Monday, June 26, 2006
June 26th 2006
One of my favorite authors is John D. MacDonald. Those of you who haven't heard of him have probably heard of his work, the most famous of his writing being "Cape Fear". But John D. wrote a series of novels that ended up impacting me greatly, those being the mystery series starring his flawed hero Travis Mcgee. Set in the South Florida of the 60's, 70's and early 80's MacDonald uses his boat bum/"Salvage Expert" character to speak of the Florida he lived in at the time and of the Florida he felt was soon to come.
As Carl Hiassen mentions in his forward of the Fawcett Crest paperback series:
"If a cypress swamp got plowed to make way for another shopping mall he (MacDonald as McGee) took it personally: "This was instant Florida, tacky and stifling and full of ugly and spurious energies." Every McGee saga guarantees such splendidly mordant commentary. The customary targets are greedhead developers, crooked politicians, chamber-of-commerce flacks and the cold hearted scammers who flock like buzzards to the Sunshine State."
MacDonald began describing Florida like that 40 years ago, imagine how it is now, having grown to the point of seam busting with such people.
I have gotten a bit of flack for my anti-Florida comments, and as such, by no means want to encapsulate all of the residents of the state, merely the ones who deserve it.
I do miss my friends and the moments of beauty that Florida still manages to provide, mostly the memories of fishing out in what remains of the Everglades.
But I don't miss the people whose greed will be their legacy, nor the traffic, nor the ignorance, nor the lack of culture.
And those qualities seem to be the building blocks of the future for Florida.
RW
One of my favorite authors is John D. MacDonald. Those of you who haven't heard of him have probably heard of his work, the most famous of his writing being "Cape Fear". But John D. wrote a series of novels that ended up impacting me greatly, those being the mystery series starring his flawed hero Travis Mcgee. Set in the South Florida of the 60's, 70's and early 80's MacDonald uses his boat bum/"Salvage Expert" character to speak of the Florida he lived in at the time and of the Florida he felt was soon to come.
As Carl Hiassen mentions in his forward of the Fawcett Crest paperback series:
"If a cypress swamp got plowed to make way for another shopping mall he (MacDonald as McGee) took it personally: "This was instant Florida, tacky and stifling and full of ugly and spurious energies." Every McGee saga guarantees such splendidly mordant commentary. The customary targets are greedhead developers, crooked politicians, chamber-of-commerce flacks and the cold hearted scammers who flock like buzzards to the Sunshine State."
MacDonald began describing Florida like that 40 years ago, imagine how it is now, having grown to the point of seam busting with such people.
I have gotten a bit of flack for my anti-Florida comments, and as such, by no means want to encapsulate all of the residents of the state, merely the ones who deserve it.
I do miss my friends and the moments of beauty that Florida still manages to provide, mostly the memories of fishing out in what remains of the Everglades.
But I don't miss the people whose greed will be their legacy, nor the traffic, nor the ignorance, nor the lack of culture.
And those qualities seem to be the building blocks of the future for Florida.
RW
# posted by Unknown @ 10:04 AM 
