they moved there, and
then they'd seen unchecked growth come to Northwest Florida. Like they'd brought
it with them. Like in fleeing it, they had carried the germ to virgin territory,
and infected their new home with the sickness of the old, that had become unlivable,
overcrowded, polluted, with crime and urban blight and traffic.
They saw
it happening here.
Old Folks wrote about it happening here.
It was
universal. Anywhere you lived, the rich were gobbling up what they had, and then
turning to what you had.
But to New York, Old Folks was a hick. A reactionary.
Development was good. Progress was good. It kept the economy moving. Making money
was good. Gobbling up resources was good. They belong to who can buy them.
Fuck the hicks.
Fuck hicks.
Their way of life doesn't count, it doesn't
matter, money matters, how many copies will it sell in Wal Mart?
Would Old
Folks's books sell in Wal Mart, putting down Wal Mart, as they did?
Would
Old Folks find a New York publisher, attacking and ridiculing New York publishers,
as he did?
When Old Folks became a writer there were publishing houses owned
by individuals. There were bookstores owned by individuals.
There weren't
many of either of those left, and the ones there were were being bought up and folded,
or bought up and corporatized, as fast as you can say bestseller, blockbuster, or
Oprah Winfrey Show.
They have no bread, let them eat cake.
They have no books, let them watch television.
Television makes the cash
registers ring.
Cash registers are good.