Response to Southern Cartoons: Alexis Noel

Cartoon strips are a form of art. Some people may disagree, saying they're merely for entertainment purposes only, with no deeper meaning, but I disagree. They tell a story through images and words, allowing the reader to visualize easier. Southern representations can be told through comic strips, much like southern poetry, southern novels and southern films. While they typically aim to amuse or even "poke fun" at politics or stereotypes, they still present a post southern identity. After searching online for southern cartoons, I ran across a site called Down South Comics [1]. Here was the comic that I found:The full size comic can be found here. This comic strip reminded me of Bastard out of Carolina, with Anney working at the local restaurant and encountering all sorts of truckers, hicks and eventually Glen. The stereotypes are apparent through attire, language and interactions.

The south through comics

Well we've all grown up reading comic books and cartoons. I feel that a cartoonist is a person who puts the truth out there in such a way that it appears almost comical. A cartoonist is a person who takes a look into a stereotype and present it in a way that it has the most impact. On looking up about different comics or cartoonists about the south, I came upon the website about the Levine Museum of the New South. Even a museum found comic strips about the south important and presented them as an exhibit. The comic strip I would like you all to see is on the website whose link I have provided. For this week's blog let's all find a comic strip that somehow denotes a specific southern stereotype and also give it's explanation. It would be fun to look into and present.
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Response to southern superstitions

So I'm at my friend's place during Spring Break in North Carolina. I am looking at his library collection and I run into the book "Weird Carolinas" mentioned in the blog earlier by Alexis. I was excited and so I looked it up. The first section I looked up was "fabled people and places". I came across many stories one of them being a story about how there were many places in both North and South Carolina that were named after the devil. Each place along with its Satanic name also carried with it a story explaining its name. For eg. there is a broken jumble of huge rocks behind Caesar's head in Greenville County, SC that is named the Devil's Kitchen and it is said to emit smoke when Mr. S is cooking his meal. Apparently, people also get the smell of brimstone when this happens. Thinking about why a place known to be filled with religious people would be filled with places named after the Devil I could only reach to the conclusion that what the people want is to instill fear. The impact of a superstition or a story for that matter, is on how believable it seems. Here, the only thing that people truly believe is the Bible and so many other people are able to take advantage of this and thus come up with various superstitions that the other people are not able to question. That was the main difference that I found between other superstitions and southern superstitions. While the other superstitions of ghosts and monsters instilled their fear through death, the southern superstitions instilled this fear through religion and afterlives.

Response to superstitions

When I was growing up, I was always told to never kill a cricket because they were good luck, especially if you found one in your house. I was always curious as to why and if it was only a southern superstition, but never really questioned it. So, I did a little research. Turns out there's a lot of folklore surrounding the cricket. In China, many people keep crickets in cages for good luck. I'm sure most of you remember in the Disney movie Mulan they were given a cricket in a cage named Cri-kee by the grandmother for good luck. Believe it or not, cricket fighting is actually a common gambling pastime in Southeast Asia. Of course we've all heard different stories about the sounds a cricket makes. The chirping of a cricket is recognized as a way to "humorously indicate a dead silence," a sign that a night scene is taking place (movies, tv, radio), and money is coming (Barbados).[1] In Barbados, a cricket must not be killed if it chirps in a house because it is said to bring money. This is obviously the most similar superstition to the one I grew up with, but its very interesting how this came to the South. With a little more research I found that in the 1600s, many Barbadians migrated to the Carolinas becoming some of the first settlers there.[2] Its fascinating to think that this superstition about a little cricket has survived about 400 years and still remained in the South.

Response to Southern Superstitions: Scott Horvath

I grew up around a couple of southern superstitions. The main difference between southern superstitions and more general superstitions is in the religious aspect. Southern superstitions tend to be more religious than others. They will contain beliefs about the devil or the afterlife of some kind. For example, back in my home town there was a belief that if you stepped on a certain grave you would be consumed by the devil himself. The person buried in the grave was hung long ago because they were believed to be possessed by the devil and still to this day the superstition that this is true still exists.

Most other superstitions deal with bad luck or other negative aspects of life but they never deal with religion like southern ones. This difference is what makes southern superstitions more fearsome than others. From my perspective, superstitions that go into the afterlife or the devil have a bigger overtone than bad luck for 7 years or something of those sorts.

Southern Superstitions: Alexis Noel

I was walking through Barnes and Noble the other day and I ran across a book called "Weird Carolinas". In this book, stories and folklore of the Carolinas were written down, as well as "haunted areas". Recorded in the book was a place called the Devil's Tramping Ground (located not too far from where I live). The story goes that the devil comes up to earth every night and walks in this circle, not allowing anything to grow. Strangely enough, no animals will venture near the circle, nor will anything grow on the circle. Is this a hoax made by locals to entice tourists to this location, or is it truly a North Carolinian phenomenon? In an area that is overflowing in religion, it is hard not to believe that these locals try to convince curious onlookers that the devil himself walks the circle.

On this blog, we have talked about a variety of things, including southern image, southern cooking, southern sports and southern tradition. But we haven't quite talked about engrained southern beliefs; that is, beliefs passed down through generations. I'm talking about superstitions and folklore. While there may be a wide variety of popular superstitions, such as black cats, breaking mirrors and walking under ladders, there are some superstitions that are native to the south. For example, in Tennessee: "If you hear two screech owls calling out to each other in the night, lay a broom lengthwise across the threshold or bad luck (or death) will follow."[1].

What type of folklore and/or superstitions have you heard southerners talk about? If you have no knowledge of this folklore, look up a southern folklore story/superstition. What makes this story different from normal folklore/superstitions?

Welcome to the south. As you cross the border, pull off I-95 to pick up your Bible, Budweiser and Confederate flag. Shed your Lacoste, educated vocabulary and BMW for a wife beater, southern drawl and pick-up truck. And forget about tinted windows and nice rims because all your new truck needs are over-sized tires and a shotgun rack. After all, these are your specious stereotypes for the southern United States. While Yankees are the first to ridicule southern gentlemen, they are simultaneously the frontrunners to sell their homes in the Hamptons for trendier, more climatically benevolent locations in Florida.
Though it is true that the North and South have storied and drastically different histories, to claim that the South is echelons below is not only erroneous but ignorant as well. The past decade alone has seen the growth of metropolises such as Charlotte and Atlanta, the latter being the latest American city to land the summer Olympics, a feat that New York has failed to accomplish after multiple subsequent attempts. Education-wise, while the South may not have the Ivy League, it has many prominent universities such as Georgia Tech, Emory and Duke.
So hop back in your car and merge onto I-95. Remove your Chanel shades and pejorative stereotypes to observe a lifestyle that the rest of America is still discovering and grappling to understand. As you accelerate into traffic, take a deep breath and embrace an experience outside your suburban mansion. Just don’t forget to apply sunscreen to the back of your neck :)