Logan Daugherty
asked
Matt Ruff:
Can't recall from the book. Were there any nice white people in the book because in the show all the portrayals are negative?
Matt Ruff
Yes, there are a number of good white people mentioned in the novel, but none of them are folks I would be eager to trade places with.
The most obvious is David Landsdowne, the white lawyer Atticus and Montrose meet in “The Narrow House” chapter. He is based on a real person, David Lansden, a white lawyer in Cairo, Illinois who worked with the NAACP on various civil rights cases and became a pariah as a result. Garbage was dumped on his lawn and rocks were thrown through his windows, and his next-door neighbor really did put up a sign – a flashing neon arrow – so that vandals would know which house to target. When Langston Hughes stopped in Cairo to pay Lansden a visit, Lansden came running outside holding a baseball bat – he’d learned the hard way that when a car he didn’t recognize stopped in front of his house, it meant trouble. I don’t know what ultimately became of Lansden, but if he remained in Cairo, it’s entirely possible he spent the rest of his life with a bullseye on his chest.
The second example is Lucius Berry, the white man who freed George’s ancestors. After the other white Berrys died in a cholera epidemic, he not only freed his slaves, but sold off the rest of his inheritance to provide them with land and a new start. While there are historical examples of slave owners doing this, they are understandably rare – simply freeing your slaves was a huge financial sacrifice, and the idea of paying them restitution would have struck most people raised in a slave-holding community as insane. Not only would you end up poor, but you’d alienate yourself from your white neighbors and possibly become a target.
The third example is Lydia, the former owner of the Simmonsville Dinette. Although the novel doesn’t explicitly say this, I always assumed she was a white woman, because a black woman would never have been allowed to open a diner in Simmonsville in the first place. Likewise, I never decided exactly what happened to her, but the best case is that she fled town after her diner was set on fire. Worst case, she’s buried somewhere out in the fields.
The point I’m trying to underscore here is that sticking your neck out to oppose racism – or any other system of oppression – is dangerous, costly, and sometimes deadly, which is why most people don’t do it. Of course, most people don’t join the Klan, either, and it may seem unfair that Lovecraft Country puts so much attention on the kind of people who do. But the reason for that is not that I want to trash white folks. It’s that I’m writing from the perspective of black protagonists.
If you’re black in a racially segregated society, you’ll naturally tend to focus on two types of white people: those who are actively threatening you, and those who are willing to put themselves at risk to help you. White people who are “nice” in the more conventional sense, but who don’t do anything to meaningfully challenge the status quo, just aren’t going to matter that much to you. And you’re not going to go out of your way to try to make them feel good about themselves, because your praise is reserved, quite reasonably, for the David Lansdens of the world.
The most obvious is David Landsdowne, the white lawyer Atticus and Montrose meet in “The Narrow House” chapter. He is based on a real person, David Lansden, a white lawyer in Cairo, Illinois who worked with the NAACP on various civil rights cases and became a pariah as a result. Garbage was dumped on his lawn and rocks were thrown through his windows, and his next-door neighbor really did put up a sign – a flashing neon arrow – so that vandals would know which house to target. When Langston Hughes stopped in Cairo to pay Lansden a visit, Lansden came running outside holding a baseball bat – he’d learned the hard way that when a car he didn’t recognize stopped in front of his house, it meant trouble. I don’t know what ultimately became of Lansden, but if he remained in Cairo, it’s entirely possible he spent the rest of his life with a bullseye on his chest.
The second example is Lucius Berry, the white man who freed George’s ancestors. After the other white Berrys died in a cholera epidemic, he not only freed his slaves, but sold off the rest of his inheritance to provide them with land and a new start. While there are historical examples of slave owners doing this, they are understandably rare – simply freeing your slaves was a huge financial sacrifice, and the idea of paying them restitution would have struck most people raised in a slave-holding community as insane. Not only would you end up poor, but you’d alienate yourself from your white neighbors and possibly become a target.
The third example is Lydia, the former owner of the Simmonsville Dinette. Although the novel doesn’t explicitly say this, I always assumed she was a white woman, because a black woman would never have been allowed to open a diner in Simmonsville in the first place. Likewise, I never decided exactly what happened to her, but the best case is that she fled town after her diner was set on fire. Worst case, she’s buried somewhere out in the fields.
The point I’m trying to underscore here is that sticking your neck out to oppose racism – or any other system of oppression – is dangerous, costly, and sometimes deadly, which is why most people don’t do it. Of course, most people don’t join the Klan, either, and it may seem unfair that Lovecraft Country puts so much attention on the kind of people who do. But the reason for that is not that I want to trash white folks. It’s that I’m writing from the perspective of black protagonists.
If you’re black in a racially segregated society, you’ll naturally tend to focus on two types of white people: those who are actively threatening you, and those who are willing to put themselves at risk to help you. White people who are “nice” in the more conventional sense, but who don’t do anything to meaningfully challenge the status quo, just aren’t going to matter that much to you. And you’re not going to go out of your way to try to make them feel good about themselves, because your praise is reserved, quite reasonably, for the David Lansdens of the world.
More Answered Questions
Stephanie
asked
Matt Ruff:
I’m very intrigued by your response to the TV series adaptation. I have said many times,”But the book was so much better!” With Lovecraft Country, I can’t wait for the next episode. Even though elements and details and order have changed somewhat, it is a beautiful adaptation of your work. Why do you think as readers we are often reluctant to embrace a film adaptation of a favorite book not 100% faithful to the book?
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