Dreaming In Literature: Hanging With Margaret Mitchell
"Peggy" and I were hanging out in her backyard in Atlanta. Ms. Mitchell was reclining on a chaise longue with a mint julep next to her. I was sitting in a lawn chair and kept jumping up to look at the landscaping. Everything seemed to be what you run across in southern novels.
"Is this cape jasmine? Are those magnolias? Is that a peach tree?" Peggy nodded. I wondered if I was giving it away that I wasn't a southerner. But I wasn't really a Yankee, either. After all, Missouri was terribly conflicted during the Civil War. I didn't like my mint julep. Too sticky. Maybe I was more Yankee than anything.
"I'm reading Toji," I told Margaret Mitchell. "It's the Great Korean Novel. Also written by a woman. Believe it or not, it's way way WAY longer than Gone With The Wind. Sixteen frickin' volumes, can you beat that? The problem is, there's really no one particular character I can warm up to, like Scarlett. Park Kyung-Ni jumps around like a..."
Peggy lit a cigarette. She had the loveliest little lighter, small and slim with a mother-of-pearl overlay. The little click it made was the most satisfying, perfect sound in the world. I vowed to start smoking immediately, just as soon as I found a lighter exactly like that.
"You know," she said. "I'm getting really tired of Nineteen." She pronounced "tired" like "tide". I wished my students could check out her accent.
"What's Nineteen? Is that a book?" A slight nod. "Do you mean Gone With The Wind?" I thought maybe she was talking in code.
She shook her head.
"Is it a new book? Why do you call it Nineteen?"
No answer.
"Is it because it takes place in the 1900s? Is it about Scarlett's family? Oh no...uh, Peggy? I don't think you've heard about Alexandra Ripley; this is really going to piss you off --"
"Everybody better keep their cotton-pickin' hands off Nineteen."
"Where is it? How long is it? Can I read it?" I was trembling. Home from Korea just in time to be part of literary history! Toji would have to take a back seat.
"Get your goddamn feet out of my azaleas," Peggy told me. "No one can read Nineteen. I'm tired of it."
10 comments:
How mysterious!!
If you ever do come to the south, be sure to look me up! And even though I've lived here for almost a decade now, I've YET to have a mint julep. Sweet tea is a different story, however.
Nineteen ... I'm so curious! Are you going to shed some light on this mystery or keep us in suspense?
Dang, you have the best dreams...I don't think I even have any. :-)
I'm with Sam, you have the best dreams with literary figures and all!!! Nineteen - were you thinking Jodi Picoult, she has that book out, Nineteen minutes.....Otherwise, very interesting, I love the Southern aspect. Did you like Gone With the Wind? have you read it?
Ambearo,
I know! I was mouthing WTH? all day after that dream!
Lesley,
I love sweet tea.
You're curious? Me, too!
Sam,
It's amazing what flotsam and jetsam floats around in your subconscious, and how it gets put together in a crazy quilt, isn't it?
Susan,
I try to never think of Jodi Picoult, but that Nineteen stuff would seem to indicate that I do...you're the dream expert.
Yes, I have read GWTW many times. I try to read it at least once every five years. This love affair with GWTW began back in 7th grade.
Oh, Bybee, I want your dreams. Let me narrow that down a bit - I want your literary dreams!
Pretty cool dream.
Haaaa.
You inspire me to read some more classic stuff. I've found an interest in Gone with the Wind that I've never had before.
Booklogged,
You definitely would not want my regular dreams, although they are vivid and colorful.
Carrie K,
I know...why can't every night be like that?
rubycanary,
Go for it...I have a copy, of course...
Thanks to your list of book blogs I found another one I like. A Fondness for Reading. Thanks.
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