Eudora Welty: the liberal imagination and Mississippi politics.

Eudora Welty: the liberal imagination and Mississippi politics. FOR EUDORA WELTY Noun 1. Eudora Welty - United States writer about rural southern life (1909-2001)Welty , AN ACT OF UNDERSTANDING--POLITICAL, SOCIAL, ORpersonal--was typically an act of the imagination. Through fiction, art,music, she sought to comprehend her world. Not surprisingly, then, sheexamined Mississippi politics through these prisms. In September 1945,for instance, when US Senator Theodore Bilbo bil��bo?1?n. pl. bil��boesAn iron bar to which sliding fetters are attached, formerly used to shackle the feet of prisoners.[Origin unknown.] ran for reelection on aplatform of outspoken racism, a distraught Welty returned to a favoritenovel as a possible way of coping with the situation. As she wrote toher agent, Diarmuid Russell: "I started reading A Passage to Indiaagain--the politics in Mississippi make me so sick I have to get somerelease and there really isn't any against the rage that comes overme--what is going to happen, with things like this and people like thatBilbo--It's too much for me" (Letter to Russell, 24 August[1945]). Nine months later, she turned to the world of art as a way ofdescribing a rising star in Mississippi politics, Ross Barnett. To herfriend John Robinson Several notable individuals have been named John Robinson: PoliticiansJohn Robinson (1650-1723) (1650-1723), English diplomat; later Bishop of Bristol from 1710 and Lord Privy Seal from 1711-1713 , she reported seeing the white supremacist white supremacistn.One who believes that white people are racially superior to others and should therefore dominate society.white supremacy n.Noun 1. Barnettat a VFW See Video for Windows. rally where he introduced Georgia's liberal governor EllisArnall Ellis Gibbs Arnall (March 20 1907, Newnan, Georgia – December 13 1992) was an American politician who served as the Governor of the U.S. state of Georgia from 1943 to 1947.Arnall attended the Mercer University before transferring to the University of the South. , a man known for his egalitarian policies. Struck by this irony,she told Robinson that Barnett "looked like a recent Picasso,seemingly had 2 profiles,--looking from one place to the other realquickly maybe" (Letter to Robinson, 21 May 1946). For her, only aPicasso painting could capture the duplicity DUPLICITY, pleading. Duplicity of pleading consists in multiplicity of distinct matter to one and the same thing, whereunto several answers are required. Duplicity may occur in one and the same pleading. and opportunism OpportunismArabella, Ladysquire’s wife matchmakes with money in mind. [Br. Lit.: Doctor Thorne]Ashkenazi, Simchashrewdly and unscrupulously becomes merchant prince. [Yiddish Lit. of Barnett,who would not turn down an invitation to advance himself before thepublic even though he represented the antithesis of Arnall'spolitical philosophy. The art of Forster and Picasso, to Welty, offeredpolitical vision and wisdom, and so too did the recordings andperformances of another sort of artist, the popular African American African AmericanMulticulture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.See Race. musician Fats Waller Noun 1. Fats Waller - United States jazz musician (1904-1943)Thomas Wright Waller, Waller . On May 8, 1940, Eudora Welty and her friend Seta Alexander went toJackson's Municipal Auditorium to hear a concert by Waller. Atintermission, Welty suggested to Alexander that they should watch theremainder of the concert from the edge of the stage. They did so, and anexcited Welty afterwards went home to write the story"Powerhouse." Waller's performance had enhanced herunderstanding of the plight of African Americans in the segregatedSouth, and Welty created her own work of art to express thatunderstanding. Proud of her new story, Welty read it at the Bread LoafWriters Conference that summer, but no one seemed to appreciate it.Perhaps the participants mistakenly identified Welty with thestory's white audience. Or perhaps they sensed that Welty wasrejecting a stereotype cherished by white liberals, a stereotype thatSpike Lee Noun 1. Spike Lee - United States filmmaker whose works explore the richness of black culture in America (born in 1957)Lee, Shelton Jackson Lee has quite recently condemned. In talks on college campuses Leehas accused white film producers of repeatedly depicting the"super-duper magical mystical Negro," the black savior, whohas no real life of his own but who exists to teach white people themeaning of their experience (Foley, par. 10). It seems to me that Welty,having observed Wallet's performance and a white audience'sresponse to him, composed "Powerhouse" as a way of alsorejecting this stereotype. Both Lee and Welty seek to reveal and dismissa pattern of thinking that involves, to use novelist NnediOkorafor-Mbachu's words, the "subordination of a minorityfigure masked as the empowerment of one" (par. 9). At the beginning and ending of Welty's story, the narrativepoint of view, as Welty later noted, "is floating around somewherein the concert hall--it belongs to the 'we' of theaudience" (Massey Lecture III, 6). And that audience clearly seesPowerhouse as both a racial inferior and as the "super-dupermagical mystical Negro" who promises salvation to them. There's no one in the world like him. You can't tell what he is. "Nigger man"?