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Reading Rumination (Dalton)

“That great road – moving, it seemed, purely according to its own will – was the mark of an old flaw come newly ordered into the world. Who could doubt that if everything stood in its way, nothing would be left?”

Pretty much all of Jayber’s qualms with the new generation are in relation to the advancement of industrialization, and the (often negative) effects it has on Port William. The road, which, as Jayber points out, connects Port William more closely to the outside world, also eliminates much of the sense of community that made Port William unique. When people realized that they could more conveniently go to Hargrave or Louisville for their daily needs, they (for the most part) stopped going to the Port William stores they had regularly went to. This, in turn, brought Port William’s social life to a screeching halt, with most young people succumbing to the call of the bigger cities. It’s obvious Jayber cares a great deal for Port William, and seeing his town disintegrate (as the chapter title so aptly puts it) causes him great pain. It’s also interesting to compare the last sentence of the quote I selected to Troy Chatham; Jayber sees him in basically the same way as the road, neither stopping until they’ve destroyed everything in their path. Also, I wonder if it was a coincidence that, as Port William starts in its way toward modernization, Jayber ends up moving into the woods.

Jayber Crow Reading Rumination (Jenna)

Page 247-248

Fat Monroe: 0:00-11:45

Night Ride: 11:48-35:11

Maxine: 35:12-56:25

The Resettling of America Conference (April 4-6) celebrates the 35th anniversary of Wendell Berry’s germinal text The Unsettling of America. Roundtable discussions will be held in Louisville and at St. Catharine College and will feature many of the leading figures in ecological agriculture and sustainable community development.

DIRECT FEED: The conference venues can only accommodate 300 people, and tickets are sold out. However, The Berry Center and St. Catharine College invite students, staff, faculty, and community members to watch the proceedings via video direct feed in the third floor classrooms of SCC’s new Emily W. Hundley Library. Check out the action on Friday, April 5th (9:00am - 5:00 pm) and Saturday, April 6th (10:00am - 2:45 pm).

SIGN UP: Admission is free, but space is limited. Sign up here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0D4EA9AB2FA02-resettling. Indicate which times you plan to attend. Sign-up is open first to St. Catharine College affiliates and the Springfield community but will be announced to the broader public on Monday, March 25th

LUNCH NOTE: On Friday, guests are welcome to take lunch at the St. Catharine College cafeteria in the Spalding Student Center. However, on Saturday, the cafeteria will be fully occupied by conference participants, so guests will need either to pack a lunch or to take lunch in Springfield.

HELPFUL LINKS:

Resettling of America schedule: http://www.berrycenter.org/The%20Resettling%20of%20America%20-%20Web.pdf

The Berry Center website: http://www.berrycenter.org/

St. Catharine College website: http://www.sccky.edu/

Directions to SCC: http://www.sccky.edu/aboutus/map.php

HIGHLIGHTS: Saturday, April 6th will feature a live interview of Wendell Berry by PBS commentator Bill Moyers, as well as a roundtable discussion including renowned sustainability advocates Vandana Shiva of the Navdanya Organization in India, Bill McKibben of 350.org, and Mary Berry of The Berry Center in New Castle, Kentucky.

Reading Rumination - Blackberry Winter (Adam)

That is what has happened since the morning when the tramp leaned his face down at me and showed his teeth and said: “Stop following me. You don’t stop following me and I’ll cut yore throat, you little son-of-a-bitch.” That is what he said, for me not to follow him. But I did follow him, all the years.

I couldn’t imagine how Seth felt after the stranger said those cruel words to him. When someone says that to you in that particular manner you will never forget it no matter how old you are. For the rest of Seth’s life he will remember that stranger and those words will “follow” him for the rest of his life. The strangers phrase towards him will always be a reminder to Seth. A reminder that will make one remember on how not to live life. Be appreciative for the benefits of working, appreciative of the kind people around you, appreciative of who you are, and appreciative of life!

Housed at the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, this collection contains Warren's interviews with black civil rights leaders, published in Who'll Speak for the Negro? (1965).

The film adaptation of Harriet Simpson Arnow's novel The Dollmaker. (FYI: happy ending in the film. Hunter's Horn-style ending in the novel.)

Robert "Red" Penn Warren's New York Times obituary (1989) provides a concise overview of his life and work.

The red fox is such an interesting critter. Check out this overview of red fox habitation, breeding, and hunting patterns.

Hunter's Horn Hot Spot Reading Rumination (Jenna)

I chose this passage in the reading because I felt like it was a really emotional and informative moment for Suse as a character. She’s spent all of this time dreaming of getting out of the country, longing for the sort of city life everyone was under the impression Lureenie had in Cincinnati and it’s in this moment that all of that sort of becomes a moot point. It’s an extreme letdown for her to see that Lureenie has not changed at all from what she was when she first went away, except for maybe to say she’s a little worse off, even than she was when she was strolling around town trying to use word of mouth to preserve a reputation for her husband whom everyone had already written off as a drunk who abandoned his wife and children. Suse had been so envious of Lureenie for essentially all of her life that we see in the book, and this is the moment when she realizes that Lureenie’s life is nothing to wish for. At the same time, it’s an intriguing moment for another reason. This is the point when Suse should be at her absolute lowest, in that everything she’s been hoping for and dreaming about, all of these scenarios she constructed for herself in her head, it’s all come to a crashing halt. But whereas she should probably just be completely devastated and heartbroken, she also sinks even more hope into high school and into her future, but in a more realistic way. It seems to me that she is beginning, in this moment, to understand that if she wants out and wants better than what her mother, or even Lureenie have, it’s going to depend on her and she’s really going to have to work to reach that goal, however pitiful and far-fetched that seems to us as readers.

