The Southern Reporter And Other Stories

The past isn't dead. It isn't even the past," William Faulker wrote.The Southern Reporter constitutes a report on the collisions between a present that cannot find its voice and a past that reaches out incessantly into the lives of contemporary men and women.An old Louisiana lawyer finds himself in California seeking a missing heir who is a physicist, musician, doctor, theologian-and a leader of a crazed and murderous santanistic cult.A childless retired couple prepares treats for Halloween's children-only to find that the "children" have taken on the character of their terrifying costumes.An elderly lawyer, dying of cancer, is forced to recall an even greater pain and finds his own kind of salvation in the remembrance of love.A court reporter, who has spent his life recording the crimes and affairs of others, at last cannot stand the flood of evil and visits his own justice on a man the jury has found innocent of rape.A young boy is caught between his high-spirited, hell-raising uncle and the deadly civilizing force of his mother.The Southern Reporter penetrates the façade of contemporary life, looking for its roots in the past -- not simply the past of its people but the looming imaginary structure of western history, against which all of us lead our lives -- and die our deaths. The search for images of order and the loss of them constitute the meaning of The Southern Reporter.

Wirt uses multiple indicators - interviews with leaders, attitude tests of children, content analysis of newspapers, school records, and voting and job data - to record what has changed in the Deep South as a result of the 60s revolution in civil rights. Although racism continues to exist in Panola, Wirt maintains that the current generation of southerners is sharply distinguished from its predecessors, and he effectively documents the transformation in individuals and institutions.

The past isn't dead. It isn't even the past," William Faulker wrote.The Southern Reporter constitutes a report on the collisions between a present that cannot find its voice and a past that reaches out incessantly into the lives of contemporary men and women. An old Louisiana lawyer finds himself in California seeking a missing heir who is a physicist, musician, doctor, theologian-and a leader of a crazed and murderous santanistic cult. A childless retired couple prepares treats for Halloween's children-only to find that the "children" have taken on the character of their terrifying costumes. An elderly lawyer, dying of cancer, is forced to recall an even greater pain and finds his own kind of salvation in the remembrance of love. A court reporter, who has spent his life recording the crimes and affairs of others, at last cannot stand the flood of evil and visits his own justice on a man the jury has found innocent of rape. A young boy is caught between his high-spirited, hell-raising uncle and the deadly civilizing force of his mother. The Southern Reporter penetrates the façade of contemporary life, looking for its roots in the past -- not simply the past of its people but the looming imaginary structure of western history, against which all of us lead our lives -- and die our deaths. The search for images of order and the loss of them constitute the meaning of The Southern Reporter.