--he looks more Asiatic, monkey, Jewish, Babylonian, Peruvian, fanatic, devil. He has pale gray eyes, heavy lids, maybe horny like a lizard's, but big glowing eyes when they're open. He has African feet of the greatest size, stomping, both together, on each side of the pedals. He's not coal black--beverage colored--looks like a preacher when his mouth is shut, but then it opens--vast and obscene. And his mouth is going every minute: like a monkey's when it looks for something. Improvising, coming on a light and childish melody--smooch--he loves it with his mouth. Is it possible that he could be this! When you have him there performing for you, that's what you feel. You know people on a stage--and people of a darker race--so likely to be marvelous, frightening. (158) To this white audience, Powerhouse is "frightening,"unlike the stereotypical figure Lee describes. Yet like the stereotype,Powerhouse is cast not only as an inferior but also as a savior. Thoughhe is compared to a lizard and a monkey, he also seems"marvelous." He sends the white audience into"oblivion," and they long to know the secret he holds: When any group, any performers, come to town, don't people always come out and hover near, leaning inward about them, to learn what it is? What is it? Listen. Remember how it was with the acrobats. Watch them carefully, hear the least word, especially what they say to one another, in another language--don't let them escape you; it's the only time for hallucination, the last time. They can't stay. They'll be somewhere else this time tomorrow. (159) To the self-conscious, repressed, conventional white audience,Powerhouse seems to promise release. The audience, however, does not really want release. The songs theyrequest that he play are rather conventional tunes made interesting onlyby the irrepressible performers. "Marie, the Dawn is Breaking"had been written by Irving Berlin Noun 1. Irving Berlin - United States songwriter (born in Russia) who wrote more than 1500 songs and several musical comedies (1888-1989)Israel Baline, Berlin in 1928, "Pagan Love Song"in 1929 by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown Herb Brown (born March 14, 1936) is an American basketball head coach. He coached the Detroit Pistons from the 1975-76 NBA season to the 1977-78 season, twice making the playoffs. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Brown is a graduate of the University of Vermont in 1957. , and both are rathertritely romantic and one implicitly stereotypical. In counterpoint withPowerhouse's playing of "Pagan Love Song," however, isthe story he simultaneously begins to tell his band members, the storyof his wife's suicide. The song with its invitation to "Comewith me where moonbeams/Light Tahitian skies/And the starlit star��lit?adj.Illuminated by starlight.starlitAdjectivelit by starlightAdj. 1. waters/Linger in your eyes," conveys Powerhouse's longing forGypsy even as his story conveys his fear that she is lost to him. Thepassion Powerhouse brings to the sentimental lyrics is not, as KennethBearden would have it, a way of laughing at an obtuse audience (74). Hisstyle of performance and the story of Gypsy enable Powerhouse to makethe song authentic. Nevertheless, the cathartic cathartic(kəthär`tĭk): see laxative. impact of thatcombination is lost upon the white audience, except for those raremembers who lean inward, striving to hear all. Only they recognize thatin Powerhouse's interpretation the seemingly hopeful lyricsconstitute "a sad song" (161). When Powerhouse and his band escape the white audience and go tothe World Cafe This article is about the radio program. For the World Cafe communications process and community, see The World Cafe. World Cafe is a two-hour long nationally syndicated music radio program that originates from WXPN, a non-commercial station on the campus in Negrotown, Powerhouse hopes to be part of an audiencelistening to music written and performed by black artists. That hopeproves as problematic for Powerhouse as it had been for Fats Waller.Kenneth Bearden notes that "Waller, like most early blues and