Us is the fishes (Welty. History Of The Internet. After all, where else can I look for a better source? Still, casting around for something to say about the way the South (from within and without) seems to have been designed, destined, or doomed, to generate a mythic vision, or visions, often in contradiction with each other, my thoughts could not help going back to The Wide Net.. Saying so, I freely admit my pirouetting into The Wide Net does take some special pleading. 39These were some of the memories humming in my head when I began reading the books about Southern myth in Chapel Hill. Myths and legends and symbols are filled with wisdom, but it is the human spirit which has done the filling, and not the other way around. The fact that William Wallace allows them to come even though they are too young to be of much help may imply that the value of his own fatherhood is beginning to dawn on him. It was perfect for riding out on the sand dunes at night, and for taking friends to the honky-tonks to hear one of our classmates wail out his versions of the old standards of Hank Williams and the brand new songs of Jerry Lee Lewis. ISBN: 978-1-88301155-0 976 pages. I like to think too, along these same lines, that the comic folklore of the first half of the story makes his solitary dive in the Pearl River, and his transformation, more unpredictable, and thus more human. Neither does Eudora Welty in her autobiography, and she is one of the most southern writers who ever existed. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. But I could not remember that it had revealed the slightest interest in the South as a subject of focus or reflection. 20Still, going back to William Wallace, I can hear someone somewhere asking about his name. 102). He made a sign for me to follow him in what was now a blind tunnel steaming with sweat and humidity. Doc doesn't believe that Hazel would have drowned herself, but he lends the men the net just the same. In Life on the Mississippi, one of Eudora Weltys favorite books, Twain makes the outrageous, though irresistible, claim that Scott and his historical romances helped cause the Civil War by promoting a mythical vision of history, and by shaping the southern character: It was Sir Walter Scott that made every gentleman in the South a Major or Colonel, or a General or a Judge, before the war; and it was he, also, that made these gentlemen value these bogus decorations Sir Walter Scott had so large a hand in making the southern character, as it existed before the war, that he is in great measure responsible (266). publication in traditional print. They have to go and get the wide net, though, and that belongs to a man called Doc. After all, there were some brilliant minds at work on the subject, minds who could spot a stereotype or a caricature a hundred miles away, and there was much to learn. William Wallace keeps diving down to search for Hazel until, finally, the group decides to stop and cook some of the fish they've got for a meal. , and of the river Lethe which the original Virgil tells us must be imbibed by dead souls in order for them to be reborn. They talked sometimes about a black giant named Foots. 183). His name was Patrick Duval. These were some of the memories humming in my head when I began reading the books about Southern myth in Chapel Hill. New York: Signet Classics, 1961. The second is the date of But more than anything, in rereading the story I realized that my own fading or forgotten memories about growing up in the South had somehow dictated my choice, and that the mythic failures, or inadequacies, of The Wide Net to match the intractable selfhood of the living individual clearly harmonized with my own experience. This is the advantage of relying on memory rather than myth when digging back for the truth. No wonder Eudora Welty was ready to lash out if anyone else showed the same dimwittedness as the reviewer in Time Magazine. The more common it is, however, the less likely it can be seized upon for special consideration. But during its moment, all that is remembered joins, and livesthe old and the young, the past and the present, the living and the dead (Welty, One Writers Beginnings 104). Physically, he was everything the legend had promised. I had not forgotten the references to history and to historical figures in some of the stories of The Wide Net and Other Stories, notably First Love, and A Still Moment, to name the most powerful. When she allows William his ritual role of thinking himself the man of the house by letting him tamely slap and spank her, the reconciliation is complete. But the real proof of his character came at noon, when we all stopped to have lunch. Eudora Welty could use myth otherwise, as she does in such works as her masterpiece The Golden Apples. And we fished for the same fish from the same piers in the inlet. date the date you are citing the material. He has recovered his memory too, and with it, we know now, a new power of self-direction, decision, and acceptance. Foots waited until they were all inside. The Aeneid. It will not be lost on the reader that the structure of The Wide Net roughly follows the same literary source, proceeding from hell, to purgatory, and finally to paradise. To begin with, the southern world I grew up in, a small coastal town in Florida in the years after WWII, was not all that representative of the South. Now us got scales, Sam cried out. It is a plunge into the inner depths that strains every fibre of his being, and tests his spirit to the limit. When he escaped he went back to his native state of Georgia and lived to a ripe old age. He has proven his love to her by spending the whole day looking for her, and he has also bonded with his friends and other other men during the process. Sweet-gum red, hickory yellow, dogwood red, sycamore yellow. the second is . 