Hot Spot - Dalton

Warren’s short story “Blackberry Winter” seems to revolve all around the narrator’s loss of innocence. This explicit reference to “Time” and its power, as well as the fact that he remembers the story so vividly, demonstrate how important this event must have been to him, despite the fact that not much seems to happen. Throughout the story, he is treated like a child by everyone, namely his parents, Old Jebb and the mysterious stranger. He is possessed by childlike curiosity, yet most of his questions are greeted with a “you’re too young, you wouldn’t understand” response; a particular example of this comes in his conversation with Old Jebb about Dellie’s sickness. The stranger serves an interesting role in the story; the naïve nine-year old protagonist is introduced to the darkness that can pervade men’s souls. (This can also be seen when the old man at the bridge says “Live long enough, and a man will settle fer what he kin git.”) This rite of passage, which seems to be a favorite theme of Warren’s, does not seem to be a positive one. This introduction into adulthood is presented as an introduction to all the negative things in life. The constant references to the bleak weather drive home this fact, as do the various images of dead animals, which the narrator finds disturbing.

Reading Rumination for the Hunter's Horn

"Milly sat that night and listened to the hiss of the rain down the chimney and thought of the children's leaky shoes and the scant food saved against the winter, but mostly she thought of Nunn, rocking Deb to the tune of a gay song - promise of good hunting made him gay. Through the few races of the dry windy fall, the pups had shown themselves as good as, and sometimes better than, old experienced Speed and Sourvine. Nunn's hopes were high for getting King Devil before spring; she sighed, frowning into the fire - he'd had high hopes last fall and on many other falls." Milly is starting to lose hope that Nunn and their dogs will ever catch King Devil, even if they have the best dogs around. Milly is starting to question how they are going to provide for their family, especially with a baby on the way. They could use more money for food and other material necessities since the dry summer hurt all their crops and left them low on money and food. Nunn has been attempting to make extra income with his moon shining experiments but believes it's too risky of a business to continue making more batches of shine. This shows he is trying to think of ways to make enough money for his family so he can spend more time fox hunting. Nunn should stop worrying about fox hunting for a while and do what's really right: start providing more for his family. Low food storage, little money, and a new baby are all ingredients for a hard winter. If Nunn can't figure out a way to help his family through, they may not all make it through the winter.

Hunter's Horn Hot Spot (Jenna)

Hot Spot - Dalton

It is beginning to seem more and more like Nunn’s obsession with King Devil is one ordained by destiny; at this point in the novel, any enjoyment Nunn used to get out of the chase is gone. His daughter Suse is interested in attending high school, and Nunn wants her to go, but knows that until he catches King Devil, he won’t be able to raise enough money. Family dysfunction is at an all-time high, as Suse and Lee Roy are getting tired of their father’s antics, and Milly’s new child just represents another financial burden to Nunn. They hardly have enough money for clothing (Nunn is unable to even buy Suse a decent pair of shoes) and Nunn gets the family in debt after the death of most of his sheep. Also, Suse, Lee Roy and Milly are all seeing more time working in the fields, due to Nunn’s hunting and fence-building. In short, times are tough, but Nunn is completely unable to get his act together due to his vendetta against King Devil. Apparently, Nunn feels that this obsession is reciprocated by King Devil himself, which could possibly be true, or just a sign of Nunn’s descent into insanity. Either way, the fates of Nunn and King Devil certainly seem tied to one another.

Hot Spot - Dalton

The main theme of Elizabeth Maddox Roberts’ “Death at Bearwallow” seems to be the rather disturbing correlation between sexuality and death; this passage gives a good glimpse into this. It is from the point of view of Terry Bolin, the dying man who, in his final moments, begins to reflect on his life and, specifically, sexual encounters of his youth. (This is done in a fairly explicit manner, and I can imagine it was probably fairly controversial upon its 1932 release.) One of these women is Kate, his former wife; his final word is actually her name, which he, in this passage, continually repeats to himself. It connects with the rest of the story because the protagonist, Dave Nally, also goes through some strange feelings when, in the second portion of the story, Valeria (a woman he loved, but could never approach) dies. This bizarre fusion of death and sexuality is what ties the two halves of the story together. The passage is also indicative of the stylish, almost surreal language Roberts uses throughout; particularly towards the end, the story takes on a dream-like tone. It’s also interesting how the name Kate is not capitalized, perhaps to indicate just how near death Terry was; he wasn’t quite sure of anything that was going on, he just knew he needed ‘kate’.

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