Wendell Berry

One of the highlights of last week was that we got to meet one of my favorite authors, Wendell Berry. He came to SLC as the keynote speaker for a symposium commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Wallace Stegner (Berry's mentor). It was quite a treat because, as you know if you've read much of Berry's work, he believes in mostly staying put in the place where he lives (Kentucky). The last time he was in Utah was 20 years ago when he came to southern Utah for a wake for his friend and fellow author Edward Abbey, so we jumped at the rare chance to see him.

Berry did a book signing at Ken Sander's Rare Books in SLC and that's where we got to meet him (as seen in the picture above). Berry is critical of our unthinking eagerness to jump on every new technology, so I decided that it would be bad form to bring my camera. I decided that I would just enjoy the experience of getting to meet an author whose work I like. But . . . a lady from the bookstore was getting Berry to pose along with the people whose books he was signing. It was clearly bugging him and after she took our picture he turned to her and asked, "Are you getting what you want out of this?" It was pretty funny. So I got my picture with him and didn't have to be the thoughtless annoying person to force the situation—have our cake and eat it too.

After the signing Berry did a reading at the masonic temple in Salt Lake.  He's not a mason.  It was just the place with lots of seating that they got for the event.  It was cool to see inside the place.  Berry read from an essay he is still working on about the economy.  He's written a lot on how our current economy is wasteful, glutenous, and destructive and he brought this conversation forward in light of the current economic crisis.  He thinks that we should be thrifty, self-reliant, and that we should nurture a local economy and made some great points about struggling with the question of needs vs. wants.

He also read from one of his short stories (very entertaining) and then did some Q & A.  It was great to hear his written words in his voice and I think that I can "get" his fiction that much more now that I've heard him read it.  I'm feeling a bit too lazy now to try to capture some of what he said, but let me give you some links to a few of his essays.  He's really worth checking out if you don't know his work.  BTW, make sure you realize that he has a sense of humor when you read this stuff.

Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer

Feminism, the Body, and the Machine

Home Economics—Analysis of U.S. Agricultural Policy

The Pleasures of Eating

"One of the good ones"

Ever since we learned about our upcoming move to Knoxville, we have been so excited to finally be able to tell people where we are going and what our plans are. The response for the most part has been reciprocal excitement, maybe some tips or mention of someone somebody knows who once went to Knoxville. Recently I had an encounter that was quite different. I was at the health center and a nurse was helping me get a prescription refill processed. The processing was taking a while, so that meant it was time to chat and apparently fill her in on everything that is going on in my life. I have worked with this nurse in the past, and she’s really quite helpful, but it did seem strange how intensely interested she suddenly was in our upcoming plans. As soon as the internship came up, well, I had to dish all kinds of details about Brady’s degree, what he’ll be doing, what his career goals are, and so on. It really didn’t feel rude, just weird that she wanted to know so much. She was almost grandmotherly about it, except it was weird since she isn’t my grandmother. She’s really very sweet, and I didn’t want to be rude since she has been so helpful to me in the past. Eventually, she asked where we’ll be going. This is a snippet of the conversation at that point.

Me: Knoxville, Tennessee

Nurse: Where’s that? Is that one of the good ones?

Me: [a little surprised at the first question, but not sure what the second question even means, decided to answer the first anyway] Well . . . Knoxville is in the eastern part of the state, which borders North Carolina.

Nurse: Oh, well that’s all right [apparently North Carolina is one of the good ones]. Ya know, when ya get down into some of those others like, oh, Oklahoma or Arizona it’s not as good [really, she said Arizona—in retrospect, I think she meant to say Arkansas].

Me: Oh . . . yeah.

I imagine that my soon-to-be Southern sensibilities kicked in, and all I could think was, “Oh, bless her heart” in that slightly condescending, you-just-don’t-get-it use of the phrase. I think I know what she was getting at, so next time someone asks if Knoxville is “one of the good ones” I’m going to say, “Nah. We’re jus’ gonna go live with a bunch of hillbillies.” Although Tennessee did pass her standard, so maybe that wouldn’t be accurate. I do think they should change the state motto to “Tennessee: One of the Good Ones.” I think that would look nice on a license plate.

P.S. The picture has nothing to do with this post. It is one of the images I found when I typed “one of the good ones” into Google images—seemed fitting enough, though, since I'm not entirely sure what that phrase is really supposed to mean.