Faulkner Faulkner Harper Lee

america really doesn't have a mythology. We've discussed a lot that poets are always attempting to construct mythologies and give an air of high culture to the background and origin of their respective peoples. I think this is true of Southern writers. I've been formulating this ever since I first read To Kill A Mockingbird. The rabid dog scene is overwhelmingly supernatural. Lee gives that dog an otherworldly presence. She isn't alone. Faulkner does it here with Old Ben and Lion. These mundane creatures loom over the characters as supernatural beings. It's very much like Hercules or Beowulf. The south is the last place that the US can still find remnants of it's mythological past. All of the spooks in American lore, they come from the South. Or at least we're the last to truly believe in the stories. And the writers portray this. I can't help but be reminded of the great epics when I read Bear. I think Faulkner and other southern writers are giving America a mythology through its Southern stories. This isn't an origin story. But these are folkloric Herod we can look to. The "taming" of Lion. The killing of Bear. These epic-proportioned events. And Ike is the classic hero, only he's been transported to the American South.

—Travis has my comment.