I think "the old Southern faculty of being at home with one’s own place and people" is as sound a basis for cultural generation as anything. Being at home in the sense of ease and comfort, but also in the literal sense, on some patch of native ground. The funny thing is, if we want "standards of Southern literature that would be universal, not parochial" then the only way we can point to the universal is through the parochial or, better put, the particular. I think this applies, too, to writing about places outside one's home, in that knowing home well helps one identify with other people and places and understand who and what they are in the cosmic order.
I think "the old Southern faculty of being at home with one’s own place and people" is as sound a basis for cultural generation as anything. Being at home in the sense of ease and comfort, but also in the literal sense, on some patch of native ground. The funny thing is, if we want "standards of Southern literature that would be universal, not parochial" then the only way we can point to the universal is through the parochial or, better put, the particular. I think this applies, too, to writing about places outside one's home, in that knowing home well helps one identify with other people and places and understand who and what they are in the cosmic order.