jazzperformers who were black, had to contend with financial concerns.Racial attitudes often prevented them from gaining recognition for theirwork, and many of their songs were 'sold' to white artists whothen claimed them as their own" (69). Welty's Powerhouse facesjust such white appropriation of black music after he gives Valentineand Scoot "a million nickels" for the World Cafe'snickelodeon and the two band members read off the titles of availablesongs. When Valentine mentions "Tuxedo Junction," Powerhouseasks whose version is on the machine. Disappointed by Valentine'sanswer, Powerhouse tells him not to play that rendition (presumably pre��sum��a��ble?adj.That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. theGlenn Miller Noun 1. Glenn Miller - United States bandleader of a popular big band (1909-1944)Alton Glenn Miller, Miller recording of a song written by black trumpeter ErskineHawkins) but instead asks for "Empty Bed Blues" as sung byBessie Smith. When that is not available, Powerhouse calls for all hisnickels back. Even away from the white dance, Powerhouse senses howoften white power governs his musical choices. The tune which doesfinally come from the nickelodeon calls attention to this lack ofpower--"Sent for You Yesterday and Here You Come Today,"perhaps the Benny Goodman/Johnny Mercer version of Count Basie'soriginal recording. But Powerhouse does not acquiesce to this situation. He hasasserted his own style in performing tunes the white audience wants, andhe has saved his most authentic and moving performance for the all-blackaudience at the cafe. There he cultivates a view of himself as magicaland mystical, but not as a savior. As he expands upon the story of hiswife's suicide, his improvised tale reveals the anxiety he feelsbecause his career as a touting musician keeps him far from home: hefears that his wife has been unfaithful to him, that a symbol of badluck and betrayal (i.e. Uranus Knockwood) is haunting his life, that hemay have lost his wife forever. Yet the story, as he tells it, mergestragedy with humor in the best tradition of the blues. And when thewaitress asks "All that the truth?" Powerhouse responds,"Truth is something worse, I ain't said what, yet. It'ssomething hasn't come to me, but I ain't saying itwon't" (168). He does not see himself as a savior with answersfor either his black or his white audiences. He sees himself as a manwho can transform life into art, who can bring questions to hisaudiences, not answers. The black community does honor one of itsmembers who has saved white people, but Powerhouse is dismissive of him.When his half brother introduces "Sugar Stick Thompson, that dovedown to the bottom of July Creek and pulled up all those drownded whitepeople fall out of a boat" (167), Powerhouse says nothing to thehero, but simply resumes his story of Gypsy. Once Powerhouse and his band return to the white dance, most of thewhite audience seem to continue in their view of Powerhouse as monstrousor animalistic, but the song they request is a sweet, hopeful Gershwintune with lyrics by Ballard MacDonald and Buddy DaSilva--"SomebodyLoves Me." Welty had originally planned to have Powerhouse singFats Waller's "Hold Tight," but censors at the AtlanticMonthly, which first published the story, asked that this be changed. Itis fortunate that they did. The song Welty chose as its substitute isone that appropriately evokes anger from Powerhouse. Bearden has rightlypointed to the importance of anger in this story, but he fails torecognize that anger and Gershwin are inextricably in��ex��tri��ca��ble?adj.1. a. So intricate or entangled as to make escape impossible: an inextricable maze; an inextricable web of deceit.b. linked forWelty's African American artist (67-68). Experience has taughtPowerhouse that to sing "Somebody Loves Me" does not mean hecan expect love from those attending this white dance. There he is theobject not only of fascination but also of fear. There interracial in��ter��ra��cial?adj.Relating to, involving, or representing different races: interracial fellowship; an interracial neighborhood. loveor even friendship is a cultural taboo. In response to that taboo,Powerhouse almost taunts his audience with chorus after chorus of thesong they have requested, leaving them wondering if he will ever finish."Somebody loves me! Somebody loves me," he sings, "Iwonder who!..., I wonder who!" and then with a "vast,impersonal and yet furious grimace," he finally concludes"Maybe it's you!" (169, 170). To hold forth the prospectof real interracial connection, sexual or otherwise, could be dangerousin Alligator, Mississippi, and Powerhouse delivers the lyrics in an"impersonal" fashion, but he does not back away from thesong's implications or disguise his