On the Southern Literary Trail discussion

Rick Bragg had an essay in his bookMy Southern Journey: True Stories from the Heart of the South where he quoted Professor Jerry Leath Mills of UNC as saying the true litmus test of southern literature is "Is there a dead mule in it?"

Here's where we will place all our dead mules. Let us know when you find one.

Following....horse or mule in rash's One Foot in Eden that was shot to provide buzzards for a coverup?

I think that was a horse.

Can think of southern books with alive mules, will have to keep a look out for the dead ones.

Yup, plow horse, Diane. Good memory!

If I remember right, there are dead mules in As I Lay Dying.

There was a couple of rowdy mules in either that first William Gay we read or Tom Franklin ! I can remember the part in the book so plainly but I can't separate all of the good books we read that one year all together . We read McCarthy, Faulkner, Gay and Franklin right there together and they were all so dark and typical Southern Grit ! Help me somebody ? Pack of wild mules borrowed to go to town to cause trouble ??? Sound familiar ? That is when I remembered Faulkner saying a Southern tale had to have a mule in it ! I need to look up that quote because the ole guys around here quote Mr. Bill on that one !

I will do some poking !

Dawn

Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote. :)

http://www.storysouth.com/2013/09/the...

Here it is ! Y'all will laugh but according to this great little article we are all correct : dead mules, two dead mules, Mr. Bragg , Faulkner and others all included this and then there came this nice article that brought out one more thing ! Y'all will love this one . The mules actually were rumors from a Civil War story but they carried over too . Our favorite book To Kill a Mockingbird is the classic deciding voice in this lovely piece . I hope y'all like it . I laughed but smiled sadly too . Tell me hat you think ?

Dawn

A fun and enlightening piece, Dawn! Dead mules aside, I was decidedly taken with all the chifforobe references in the article. A much lovelier (and less smelly, I would hope) vision. ;)

Donna ~ I am glad you liked the article ! I sure wished I had written this one ! I thought it was quite suitable ! HA!

Dawn

Great find, Dawn. And I agree with Donna that the existence of chifforobes are certainly more interesting than one's dead mules.

Thanks Joey !! I did have an actual Southern Literature Class on this subject and under the topic of the Southern Agrarians writers this topic was discussed . This is when Faulkner and others were mentioned if I remember correctly . But , my professor was from Illinois so I really did not like the fact that she was teaching me , a born and raised Southerner , about my literature . I really loved her ! She was great and I had many great tales to add to a boring Summer school class . She was the professor that pulled out some odd Shirley Jackson I had never read before . She was cool !

Dawn

The king of Mule killin' is Cormac McCarthy. Ahem...His record is in Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West. See the following article: Cormac McCarthy, Unchallenged King of Literary Mule Carnage.

There you go, Laura.....complete with the actual passage from The Crossing.

It seems to me there was another Faulkner story where someone was supplementing their meager income by repeatedly running a team of mules across the railroad tracks as the local train comes around the bend. Could have been from the Snopes trilogy.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hilarious! A mock funeral for a mule.

It's been a couple of years since I read it, I had forgotten that scene.

I love this thread and the snakes on fences. Always fun.

A short rather humorous story by Faulkner Mule in the Yard, this story really tickled my funny bone.

One has to appreciate the patience along with adherence to propriety and decorum by the buzzards. They would not dine on that dead yellow mule until the pastor buzzard allowed it.

Where I used to work was just below an enclosure full of hyenas. I would hear them howl & yip on fog-bound mornings, knew it was not coyotes and so asked about & was told someone had rescued several orphaned hyena pups and sent them back to UC Berkeley for research. A few years later, that person became my boss & did a talk on hyenas & then took us to see them. One thing I found interesting is that the females are the alphas & the males have to wait to eat until the females give them permission. They threw in a frozen side of beef, huge...and it was gone in a flash. Disney used them as original models for Lion King hyenas, but had to find some others to finish sketches as all these hyenas had their canines removed. Trying to make them a teensy less dangerous for the keepers post a few of them getting too close to the fences and losing fingers.

Diane your book choice Dirty Work...dead Mule by way of a beating bc he kicked the farm hand and killed him.

Good catch, Laura.