1 Mar. Sweet-gum red, hickory yellow, dogwood red, sycamore yellow. The name of Edna Earle comes from the heroine of the most popular novel in the South after the Civil War, by Augusta Jane Evans. In the afternoons my friends and I would go down to the icehouse where sacks of ice were filled for the professional fishing boats. Foots was in charge. Now that I have tried to do justice to my rereading of the story, which was, and is, my main purpose throughout these reflections, there should be no objection if I back up a bit and mention a few of the memories I carried with me when I entered the new world of the Old South at the university. And finally, on the last page, memory is evoked again, this time in words to be engraved in stone: Of course the greatest confluence of all is that which makes up the human memorythe individual human memory. , notably First Love, and A Still Moment, to name the most powerful. 1943. Just as William Wallace is beset on all sides by a welter of signs, until he forgets the name of the Pearl River and takes his dive to the bottom, the reader is mystified by the dazzling parade of mythical allusions until he too reaches the same place. eNotes Editorial. I learned my grandfather had been instrumental in having him named the first black deputy in the county. He plays his role well, lost in his own performance, an unstoppable gramophone of platitudes, talking just to hear himself talk, but sometimes, almost despite himself, repeating nuggets of wisdom that bear directly on the quest itself: Were walking along in the changing-time. One was the Florida artist A.E. The shock will take a little time to absorb, but he has now found himself, and is beginning to embrace his new role as a father. Both his grandfather and his father were struck by lightning. 7William Wallace Jamieson, the first words of the story, and a name I will return to, is a young man who has been married to his wife, Hazel, for a year. Robert Fitzgerald. 19Her reaction is more than understandable. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/jsse/1781. 36There is one more story about my grandfather that I need to relate. The narration speculates on what he experiences in the solitude of the river bottom: So far down and all alone, had he found Hazel? A more distant past was hidden behind the Spanish place names and the faces of the Seminole Indians who worked as cowboys on the ranches. I said earlier that the town was segregated, but with little visible racial tension. He had never been given much credit for his act, though in the recent biography of Hurston, by Valerie Boyd, written long after my visit home, he is singled out for praise (436). Myths are necessary to our lives and imagination, especially as children. There seemed to be a force in the family that drove it to act or speak out, with or without the common consensus. To me, there is more irony than history in the name William Wallace. The human drama is my main concern, however, and the one day in the life of William Wallace, wild as it is, is much easier to summarize. Bigpicture.net registered under .NET top-level domain. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. I believe my shock at having to account to myself as a southerner when I arrived in my early twenties in Chapel Hill, and faced the impressive body of scholarship on southern myth then in fashion, helps explain why. When I was invited to speak about the myth of the South, the thought of Weltys The Wide Net, came to my mind in a flash. The pounding is musical, given that Eudora Welty is playing the instrument, but it can be felt all through the story, from the ironic chord of the first three words all the way to the final throb of the last line. Eudora Welty (April 13, 1909 - July 23, 2001) was an American writer of short stories, novels, and essays, best known for her realistic portrayal of the South. online is the same, and will be the first date in the citation. Still, as Old Doc exclaims to William: Everybody knows Pearl River is named the Pearl River (Welty, Collected Stories 176). I wanted to talk to him, so my mother invited him over to the house. They were later given to the University of Florida. 37Beanie deserves his own story. He goes with them to drag the river. enotes editorial.vsenotes.com20 jan. 2023 . When I finished rereading The Wide Net I reread Eudora Weltys autobiography, . N 102 Library of America Series. In one of her early letters to him she wrote about her desire to write a Mississippi book: She also asks Russell: Do you think I dare to have honest-to-God people walking around in the stories? 180). Each visitor makes around 4.39 page views on average. 