own fury. He leaves hisaudience with a "maybe," a possibility he believes that to aperson they at least publicly abhor. Powerhouse is not the self-denying,stereotypical figure Spike Lee locates in popular films, the one whohelps Rannulph Junah become a better golfer and a better man in TheLegend of Bagger Vance or who sacrifices himself in The Green Mile.Though Powerhouse may cultivate a magical or mystical image and thoughthe white audience is eager to see him in these terms, his purpose inlife is not their salvation. He gives all for his art, not for hisaudience. He does not know that at least one person at the white dancehas separated himself or herself from the other audience members and hasresponded fully to his music and to his humanity. Perhaps thatindividual has in a sense been saved, but not by Powerhouse'sdesign or to his knowledge. Eudora Welty herself was not saved by a Fats Waller concert. Heruse of art to oppose racial injustice predated this concert. She had inthe 1930s, for instance, hoped to publish photographs of AfricanAmericans: among her many snapshots are images of two little girlscarrying white baby dolls, of a young man using the required"colored entrance" of a theater, and of an elderly womanstanding tall, resolute, and self possessed despite her tatteredclothing. Through such images Welty sought "to part a curtain, thatinvisible shadow that falls between people, the veil of indifference toeach other's presence, each other's wonder, each other'shuman plight" (One Time, One Place 8). And this she had done longbefore hearing Fats Waller. But if Waller's 1940 Jackson concertwas not transformative for Welty, it did dramatically mark an on-goingpattern in her life. At that concert, she and a friend literallyseparated themselves from the white audience and ventured to the edge ofthe stage. Then, in her story drawing upon the concert, Welty went on topart a curtain and proclaim a concern for human rights, a concern shevoiced in letters to friends and found most eloquently expressed inworks of art. Perhaps, then, it is not too great a stretch to link Fats Waller,E. M. Forster, and Pablo Picasso. For Eudora Welty, Forster and Picassorevealed the nature of Mississippi's hypocritical racist leadersand the tragedy inherent in a racist society, and Welty's fictionalresponse to Waller involved rejecting the demeaning stereotypes whicheven white liberals have perpetuated. In "Powerhouse," Weltyrejected not just the myths promoted by the nineteenth-centuryapologists for slavery but also the more contemporary myth of AfricanAmericans as "super-duper magical mystical Negroes" whosepurpose in life, as Spike Lee contends, is to save white people fromthemselves. She granted a character, who might have fallen into thisstereotypical role, his complexity and his anger. And she publiclyvoiced her own anger at a society which refused to do the same for itscitizens. In her response to E. M. Forster's fiction, PabloPicasso's paintings, and Fats Waller's music, Welty praisedworks of imagination that reject racism and hypocrisy. Clearly, thetruly liberal imagination, for Eudora Welty, was an artistic one: aswriter and reader, photographer and listener she proclaimed her faith inthe artist's vision. Works Cited Bearden, Kenneth. "Monkeying Around: Welty's'Powerhouse,' Blues-Jazz, and the Signifying Connection."Southern Literary Journal 31.2 (Spring 1999): 65-79. Foley, Kevin. "Spike Lee Speaks to Spring Fest." The View(University of Vermont), 24 April 2002. http://www.uvm.edu/theview/article.php?id=409. Freed, Arthur, and Nacio Herb Brown. "Pagan Love Song."http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/p/paganlovesong.shtmlOkorafor-Mbachu, Nnedi. "Stephen King's Super-Duper MagicalNegroes." Strange Horizons 25 October 2004. http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20041025/kinga.shtml. Welty,Eudora. Letters to John F. Robinson and Diarmuid Russell and William E.Massey, Sr., Lectures. Eudora Welty Collection, Mississippi Departmentof Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi. Quoted by permission ofMississippi Department of Archives and History and of Russell andVolkening, Inc., copyright 1945, 1946, 1983. --. One Time, One Place. New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : Random House, 1971. --. "Powerhouse." Stories, Essays, & Memoir. NewYork: Library of America The Library of America (LoA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Overview and historyFounded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LoA has published more than 150 volumes by a wide range , 1998. 158-70. SUZANNE MARRS MARRS Mesocyclone Approach Radio Relay System (tornado detection)MARRS Mechanized Ammunition Recording & Reporting System Millsaps College