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“NPR was new then. I would write my pieces, go down to the station in Jackson, tape them, send them to Bob Edwards, and he would put them on the air. And nobody edited them. But finally the politically correct people moved into NPR, and they’d call me up and say, ‘Are you sure you want to say that?’ ” |
Going back to Shakespeare –
do you buy the argument that more than one person wrote
his plays? No. I know who Shakespeare is because he told us over and over and over again. Harold Bloom tells us he was Falstaff. I think he is Prospero. In your youth, Hopedale Plantation seems to have been deeply meaningful. I think about it a lot because I drive through there a lot. I have to drive within 10 miles of Hopedale. But I don’t leave the road to go down there. The house has been moved – maybe to Clarksdale – to become a bed & breakfast. And it’s all cotton fields now, but that’s alright. The house is built of cypress, and my grandfather built it. And great lives were lived there, and I’m glad it’s being used – it was just going to ruin. Nobody wants to live on Steele Bayou in Issaquena County; there’s not a single family member there. Why should it be turned into a hunting lodge? I love thinking it’s just gone back to being cotton fields, and that the house is somewhere and people are sleeping in those bedrooms. I drive within a few miles of it every time I go down to the coast, and I am completely enthralled by that part of the Delta. My whole body changes when I cross the river at Greenville, and I get on the road to Belzoni and Hollandale. Issaquena County is special to me because it is the place where I first drew breath. All during the war years, when I was going to a different grade school every six months, the stability in my life was going down to Hopedale in the summer and at Christmas. In your adult years, the study of Zen seems to have been an important influence. Yes, except there’s nothing to study. “Fetch water, carry wood. Be here now.” The way I finally began to understand the concept of Zen – to the extent that a Western mind can, which is not great, probably ever – was by sitting in zazen for a lot of years. I wasn’t good at sitting in zazen. It’s difficult for me to even sit still. But I have friends who are very good at it, and I sat with them. And I can sit for an hour, as long as we get up and walk in the middle of it. There are all kinds of amazing things about every great religion. There’s a Buddhist chant that I’m always putting in stories: “Om Manipadme Hum.” I taught this devotional mantra to my granddaughters so when they’re doing their cheerleader tryouts and dance tryouts, they can say it to themselves so they won’t go crazy if they don’t get elected. I believe if you’re writing fiction, or writing anything, if you know something good, you should tell it to the readers. If I learned a great new piece of music, I would always put that in stories because I’m the kind of reader that if I’m reading someone I like and they mention a symphony that I’ve never heard, I’ll drop the book on the floor and go to the music store and buy the symphony and listen to it for three days. You should always tell the reader everything good you know. PREVIOUS PAGE | PAGE 5 OF 5 | NEXT ARTICLE |