State of Minds: Texas Culture and Its Discontents

by Don Graham

Overview

John Steinbeck once famously wrote that "Texas is a state of mind." For those who know it well, however, the Lone Star State is more than one mind-set, more than a collection of clichés, more than a static stereotype. There are minds in Texas, Don Graham asserts, and some of the most important are the writers and filmmakers whose words and images have helped define the state to the nation, the world, and the people of Texas themselves. For many years, Graham has been critiquing Texas writers and films in the pages of Texas Monthly and other publications. In State of Minds, he brings together and updates essays he published between 1999 and 2009 to paint a unique, critical picture of Texas culture.

In a strong personal voice—wry, humorous, and ironic—Graham offers his take on Texas literary giants ranging from J. Frank Dobie to Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy and on films such as The Alamo, The Last Picture Show, and Brokeback Mountain. He locates the works he discusses in relation to time and place, showing how they sprang (or not) from the soil of Texas and thereby helped to define Texas culture for generations of readers and viewers—including his own younger self growing up on a farm in Collin County. Never shying from controversy and never dull, Graham's essays in State of Minds demolish the notion that "Texas culture" is an oxymoron.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292734906
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	01/01/2011
Series:	Charles N. Prothro Texana Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	976 KB

About the Author

Don Graham was J. Frank Dobie Regents Professor of American and English Literature at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught the famous course "Life and Literature of the Southwest." Graham wrote extensively on Southwestern American literature, film, and history. His books include Cowboys and Cadillacs: How Hollywood Looks at Texas, No Name on the Bullet: A Biography of Audie Murphy, Kings of Texas: The 150-Year Saga of an American Ranching Empire, and State Fare: An Irreverent Guide to Texas Movies. Graham was also a past president of the Texas Institute of Letters and a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The Ayes of Texas
• I. Texas
  • Lucas, Texas, Lucas, Texas
  • Owens Country
  • White Like Me
  • Cotton Tale
  • Catcher in the Raw
• II. Culture
  • Master Class
  • Fallen Heroes
  • The Pits
  • Accentuate the Negative
  • Giant
  • The Write Brothers
  • Expatriate Act
  • Nation State
  • All the Pretty Corpses
  • Dear Cormac
• III. Discontents
  • Wayne's World
  • Picture Perfect
  • Donnie Does Dallas
  • Brokeback Mountain in My Rearview Mirror
• Bibliography
• Credits

Editorial Reviews

For all Texans, and for anyone with even a passing interest in the state, this collection of essays is an essential read.

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