First of all, I think you're being a little critical about "O Death." That song is older than the hills, and just because Stanley has a Tennessee accent, doesn't mean the song has any narrow regional roots.
Stanley's actually from just over the border in Virginia. The song does, in fact, have narrow regional roots. It's an "shout" from Appalachia, a type of religious song. There were many cleavances in the Old South, but one of the biggest is between the Appalachian hill country and the low country. The latter is the Dixie stereotype with its huge plantations and the white-suited elite that owned them. The hill-folk, however, opposed this elite and the slavery that supported them; it's why West Virginia split off when Virginia seceded. The Primitive Baptist Churches (which, AFAIK, were never associated with the pro-slavery Southern Baptist Convention)--of which Stanley is a member--are strong among them, whereas the planters were much more mainstream.
So here we have a simple Appalachian religious song put in the mouth of a member of the plantation aristocracy and leader in the KKK and you can't understand why I would call that perverse and disrespectful?
I already said that I took the accents in stride once I realised I could only enjoy it as a sort of fantasia on Southern themes. Despite the Homeric pretentions, it's not "mythic". Faulkner is mythic. (Yet, that doesn't prevent him from Joycean fidelity to his chosen locale). Twain is legendary. (Ditto). The Coens are just sloppy.
I concede your point about the other songs, which is why I said in my previous reply that I was primarily annoyed by the use of "O Death". Some of them (like the gravediggers' song) are so de-emphasised, though, that I hardly remember the contexts they appeared in. They add flavour, but what do they add in thematic terms?
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2004-04-06 08:05 am (UTC)Stanley's actually from just over the border in Virginia. The song does, in fact, have narrow regional roots. It's an "shout" from Appalachia, a type of religious song. There were many cleavances in the Old South, but one of the biggest is between the Appalachian hill country and the low country. The latter is the Dixie stereotype with its huge plantations and the white-suited elite that owned them. The hill-folk, however, opposed this elite and the slavery that supported them; it's why West Virginia split off when Virginia seceded. The Primitive Baptist Churches (which, AFAIK, were never associated with the pro-slavery Southern Baptist Convention)--of which Stanley is a member--are strong among them, whereas the planters were much more mainstream.
So here we have a simple Appalachian religious song put in the mouth of a member of the plantation aristocracy and leader in the KKK and you can't understand why I would call that perverse and disrespectful?
I already said that I took the accents in stride once I realised I could only enjoy it as a sort of fantasia on Southern themes. Despite the Homeric pretentions, it's not "mythic". Faulkner is mythic. (Yet, that doesn't prevent him from Joycean fidelity to his chosen locale). Twain is legendary. (Ditto). The Coens are just sloppy.
I concede your point about the other songs, which is why I said in my previous reply that I was primarily annoyed by the use of "O Death". Some of them (like the gravediggers' song) are so de-emphasised, though, that I hardly remember the contexts they appeared in. They add flavour, but what do they add in thematic terms?