Why Southern writers still captivate, 55 years after ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’
Christian Science Monitor – July 5
Thursday evenings are leisurely affairs in Oxford, Miss., and many choose to while away the muggy hours at a bookstore in the town square, watching the taping of “Thacker Mountain Radio,” a sort of Southern-style “Prairie Home Companion” that features weekly author readings and local musical talent. But one particular night, the producers were confronted with an unusual problem. With just minutes to go before the show was to go on the air, they found themselves without a featured literary guest. So one of the producers improvised in a way that can perhaps only be done in Oxford: She decided to march outside and simply pluck a published author from the street. And she did – in this case a poet – with time to spare … Even so, the global anticipation for “Watchman” highlights those traditions of storytelling and fiction writing that Gantt, like many other Southerners, still considers something of a birthright. The region that tends to both repel and fascinate, from reality television shows such as “Duck Dynasty” to the frisson surrounding the release of “Watchman,” offers a glimpse into the forces that shape modern culture and fiction – for better and worse. “It’s the unkillable ‘Mockingbird,’ ” says James Crank, assistant professor of American literature at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. “There are things within the Southern culture that will survive a nuclear apocalypse and have nothing to do with the real lives of Southerners. We can’t get enough of the Southern culture [that’s] pushed down our throats.”
Yahoo! – July 5
Treating Weather Phobias
WXIN-Fox (Indianapolis, Ind.) – July 3
Researchers at The University of Alabama are developing a virtual-reality system to treat Alabamians who fear weather after what happened here four years ago…Using technology originally intended for the video game market researchers like Laura Myers are creating a 3-D virtual simulation to help people prepare for and react to severe weather …
BP agrees to $18.7 Billion Settlement
National Public Radio (all NPR affiliates in the U.S.) – July 2
University of Alabama law professor Montre Caradine called the settlement, which will be paid over 18 years, a good deal all around. “It’s a win for BP because they get to pay the amount out over time. It’s a win for the Gulf States, because they will have a steady stream of income over that time.” And Caradine says it’s a win for judge Barbier, because this settlement will likely mark the end of major litigation related to the spill. And she says Barbier has successfully managed one of the most complicated cases in legal history.
Religious objections to civil laws have curious history
Savannah Now (Ga.) – July 3
The “sincere religious beliefs” objections to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states are getting some traction, particularly in Texas, Alabama and Louisiana. These are among the 11 states with an unfortunate history of sincere religious objections to previous laws of the land. The 13th Amendment for one, the one that abolished slavery. It seems impossible to think now, but throughout the South, and from some pulpits in the North, before and after the Civil War, churches vigorously defended slavery as rooted in the Bible. In “God’s Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War,” the historian George C. Rable of the University of Alabama writes: “Preachers talked about a spiritual and cultural war between true Christianity and Yankee infidelity. Indeed, according to one Georgia Baptist editor, it was northern “opposition to plain Biblical teachings, which has dissolved our once glorious Union.” And just as some northern ministers viewed the secession crisis as a millennial opportunity to proclaim liberty to the captives, so southern Christians maintained that the perfection of a slaveholding society would ultimately lead to what a Georgia woman called “the final and universal spread of a Gospel civilization.”
The Courier-Tribune (Asheboro, N.C.) – July 3
The Missourian (Columbia, Mo.) – July 3
Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.) – July 3
Bucks County Courier Times (Levittown, Pa.) – July 3
Eagle Tribune (North Andover, Md.) – July 3
Korea Times – July 5
Salina Journal (Kansas) – July 6
Wisconsin State Journal – July 6
Winona Daily News (Minn.) – July 6
Hollywood is still trying to gauge women moviegoers’ interests
Tuscaloosa News – July 4
Although it’s a slim majority — 52 percent in 2013 — women represent a greater slice of the ticket-buying audience for movies. So it’s probably not surprising that mainstream, Hollywood fare with erotic-romantic-fantasy content aimed at women should be growing, such as Wednesday’s new “Magic Mike XXL,” sequel to a hit film about male strippers. The 2012 “Magic Mike” earned an estimated $170 million worldwide, on a budget of $7 million. The five movies of the “Twilight” series grossed about $1.4 billion worldwide, while “Fifty Shades of Grey” (which began life as fan-fiction spun off “Twilight”) earned about $570 million alone. One of the co-stars of “Magic Mike XXL,” Joe Manganiello, has been quoted saying the new film is “progressive,” in terms of skin-baring shock value. But Manganiello, who has also produced a documentary about the male dancers at the La Bare strip club in Dallas, went on to imply the film’s success pointed to the need for gender parity … “I don’t think women’s pleasure is often acknowledged as a real concept,” said Kristen Warner, a Telecommunication and Film Department professor at the University of Alabama. “That women want to see content about them that encourages them to laugh, cry, be energized or desired is often left out of these conversations. The question isn’t about equivocation so much as the fact that we don’t have enough consistent examples of films targeted to women to be able to assert that point.
