A Southern Serving of Literature

Given the disparity in their subject matters – the brutalized poor in the Deep South and the need to reinvestment in space exploration – it was a surprise to hear Rick Bragg and Buzz Aldrin make the same point.

But the chronicler of the South’s forgotten people and the second man to step on the Moon both managed to note that America might not be in the this financial quandary if it’s only remaining industries weren’t focused on making money from nothing.

It was interesting to hear such different men criticize our system for the same failing. But at the Southern Festival of Books, interesting is the order of the weekend.

While a fair number of people ventured outside to Legislative Plaza on this gloomy October Saturday (fall presented itself in a major way), the speakers validated this literary gathering, the one non-musical event in Nashville I managed to miss the past two Octobers.

While Aldrin meandered and struggled with a few non-sequitirs, he hit numerous high points, including a jab at people who point out their BlackBerry or iPhone (Aldrin owns both) has more computing power than the Apollo spacecraft guidance system. “I get a little resentful about that. But I can throw this BlackBerry in the air and it’s going to crash,” he remarked. He also delved into his need to file an expense report for a rental car after Apollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific.

When not working on Magnificent Desolation, his latest autobiography, Aldrin stays busy promoting space exploration these days. His urging toward Mars went beyond simply a visit and a return; he draw parallels to the Pilgrims, saying colonization should be a goal. “That is a valuable opportunity for someone who just won a Nobel Peace Prize,” Aldrin concluded.

While Aldrin aimed for the stars, Bragg stayed firmly tethered to Southern soil (like Aldrin, he was promoting a new book, The Most They Ever Had, chronicling the plight of cotton mill workers and their dying industry. “These people don’t have much of a champion anymore," Bragg said.

He took turns praising how far Southerners can stretch a can of potted meat, excoriating people a generation or two removed from the working people who turn their back on them, and explaining why his works don’t fit with Hollywood’s slanted perceptions of the South. “Do you know what Hollywood does to stories? They would have my mama in a leather skirt and a beehive hairdo, speaking in a Savannah accent,” he said.