[lit-ideas] Donna and Jesse
- From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2005 14:16:55 -0500
This from the Maud Newton blog
http://maudnewton.com/blog/?cat=21
_____
As a high school student in Mississippi, Donna
Tartt worshipped Hunter S. Thompson, dragging his
books everywhere and listing him as the
beneficiary of an accidental death and
dismemberment insurance policy. But she also spent
her time writing and winning essay contests
sponsored by right-wing organizations. She
explains the paradox in the current (print) issue
of Vogue.
During those years (when I was either trapped
in my cinder-block bunker of a school down in
Mississippi or â more entertainingly â roaming
drunk around airports as the all-expenses-paid
guest of political organizations whose values I
didnât share), Dr. Hunter S. Thompson was my
constant companion. I kept his books in my locker
at school, and I smiled for group pictures on the
Capitol steps with his gloomy voice (psychotic...
delusional... how long can we maintain?) echoing
in my ears. In my own view, I was a double agent:
an outwardly cheerful and apparently harmless
American child who had by some insane whim of the
governing class been welcomed deep into the heart
of Republican darkness. I believed that I was a
member of Uncle Dukeâs secret army, entrenched
behind enemy lines; and furthermore, I believed
that I was not alone. I believed that scores of
other kids like me were keeping their eyes and
ears open in hick towns all across America: a nest
of hissing vipers, nursed deep in the bosom of
Jesse Helms and the Moral Majority. And I believed
that someday, when we grew up, we would take over
the country.
I was wrong.
_____
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