Lounge Lawn to replace Eudora Welty Library

[Seadory]

Dick Cavett effortlessly showcased the best, and sometimes the worst, of nearly every guest. Actually, it probably seemed effortless to the viewer. He wrote for Groucho Marx, Merv Griffin, Johnny Carson, and others before landing his own show sometime in the late 1960s.

Glad you enjoyed the interview! Cavett was never, to my knowledge, cruel or condescending.

I wonder what Eudora Welty would have said about her ill-fated library.

[GrandviewGloria]

Originally Posted by Seadory

Dick Cavett effortlessly showcased the best, and sometimes the worst, of nearly every guest. Actually, it probably seemed effortless to the viewer. He wrote for Groucho Marx, Merv Griffin, Johnny Carson, and others before landing his own show sometime in the late 1960s.

Glad you enjoyed the interview! Cavett was never, to my knowledge, cruel or condescending.

I wonder what Eudora Welty would have said about her ill-fated library.

Miss Welty would probably observe that focusing on just her Library, requires a lot of effort. What with the sinkholes, the geysers erupting from sinkholes, the tomatoes fruiting in sinkholes, sinkholes the size of the Chichen Itza Cenote, and entire ecosystems developing within sinkholes (and these, on major thoroughfares, including the very street on which her library sits), just getting to her library is an experience fraught with anxiety and real risk.

If she arrived by air, she'd remark on the illuminated, revolving, Airport Commission Lifesize Portrait Carousel, highlighting the all-minority Airport Board (Is that thing still turning?) Her averted eyes, and the beginnings of a smirk, would be all she'd say, upon hearing about about the Board's taxpayer-funded trip to Paris, and the impossibly-long pylon sign bearing the Airport's impossibly-long new name.

Had she been greeted by the Governor, I'm sure she'd try not to ask why he was wearing a black blazer, a white dress shirt, and a black undershirt. But then, she'd break-down and ask if he were on a three-day drunk, which would explain his tielessness. "...or, possibly it's some sort of tacit UNIFORM, in alignment with some totalitarian regime which frowns on individual expression (neckties being dangerously expressive and potentially individualistic) - like maybe he's a member of a fringe Maoist group - basically what the Ustasi were to Hitler, or what Nicolae Ceaușescu was to the USSR? ...you know, a lackey, without acknowledging he's their lackey? His lack of a tie, certainly conveys his status as a subordinate. I'm just wondering, subordinate TO WHOM? Are states no longer sovereign entities?"

Once focused, though, on her library, she'd share fond memories of the Sears for which the building was designed. She'd tell of the optimism and bright future foreseen, at the time, for the City of Jackson. "You know, the design was considered the 'Last Word of Chic', among locals." (one of her wry glances would betray the fact that she and her circle of friends, were underwhelmed by the Sears' timid Moderne styling)

Miss Welty would puzzle over the stylistic flourishes added to the building, in repurposing it as a library. "It's ALMOST Greco-Roman... almost... ... You know, there was a playful trend emerging, toward the end of my life. They called it 'Postmodernism'. https://www.archpaper.com/2020/03/po...roubled-times/ The Northpark Mall was done in that style, and it was great fun. This seems to be a timid version - or an untutored version - as if some draftsman who went to a junior college, didn't know the difference between Postmodern and the real Greco-Roman styles - and just drew some lines... ...like he thought he was doing something dressy and traditional.

"They really missed an opportunity, didn't they? Postmodern gave them so much license to do witty, fun things. Instead, they did BORING things. No wonder it's closing.

"On the other hand, I should be grateful that the rest of Jackson's beautiful libraries were allowed to rot and be demolished, before mine. At least there's THAT..."