Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.
The thing, I think, that got to me most about this book is the way Hill presents Southerners. I'm not sure how much research he did in writing The Heart-Shaped Box, but it comes across as if he just read a book about the South and worked off that and whatever stereotypes came to mind. By the end of the book, I felt like if I had to sit through one more phonetic spelling of southern accents I was going to sic a ghost on someone myself.
I may be overreacting a bit, but did this bother anyone else?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
It bothered me too, Claire. I feel like the South is a difficult setting to portray without sounding cliche. I don't feel like Joe Hill visited the south either judging by his writings. I think that's the only way to really portray the south accurately.
ReplyDeleteI guess I was more amused than bothered. I think the South is impossible to understand if you aren't from here. You can research it all day, but unless you've lived the life, you will never get it just right. Although I think Hill might overdo the whole southern aspect, he pulls off accents and ways of life that exist. He just blows them up a little so you can better see them.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I just like it because I want a grandma to call Bammy.
I don't know guys, I'm not from the South myself, but from Texas, and to me these descriptions and the accents seemed dead on. I think not being from down here makes it easier to see and understand more what it's like seeing the South from the outside. Living here that first year was a culture shock. Even while reading this book I kept thinking to myslef that I would have to get my mom to read it, just for the descriptions. My whole family had the best laugh being down here this past fall, I felt like a translator the whole time, they just could not understand the accent!
ReplyDelete