The LAST GREAT Southern Writer Has Died....This is what he was about...

[KoKo]

Some Fight Back
A Review of Joe Bageant's Rainbow Pie: A Redneck Memoir

By Michael Donnelly

Q: How do you know if you are rich, middle class or poor in America?

A: When you go to work, if your name is on the building -- you’re rich; if your name is on an office door -- you’re middle class; if your name is on your shirt -- you're poor…and, if someone else’s name is on your hand-me-down work shirt.

Rain150 You always hear about natural-born musicians, artists, teachers, nurses, even businessmen. But what happened to the natural-born farmer and extended farm family when the rural-to-urban migration saw us go from 92% of Americans making their living (and dying) on the land in 1900 to around 2% today? What happened to the natural sense of community that engendered -- that "we're all in it together," culture we now long for? And, what about America's supposedly classless society? How's that working out for ya?

Here’s a new book that answers these questions and more.

The Shower Line

Nobody writes about class in America and about America’s unacknowledged class war like Joe Bageant. Dubbed the “Sartre of Appalachia” by CounterPunch co-editor Jeffrey St. Clair, Joe writes about America’s largest, yet invisible to most, class -- 60 million poor, undereducated white laborers. These are the folks who as Joe notes are on the other side of “the shower line” -- those who pull off their sweaty work clothes and take their showers after their back-breaking day’s physical labor as opposed to those who shower and dress far more finely before heading off to work.

Joe’s first book, Deer Hunting with Jesus introduced us to many of these salt-of-the-earth folks and explained the whys and wherefores of their rather self-defeating worldview. In his latest book, a memoir cum polemic, Rainbow Pie: A Redneck Memoir Bageant delves into the origins -- his own and that of the 60 million others existing on the hidden side of the great shower line.

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2011/03/some-fight-back.html

[Hardrada]

1. I ordered this book from Australia before the US release

since I was looking forward to it so much. A great read and so true! His people are not mine but there are a few cultural resonances.

[KoKo]

3. did you ever see his "live interview" with Australian TV? I'll try to dig it up for you..

I think I posted it on DU and it got little response and went off to archives...but...it's an incredible watch. I got it from "You Tube."

I will check back...when I find it. Thank's so much for replying and remembering him...It means a lot to those of us "Disenfranchised Southerners." It does.

[KoKo]

5. HERE is the AUSTRALIAN INTERVIEW..with Joe (sorry for Full Caps...but it's Important)

Here it IS....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BsyEEE65Lo

[Hardrada]

7. Thanks!

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Yayyyyyyyy. Many thanks.

[KenSmith]

13. Bageant on Australia TV

Joe Bageant had a dozen or more television appearances on his book tour of Australia last fall. Following the news of Joe's death, ABC-TV (Australia) last Monday rebroadcast a one-hour interview with Joe. But, I can't find it on the web.

Here is what I believe to be Joe's best interview in Australia. Links have changed, so go to this page on Joe's site:

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/10/brisbane.html

Click on the image and you will be taken to a site for the Brisbane Writers Festival. Then, look in the left column to either play or download the video.

I've managed Joe's website since it was launched seven years ago. Co-ordinating with Joe's wife, I plan to keep the site active as long as there are new reviews being written about his second book, Rainbow Pie: A Redneck Memoir. Then, we may spin off the content to an archive site -- but, the plan is definitely to have Joe's essays available online.

Thanks for all the comments. Joe was a good friend.

Paz,

Ken Smith
Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico

[MattSh]

14. Thanks for that Ken. n/t

[KoKo]

15. Kudo's To You..that Web Site is Fantastic....with Links..and those interested should go there!

I appreciate your reply with the current links. Many here will be interested in this...and I will pass it along.

[KoKo]

17. Thanks, Ken for your Reply...a suggestion..

Since I couldn't reply to you here on DU with our "PM" system because you are too new.

Could you break up Joe's Interview into soundbytes...for each Topic that Joe discusses. Out here in America there a "few rurals" who would understand what he says...but Many who Fight Against Globilization that Would Understand.

Also, America is no longer a "Scotch-Irish Population" ...(but having come from that culture I think Joe describes it incredibly as to how Dems have problems in the South of the US or any place else where "Scotch-Irish" congregated through the Midwest, etc. That part deserves a whole segment on it's own. "WHY DO WE SEND OUR AMERICAN SOLDIERS to FIGHT WARS that WE WILL NOT WIN!"

That deserves some judicious editing.

Then about the Globilization and that the "Two-Party System" is really a "One Party System."

I'd edit this out so that folks don't think that Joe is just another Right Wing Fundie like the Paul ..Son and Father who have given the RW so much hope in the last year or two.

Cut and Edit so that each of his issues STAND ALONE...that give POWER to HIS SPEECH and MEMORY..

I come from his roots and farmland views....but have lived most of my life in NYC and URBAN CULTURE...Folks in those places have no Idea how to Connect with what he says...but many of the ones are Liberal and Want to Protect our Environment. That's where Joe's Background speaks the TRUTH ...across the years. Those folks wanting to "get back to basic land...and love of what me and Joe grew up with and our Relatives and Elders who taught us. It's a lost dialog with the Urbanites of today...but a view that shouldn't die with Joe...and his memory. He would have wanted to have folks CARRY ON ...HIS MESSAGE to the YOUNGER...to EVERYONE.

Sorry for long post...I wish I could have "PM'd" you here on DU...but hope you will understand what I am saying.

Cut this Magnificent Interview up into parts that address the issues (one by one) that we are faced with today...so that folks can get past what their "preconceived view of Bageant is...and LISTEN and DIGEST his PROFOUND WISDOM...

Peace and Regards,
KoKo

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Not the "last great " Southern writer,KoKo.

Rick Bragg and Tom Franklin are still with us.

[QC]

12. Harry Crews and Dorothy Allison are still around, too. n/t

[Webster Green]

2. Hey! Tom Wolfe is still alive!

He's from Richmond, VA.

Thanks for this though, I'll check it out. :smoke:

[KoKo]

4. Please Do! Joe Bageant described why White Southerners vote the way they do YEARS AGO...

and NOW every DAMNED STATE IN THE US...has those RW'ERS TRASHING THEM...

Read Joe..he lays it out.!

[KoKo]

9. Yes...their voices haven't found a replaement...a missing piece of our American History...

It's sad...beyond words...sad that these two HUGE VOICES who could have continued to Make a Difference...are not gone forever...and no one is left to promote their works...because. "We Must Move On in History."

I don't know what to make of: "We must move on from History." But, that's what we are being told to do.

:-(

[xchrom]

6. Joe & Molly Ivins are sorely missed. We need them. Nt

[KoKo]

10. Sorry "X-Crome"...my post/REPLY to you is above...got mixed up...

But, it's to you. #9 is to YOU.

[provis99]

16. Barry Hannah and Eudora Welty are still alive.

They are definitely "Great Southern Writers".

[QC]

18. Barry Hannah died a little over a year ago.

I knew him personally, as he taught at the university where I went to grad school. A fine teacher and mentor, as well as a literary genius.

Welty died quite some time back, I think early in the decade.

[provis99]

19. damn! I've been out of Mississippi for fifteen years.

Looks like I missed a lot.

[QC]

20. We've lost some fine writers in the past few years, haven't we?

Where in Mississippi did you live? I was in Oxford for seven years while working on an English degree.

[KoKo]

21. ....kick