Congrats UA students from Hendersonville
Hendersonville Standard (Tenn.) – July 4
A total of 9,073 students enrolled during the 2015 spring semester at The University of Alabama were named to the Dean’s List with an academic record of 3.5 (or above) or the President’s List with an academic record of 4.0 (all A’s). The 2015 spring list includes the following students from Hendersonville: Caitlin Wilks Burns – President’s List; Schyler M Cox – Dean’s List; Lawrence Brentwood Maverick Flowers – Dean’s List; Trace R Kimler – Dean’s List; Charles William Lewis IV – President’s List; Courtney Nicole O’Connor – Dean’s List.
Roses and thorns: 7/5/15
The Commercial Dispatch (Columbus, Miss.) – July 5
A rose to Neil Carter, who on Tuesday engineered a flash mob — maybe the Golden Triangle’s first — using the WHEREhouse Dance Company dancers at the Riverwalk to propose to Denene Thomason of West Point. Not only do we appreciate Carter’s audacity and creativity, we like the idea of impromptu performances by dancers, musicians and buskers in public spaces. Hear, hear, let’s have more of it. Congratulations and kudos to all who had a hand in this delightful diversion. Oh, and in case you wondered, Denene said, yes. … A rose to Columbus’ own Deborah Johnson, who was honored with the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, presented by the University of Alabama. The award acknowledges Johnson for her acclaimed novel, “The Secret of Magic,” a story of the battle for racial equality in the Jim Crow South as told from the perspective of a young black female lawyer from Thurgood Marshall’s New York firm. The Harper Lee Prize was established five years ago to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Lee’s classic, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The prize is given to the author of a book-length work of fiction which portrays lawyers’ role in society and the power they have to effect change. Johnson finds her self in prestigious company: John Grisham and Michael Connelly are among the previous winners of the award.
GUEST COLUMNIST: ‘Who are we?’ is not always easy to answer
Tuscaloosa News – July 4
So, happy Fourth of July weekend! Our annual Independence Day celebration got me to thinking: Who are we? I am stepping out here in “no man’s land,” which was the space between the French, English and German armies facing each other on the Western front in World War I. The term may go back even further, but that’s far enough for me. After a few months of maneuvering, the Germans and the Allies settled into a prolonged “trench warfare,” slaughtering each other across northern France by the thousands, and then the millions, between 1914-18 in a horrid stalemate of death and destruction. We are now commemorating the centenary of that awful war that so scarred the world. The space between the trenches was deadly, and so “no man’s land,” to the soldiers on both sides. Trying to define “who we are” as a people is equally difficult and fraught with peril. We each think we have a unique idea and vision of who we are that often collides with what someone else may think or hold dear. But it is an important question. Let me slightly rephrase it. Who are we? This is especially important on the eve of a major presidential election year in 2016. We will have to judge between many candidates, each expressing a version of who we are, and, equally important, where we go from here. (Larry Clayton is a retired University of Alabama history professor. Readers can email him at larryclayton7@gmail.com.)
COLLEGE NEWS: July 5
Tuscaloosa News – July 4
Birmingham Southern – Michael Ferguson graduated cum laude from Birmingham Southern College and received the Most Inspirational Senior and the Academic 4.0 Football awards. He will attend the University of Alabama at Birmingham to work on a doctorate in physical therapy. He is the son of Carol Ferguson of Northport and a graduate of Northside High School … University of Alabama – Dr. James Leeper, a professor in the department of community and rural medicine at the University of Alabama’s College of Community Health Sciences, has been selected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. Leeper was recognized for “continuous contributions of statistical knowledge to the medical and public health research communities; for outstanding mentorship and teaching of medical, other health sciences and graduate students; and for service to the statistics profession through exceptional leadership as an applied statistician in public health and medicine.” A ceremony to honor Leeper will be held Aug. 11 in Seattle during the ASA annual meeting.
School news: UA spring honors
Commercial Dispatch (Columbus, Miss.) – July 4
Area students on the University of Alabama spring semester Dean’s List include Dylan Lewis Anderson, Brendan Matthew Bailey, Sarah O. Brandon, Victoria Erin Fields, Roya Sayad-Asadi, and Jordan S. Shelton, all of Columbus; Khiante’ La’Princia Falls and Ashley N. Gibson, both of West Point; Elizabeth J. Thomas of Caledonia and Natalie Lowry of Macon. Students on the President’s List are Katy Whitten Davidson of Columbus; and Savanna J. Trinkle of Starkville. A total of 9,073 students enrolled during the 2015 spring semester at the university were named to the Dean’s List with an academic record of 3.5 (or above) or the President’s List with an academic record of 4.0 (all A’s). The UA Dean’s and President’s lists recognize full-time undergraduate students.
First Friday to be held next week downtown
Tuscaloosa News – July 2
First Friday, usually held from 5-9 p.m. on the first Friday of the month, will be held July 10 because of this week’s Fourth of July holiday. The free event, featuring downtown Tuscaloosa art galleries, businesses and restaurants, is designed to showcase what downtown has to offer. Next Friday, there will be a reception from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art, 2308 Sixth St., featuring recent acquisitions to the collection. From 5-8 p.m., there will be a reception for LaShonda Robinson’s “Transformations: Designs of a Decade” exhibit at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center, 620 Greensboro Ave. Also, the center’s University of Alabama gallery will feature Heather and Josh Whidden’s “Always Here To Your There” exhibit.