Why did the South, of all places in America, produce the best literature?

Poe was born in fucking Boston and lived most of his life in Baltimore and Twain was from Missouri which wasn't even a Confederate state. Ur reaching m8

I've had Marylander teachers that would fail you for calling Maryland Northern. And even if Poe is, Twain's not a reach at all if you're remotely familiar with his works or life.

>agricultural life and the quasi-courtly mannerisms of the South (all the more in their fading) provide more fodder for thought.
Grew up in areas where this was prevalent. It's true.

God, Hemingway and Fitzgerald is real gerbage S.King lvl writers

Suffering you stupid idiot.

These people are all from the north

It had the highest concentration of wealthy, aristocratic Anglos in the entire country. Upper class Anglos > German wageslaves in the Midwest and Southern/Eastern European immigrants crowding the coasts

what are sharecroppers?
what are lower class white people?

>dude run on sentences and profound seeming alliterative shit I couldnt get away with as a dilettantish poet lmao

*blocks your path*

Attached: Herman_Melville_by_Joseph_O_Eaton.jpg (1461x1801, 2.25M)

lol no

Attached: 748AB1AD-C978-43B0-887B-3084D2FF2A3C.jpg (720x481, 247K)

Slaves didn’t matter that fucking much lol

It's the only part of the US that has kept some level of 'authentic' folk culture in the 20th century instead of going full globo-homo.

Deep west culture is good but it hasn't been conductive to much great literature.

Because the Southern people viewed the world in terms of spirituality and the human soul/character. The north was about the machinery, the capital, the march of progress and invention no matter how dehumanizing. The south valued (white, land owning ) people above all us and emphasized culture and character first over everything else. It’s also because this view was incredibly hypocritical because they deprived others (blacks)of their chance to be cultured and mistreated/ignored low class whites. It was a very unique society in human history and very easy to do written commentaries of, low hanging fruit of the literature world.

How much of western literature is native to it vs people mythologizing it?
Either way in my experience it's best for movies, Southern culture translates better to writing.

What an eloquent statement.

>names two states that had slaves
>not “Southern”
okay retard

Texas was part of the Confederacy, but no one in their right mind would consider Texas southern. Nor is Missouri southern, despite the fact that it was a slave-holding state. Maryland too is a real reach, and of course Maryland was not part of the Confederacy. Basing who is and isn’t “Southern” on slave ownership is rather ridiculous.

Don’t forget Toole as well.
>made a living working on boats and writing about the Mississippi river
>not southern

It’s a culture thing mostly but the mason dixon line is a good indicator, a writer who lives right on that line but follows the literary traditions and culture of southern America should still be considered a southern writer.

I'll throw in:
>Thomas Wolfe
>Erskine Caldwell
>Carson McCullers
>Madison Jones
>Walker Percy

Also rural areas further north end up culturally more Southern, even through Maryland in the country it gets very Southern.