Oh, goodness…
I remember when the very smart and very kind and very well-intentioned editor/founder of The Brightleaf Review of Southern Writing (David Perkins) told me that he was going to publish this piece from John Howard (I hope I’ve got the name right….otherwise, I’ll hear about this).
That was 1998 or so….and the piece was regarded as sort of GROUNDBREAKING. How odd to recall that…..
Of course, the article was well-written and all sorts of other good things.
Still, all I recall was how “**RISK-TAKING**” (!) it all seemed then…just 12 or so years ago. It’s not as though folks-with-a-brain hadn’t realized (100 or so years previously) that every Southern Episcopal diocese, Southern college English Department, and/or Southern Boarding Skool (not to get into other venerated southern institutions) were fruitier than a Southern Seasons’ Christmas-basket.
I’m very glad, these days, to hear that Ru Paul has got her own TV drag-show, and the whole business has become sort of NON-news……
