Leaving Ruston at roughly 8:00 AM, I plan on arriving in Money, Mississippi at roughly noon. I intend to spend my day exploring the infamous town in an effort to better understand the history that haunts Nordan throughout Wolf Whistle. Primarily, my focus would be visiting the now decrepit Bryan's Grocery and Meat Market, the site of Emmett Till's unfortunate "advances" on a white woman and the catalyst for a world of doubt that infected Nordan for most of his life.
Bryan's Grocery and Meat Market, present day
Credit: http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/51583290.jpg
The extremely controversial Emmett Till murder haunted Nordan throughout his life and shaped his formative years and relationship with Southern history and culture. Where Nordan insisted on using the fantastical imagery of his novel to help convey a new way to understand the tragedy and senselessness of the event, I will try to gain a more direct understanding and sense of connection to the events of the tragedy. Visiting the actual, decaying grocery will lend a sense of realness that is unattainable by simply reading about the murder and will do a great deal to enhance my appreciation of its terrible weight on the culture of the South.
During my time spent in Money I will listen to Lambchop, a band fascinated with innovation within the confines of American Country music. The band frequently deals with themes of solitude and loneliness that reflect Nordan's characters' desperate realizations that they are alone in the world. There is no better song for the occasion than their 1996 classic, Your Life as a Sequel.
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