His wit and penchant for politically punchy prose make his column a must-read in the Triangle’s alterna-artsy weekly The Independent. But it is the cerebrally softer side of author Hal Crowther that will make his latest essay collection, Gather at the River: Notes from the Post-Millenial South a fixture on Southern lit fans’ shelves. Reserving his unique brand of fire and brimstone for his columnist alter-ego, Crowther instead uses this second collection of essays to wax philosophic on just what it means to be Southern in this day and age.
recess arts editor Sarah Ball chatted up the award-winning journalist and Hillsborough resident in the days preceding his first publicity appearances—one of which will occur Tuesday, Sept. 13 at The Regulator bookshop on Ninth St. The author touches on phenomena unique to the Southland, from Jesse Helms’ big-time conservatism to Dolly Parton’s big...hair.
recess: Tell me in the most general terms what Gather at the River is.
Hal Crowther: The book is actually a collection of things I’ve gotten published since 2001 with literary and cultural topics, and of course politics, which I never seem to be able to leave alone. But a great deal of it is about literature and literary topics.
recess: And what reasons did you have for putting this collection on the table now?
HC: This, for me, is a chance to write about the things I love. The things I don’t love have sort of dominated my work [as a columnist]—I take it as my responsibility. Not everyone is as enlightened as you and me in the state of North Carolina. And my feeling especially since 9/11 is that, at this point, I can’t really retire... There are essays in [Gather at the River] about the war, about the retirement of Jesse Helms and the death of Strom Thurmond.
recess: You’re considered one of the great Southern essayists and humorists of our time. Who are your influences?
HC: I mention a number of North Carolina authors—Elizabeth Spencer, for one. There’s also Wendell Berry and Denise Giardina, who used to live in Durham... and I have a long piece in here about Faulkner. Then there’s Simon Blackburn, who taught philosophy on the subject of lust, which triggered an essay in this collection on sex in the South.
recess: Ooh la la.
HC: Well, I’m 60 years old. I can’t imagine anyone under the age of 40 thinks I’m an expert.
recess: Dr. Ruth can fill that niche. What about this collection brings something new to the Southern lit genre?
HC: The South has changed so much in the last 15 or 20 years... Big cities now have a lot of people from outside of the South; people don’t speak with Southern accents on the news anymore. What I’m trying to do is hold this moment in time—to look back at the things that are important to remember, while noting what’s new, what’s changing and what has to be paid attention to. I’m not an enthusiastic futurist, but neither am I a historian.
recess: And what about the youngest generation of writers? As we grapple with the task of forming our own voice in the world, what all-knowing advice would you impart?
HC: It’s hard. Very few people have a really broad perspective—there are just all these people screaming at each other from one narrow political perspective and, in my opinion, usually making fools of themselves. Give yourself enough of an education while you have the leisure to do so, so that you’ll have your own opinions. Generally speaking, unless you’ve chosen your models very wisely, borrowed opinions are not worth a damn.
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