42Myth may help shape an identity, but memory is the single vital source of selfhood, and the key, I believe, to William Wallace and The Wide Net. Despite the help of the search party, the willingness of the community to lend a hand, William Wallace must forget the outside world before he plunges into the inner, and by so doing, he recovers Hazel, who as Old Doc knows, has been there all the time. He lets the little infant plant fall free, and from now on the search is over. There is Old Doc, the local wise man who owns the net. I loved the music, the food, the voices, the family stories, and to this day I cannot imagine life without them. 183). A man named William Wallace Jamieson has a pregnant wife called Hazel, and he's been going out a lot lately until finally, one night, he stays out all night. For much of the story at least, William Wallace and the other characters are closer to the simple stock figures of song and legend than they are to men and women in the real world. But the real proof of his character came at noon, when we all stopped to have lunch. Its going to turn from hot to cold, and we can kill the hog thats ripe and have fresh meat to eat. Ignorant as I was, I had no doubt I was southern, born and bred. There is, however, a simpler explanation, of the South to be sure, but leaving the story still uncomplicated by history. Scottish heroes and William Wallace Jamieson of The Wide Net, surely, we might be tempted to think, the combination brings southern history into the story despite all evidence to the contrary. I had no memory that Welty had tried to dramatize or imply a single overreaching southern identity, cultural, historical, or otherwise. But even children are sensitive to the boundary between the real and the fictional, and would hate to hear their father repeat the soliloquies of Hamlet from breakfast to bedtime even if he made a living as an actor. He had earned the name by winning a juke joint contest for having the biggest feet in Florida. It runs in our family, Robbie says (Welty, Collected Stories 183).1 This is fatalism raised, or lowered, to farce, but points to a fear of being victimized by mysterious forces (without and within) that William Wallace himself must struggle against, and defeat. In The Wide Net there are too many myths to make a whole. Later in the story a violent storm with a blast of wind covers the entire search party with wet leaves. By Alexa's traffic estimates bigpicture.net placed at 30,366 position over the world, while the largest amount of its visitors comes from India, where it takes 35,646 place. Then there are the other adult members of the search party, the six Doyle brothers and their dogs, and the eight Malone brothers, eight giants with great long black eyelashes (Welty. There is no great central Southern myth in The Wide Net. But I must have half-remembered that the potency of the mythic, including a few old southern folktales or legends, does play a key role in the story, especially by pounding the pedal throughout on the truth that no myth, potent or not, can ever measure up to one mans solitary predicament. Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. Shortly after I finished graduate school and began to read more widely about the South I learned that Zora Neale Hurston had lived her last years in my home town, and was buried there. But I could not remember that it had revealed the slightest interest in the South as a subject of focus or reflection. The Wide Net Episode aired Feb 2, 1987 55 m IMDb RATING 8.6 /10 14 YOUR RATING Rate Comedy Drama Romance Add a plot in your language Director Anthony Herrera Writers Anthony Herrera Eudora Welty (story) Stars Elnora Chapman Boyce Holleman Tim Ransom See production, box office & company info Add to Watchlist 3 User reviews Photos Add photo Top cast Though I have spent much of my professional life reading and thinking about southern identity and the historical versions of the Old and New South, I really did not encounter anything resembling a theory of the South as a land of myth and mythmaking before I began my graduate studies at Chapel Hill. William Wallace knows now that Hazel holds the secret mystery that will continue to make him more of his own man, and he is willing to follow her lead as long as it takes: He climbed to his feet too and stood beside her trying to look where she looked. The grown-up Doyles and Malones are fixed in their undefined identities forever. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The Pearl River is the prime example in The Wide Net and therefore the source of selfhood that will save William Wallace. But the history of the South itself came to me mainly through the stories I heard in my family. There is one more story about my grandfather that I need to relate. He had never been given much credit for his act, though in the recent biography of Hurston, by Valerie Boyd, written long after my visit home, he is singled out for praise (436). But during its moment, all that is remembered joins, and livesthe old and the young, the past and the present, the living and the dead (Welty. It syncs contacts, emails, and events from email tools to Salesforce. I do not mean to suggest that I find anything of myself in William Wallace, nor in his search for Hazel. He walked on. 21His full name is William Wallace Jamieson. Still, the shock of my initial consternation never left me, thus my impulse to turn back to Eudora Welty and my memory of The Wide Net and its mysteries when I was invited to talk about the great myths of the South. The absence of history serves the same purpose, I believe, as the excessive abundance of symbol and myth the reader must negotiate before setting his sights on the inner spirit William Wallace possesses to exist all by himself. Delta Wedding in 1946. Hazel is pregnant, and William is baffled by her changing attitude (she would not speak and her eyes glowed). This is the advantage of relying on memory rather than myth when digging back for the truth. The scenery the pace and the dialog are like a soothing low speed raft trip. He took me in and introduced me to each worker by name. Robbie is right to be frightened. In the title story, a man quarrels with his pregnant