Omnivoracious: Literary Super Bowl Counterprogramming: Louisiana vs. Indiana

Literary Super Bowl Counterprogramming: Louisiana vs. Indiana

by Tom on February 06, 2010

The mayors of the two Super Bowl cities often concoct a symbolic wager of the fruits of their hometowns, but what I'd love to see them bet instead would be a box of local books. A few days ago, I ran across (via American Fiction Notes) Chauncey Mabe's entertaining assessment of how Indiana's literary legacy stacks up against Louisiana's (since limiting it to Indianapolis vs. New Orleans would be a rout from the opening whistle). He makes a valiant case for the Hoosiers against the more lauded lineup from the Big Easy, noting that both Vonnegut and Dreiser called Indiana home, and he really does his homework to credit Indiana with everyone from Jean Shepherd and Phyllis Naylor (whom I associate with Maryland, if only because her son played in the junior high school band with me) to the creators of both Clifford and Garfield. But it's just tough to go up against the pound-for-pound quality of the writers who have hailed from and written about the Pelican State, from Kate Chopin, Walker Percy, and John Kennedy Toole to Tennessee Williams, Anne Rice, and Ernest Gaines.

Longtime Omni readers will not be surprised that I was led back to the state lineups we put together in the Books of the States series from a year or so ago. A refresher: we gave each state as many literary representatives as they had electoral votes (in these cases, 9 for Louisiana and 11 for Indiana). Novelist Peter Charles Melman guest-selected our Louisiana list, and Pete gutsily opted to include a few lesser-known discoveries over some of the tried-and-true classics (to the point of leaving off Percy's iconic debut, The Moviegoer, which was sort of like the Colts benching Peyton Manning for a half--hey, they'd never do that, right?). Meanwhile, Indiana pleasantly surprised me when I chose its 11, going beyond its big literary names with a fascinating mix of classics of journalism, sociology, and humor (and of course, sports fans, Bobby Knight). You'd still have to put your money on the saints to go marching in, but, as Mabe says, you might actually have a game worth watching.

So in case you'd rather spend your day reading tomorrow (or if the game turns into a blowout that's only worth keeping on for the ads), here are our suggested starting lineups:

Louisiana (see Pete's comments on his choices):