Tom Franklin also made great use of mules, dead or otherwise, in Hell at the Breech. The sheriff's father was killed when he was bucked off a mule. The same mule was almost shot before then when it stuck its head in the window and brayed while the household was sleeping. Another mule made the ultimate sacrifice when it raised its head from drinking and took a bullet intended for its rider. Three anecdotes including mules and death seems more than coincidental.

I just read the part in Hell at the breech when the Mule was used as a meat shield. I had a feeling we were going to see a mule bite the udst... too many of them mentioned for one not to die eventually. A lot of dead dogs too.

Dustincecil wrote: "I just read the part in Hell at the breech when the Mule was used as a meat shield. I had a feeling we were going to see a mule bite the udst... too many of them mentioned for one not to die eventu..."

I should also have mentioned that a man was lynched from atop a mule.

Sherwood Anderson's Beyond desireBeyond Desire-- a reference is made of a local criminal after his execution... that he should be buried unmarked "out back, like a dead mule"

DC
Is that a good book?

I'm digging it so far. Been working through all of SA's stuff. this might be my next favorite after winesburg, ohio...as long as the ending isn't a botch job.

From Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith:

Mrs. Brown said I should tell you about our Chores but they are never over, it is so hard on a farm without no mule we had one but it died a year ago come April I think it was.

March 10, 2018

Hey Tom !

Yeah ! Proof of another Southern novel with a dead mule !
Dawn

Oh, my goodness! This thread surprised me and made me smile. When I was a child, my grandfather - born in Louisiana in 1888; worked on the railroad - told me a funny story about a dead mule his gang tried to bury. The mule had been hit by a train. His stories were Southern literature to us.

And I have a sprawling historical manuscript with a dead mule that I'm now going to call a sprawling Southern manuscript. Haha!

Love reading everyone's comments here. I'm getting quite an education. Thanks.

From Mudbound:

"A dead mule, a busted shed and a broke leg. That’s what pride’ll get you."

Dead mule sighting in "Other Voices, Other Rooms". Acually, this one killed himself.

Dead mule- beaten to death by a stick. Nick Cave’s book, And the Ass Saw the Angel.

‘Dirty Work’ by Larry Brown: “Took a sledgehammer handle to him. I saw some bad shit over there [Vietnam] but my daddy beating that mule to death was one of the worst things I ever saw. Took him about thirty minutes . . . This is some morbid shit, ain’t it? Well, hell. The mule killed his friend, so he killed the mule.” Dead mule and an eye for an eye.

Good catch Wyndy. I remember this now that you reminded me.

There's also a dead mule in Bearskin!

LeAnne that has to be the most memorable dead mule scene ever.

Cathrine ☯️ wrote: "LeAnne that has to be the most memorable dead mule scene ever."

Ha! Yknow, if any of us EVER get around to writing a book, we have gotta stick a dead mule in it somewhere. What an homage!!!

with a snake hanging on a fence. tribute to Harry Crews I believe. I think this is one of Diane's favorite images

It is, John! Dead snakes are much more acceptable than dead mules.

Diane wrote: "It is, John! Dead snakes are much more acceptable than dead mules."

Easier to bury too.

Went to see August Wilson's play Two Trains Running this week. One character expounded on his mule being killed ... and I immediately though of this group!

Cormac McCarthy. Cities of the Plain.
John Grady Cole is standing in a run down adobe shack to bring the new wife he plans on stealing from a Mexican Pimp. Billy asks if this would be the honeymoon suite. Then comments, "The only thing you ain't go here is a dead mule in the floor."

THE clip-clop of the mule’s ironshod hooves is so slow, the steps so far between, you wonder if it might have died mid-step and is just waiting for a hint of breeze in the hot, wet air to push it on over.

Bragg, Rick. Where I Come From (p. 22).

In case we need proof that Faulkner was a Southern author. From Mule in the Yard:

“Well,” old Het said, happily, “de mule burnt de house en you shot de mule. Dat’s whut I calls justice.”

Just finished reading A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons.

Jack and Ruby went away for one weekend trip and asked Burr to watch over their house. Jack had just given Ruby a new mule which she named Sugar Pete for an anniversary. When they got home Jack saw and tried to get Ruby to look away. But she looked in, looked up at him swinging, all swoll, and she just had to sit down on the feedbag and cry.

Good catch Lori.