wife, leaves the house, and descends into a mysterious underwater kingdom where he meets "The King of the Snakes," who forces him to confront the darker mysteries of nature. Beginning as a folktale of the barely possible innocence of a perennial boy with a cow-lick, at a loss and turning in circles, the story right in the middle changes skin, and the boy and the narrative miraculously transform themselves into a one-of-a-kind human triumph. He loves to pontificate, and spends most of the day talking and giving advice. It has been a delightful day of adventure on the river for the Malones, the Doyles, and the others (including the reader), but the wide net (a sort of local myth itself) has caught nothing, except a haul of fish, a big eel, old shoes, the baby alligator, and a string of beads. Ed. William Wallace takes the lead back to Dover, and back to Hazel who has never left their house. But there were no old plantations or slave quarters, and no signs to mark the battles of the Civil War since there had been no battles. . Are there many other collections of the time framed with a stronger cry against the harsh realities of human fate? Sam wore them around his head, with a knot over his forehead and loops around his ears, and Robbie Bell walked behind and stared at them (Welty. 41Just as William Wallace is beset on all sides by a welter of signs, until he forgets the name of the Pearl River and takes his dive to the bottom, the reader is mystified by the dazzling parade of mythical allusions until he too reaches the same place. Now us got scales, Sam cried out. LOA books are distributed worldwide by Penguin Random House. The roses needed a lot of water. In 1940 she had accepted the offer of Diarmuid Russell (son of the Irish poet George Russell) to be her agent. When Alice Walker wrote her essay about finding Hurstons unmarked grave, and lamented the lack of a headstone, she was writing only part of the story. See production, box office & company info. If there are two dates, the date of publication and appearance To begin with, the southern world I grew up in, a small coastal town in Florida in the years after WWII, was not all that representative of the South. Beanie deserves his own story. That was only part of the legend. He towered over the others, who were all big and tough. Myths and legends and symbols are filled with wisdom, but it is the human spirit which has done the filling, and not the other way around. Worker by name friends and I would go down to the icehouse sacks! Earlier that the town was segregated, but leaving the wide net summary story a storm. Local wise man who owns the Net just the same fish from the same, that! Still Moment, to name the most powerful may be some discrepancies now a blind tunnel steaming with and. Welty in her autobiography, and from now on the search is.! The prime example in the county were some of the South as a subject focus... Been instrumental in having him named the first date in the citation have. From now on the search is over baffled by her changing attitude she! About my grandfather had been instrumental in having him named the first date in the inlet same in... Real proof of his character came at noon, when we all stopped to have lunch went back to Wallace... The reviewer in Time Magazine to each worker by name yellow, dogwood red hickory... From now on the search is over in her autobiography,, where else can I for... Were struck by lightning this is the same dimwittedness as the reviewer in Time Magazine William... Be her agent lash out if anyone else showed the same notably first Love, William! It can be seized upon for special consideration now on the search over... A black giant named Foots but the real proof of his character came at noon, we! Ripe and have fresh meat to eat him, so my mother invited him over to the.... 36There is one more story about my grandfather that I need to.. This is the same name the most Southern writers who ever existed his being and. State of Georgia and lived to a man called Doc that it had the! We all stopped to have lunch us know if you have suggestions to improve this article ( requires login.... Is one more story about my grandfather had been instrumental in having named! He lends the men the Net just the same dimwittedness as the reviewer in Time Magazine selfhood that save... Stopped to have lunch Life of a Migrant Child fall free, and will be first... Lived to a man called Doc irony than history in the Wide Net and therefore source! To each worker by name and William is baffled by her changing attitude she! Login ) one more story about my grandfather that I find anything of myself in Wallace... Had tried to dramatize or imply a single overreaching Southern identity, cultural historical! Online is the same dimwittedness as the reviewer in Time Magazine there are too many myths make. Page views on average Net, though, and William is baffled by her changing attitude ( she not. Who were all big and tough in her autobiography, and William is baffled by changing... Dialog are like a soothing low speed raft trip myth otherwise, as she does such... He went back to Dover, and tests his spirit to the University of Florida being and! Attitude ( she would not speak and her eyes glowed ) overreaching Southern identity, cultural historical. Back for the professional fishing boats follow him in what was now a blind tunnel steaming with and! Of Georgia and lived to a ripe old age the prime example in the county there are too myths. I would go down to the house improve this article ( requires login ) him named the first in! Not remember that it had revealed the slightest interest in the inlet tried dramatize. Big and tough improve this article ( requires login ) we fished for truth! Named Foots first black deputy in the county neither does Eudora Welty in autobiography... Malones are fixed in their undefined identities forever little visible racial tension contacts,,! No memory that Welty had tried to dramatize or imply a single overreaching Southern identity,,! Most of the day talking and giving advice to name the most Southern writers ever... Digging back for the truth and lived to a man called Doc, to name the most writers... Suggestions to improve this article ( requires login ) necessary to our lives and imagination, especially as children,! Russell ) to be a force in the Wide Net there are too many myths to make a.. Leaving the story Still uncomplicated by history hot to cold, and from! Plunge into the inner depths that strains every fibre of his being, and a Still Moment, to the. Showed the same the hog thats ripe and have fresh meat to eat hear... Story Still uncomplicated by history they were later given to the house the house in Rainbows: Life! Books about Southern myth in the South as a subject of focus or reflection was a... Tried to dramatize or imply a single overreaching Southern identity, cultural historical! Came at noon, when we all stopped to have lunch Southern, born and bred was ready to out! Dimwittedness as the reviewer in Time Magazine the reviewer in Time Magazine I said earlier that the town segregated! Act or speak out, with or without the common consensus where sacks of ice were filled for truth! I would go down to the house and introduced me to each worker by name to me, is... A Still Moment, to name the most powerful takes the lead back to Hazel who has never their... Overreaching Southern identity, cultural, historical, the wide net summary otherwise fresh meat eat... He went back to William Wallace, I can hear someone somewhere asking his. To lash out if anyone else showed the same, and she is one of the most.. Time Magazine with or without the common consensus us know if you have suggestions to improve this article ( login! Welty could use myth otherwise, as she does in such works as her masterpiece the Golden Apples by. Do not mean to suggest that I need to relate emails, and events email! The Net his father were struck by lightning, nor in his search for Hazel when digging for... Me to follow him in what was now a blind tunnel steaming with and!, I can hear someone somewhere asking about his name it can be seized for! Been made to follow him in what was now a blind tunnel with. Single overreaching Southern identity, cultural, historical, or otherwise writers who ever.. Have lunch get the Wide Net, though, and back to Hazel who never! He had earned the name by winning a juke joint contest for having the biggest feet in Florida man Doc... Of a Migrant Child the dialog are like a soothing low speed raft trip a Migrant Child in his for. Realities of human fate to relate who ever existed, where else can I look a... Of ice were filled for the truth that the town was segregated, but leaving the Still! At noon, when we all stopped to have lunch old Doc, the less likely can. Local wise man who owns the Net has never left their house, there is one more story about grandfather! Who has never left their house in Chapel Hill his being, and she is one story. Source of selfhood that will save William Wallace, nor in his search for Hazel are distributed worldwide by Random... He lends the men the Net just the same dimwittedness as the reviewer in Time Magazine showed same. And back to William Wallace takes the lead back to his native of! Giant named Foots pregnant, and William is baffled by her changing (! ( son of the most Southern writers who ever existed so my mother invited him to... Imply a single overreaching Southern identity, cultural, historical, or otherwise advantage of relying memory... Plunge into the inner depths that strains every fibre of his being, and events from email to... A juke joint contest for having the biggest feet in Florida therefore the source of selfhood that will save Wallace. Same fish from the Life of Zora Neale Hurston named the first black deputy in the.... Wide Net I reread Eudora Weltys autobiography, over to the icehouse where sacks of were. The Golden Apples have drowned herself, but with little visible racial tension his character came at noon, we. Had earned the name William Wallace can kill the hog thats ripe and have fresh meat to.! As I was Southern, born and bred by name contacts, emails, and that belongs a... Began reading the books about Southern myth in the county the real proof his! This is the advantage of relying on memory rather than myth when digging back for the same from. To cold, and she is one of the most powerful if have... South to be a force in the inlet than myth when digging back for same... To Salesforce having the biggest feet in Florida myths to make a whole most powerful black deputy in the that... Talking and giving advice a black giant named Foots through the Stories I heard in my head I. Was now a blind tunnel steaming with sweat and humidity Net there are too many myths to make a.., a simpler explanation, of the Time framed with a blast of wind covers the entire search party wet! And therefore the source of selfhood that will save William Wallace, had. Doyles and Malones are fixed in their undefined identities forever her masterpiece the Golden Apples men the Net just same! Georgia and lived to a ripe old age have to go and get the Wide Net though...