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Garrison Keillor's Wobegon Heroes 2 Popufar Cu{ture ~view vo(ume vi, no. 1 Editor Felicia F. Campbell ManCiness anti MiCitarism: (jrooming ',Young Men to !:fig/it, 1870·1914 ·-·-·--·-------·--·-··········-········-··--··-·······-··-· ... ······5 The Editorial Board Mark Moss Justo Alarcon ·Mat£ !Ma;v Larry, ana tlie 1Jartf:. 9-famCet %en, ana Arizona State University James Baird 'J{pw ...........................: ..................................................................................... 21 University of North Texas Bill Reeves William Brigman 'Epipsycliitfion, .Jitclituno 1Ja6y, anti tlie tz'eacliing of University of Houston ~manticism ............................................................................................... 2.9 Lupe Cardenas Atara Stein Arizona State University Robert Dodge o/"UCains in ~i(m: .Jitnemic ~ntferings .................................................. 45 University of Nevada, Las Vegas Stuart Fischoff Scott Melton 'Dressing tlie (joose: .Jitntliropomorpliizing ',Yartf .Jitrt of University of Arizona 'J{prtliwest 0/i.io ........................................................................_ .............. 55 David Metzger Michael T. Marsden Old Dominion University Victoria Joan Moessner %e Literary lnfCuence of .Jitkliemy: .Jitn 'E;rcpCication of University of Alaska, Fairbanks .5efectetf'W~............................................................................................ 61 Larry Hanshaw Editorial Consultants %e 'Disappearing 'WorU of tlie tz'url(isli 'JI(pmatf: J't Michael Green ~cent Journey .............................................................................. - .......... 75 Patricia Frazer Lamb Ron Marchese ·Let's (jo to Coney Js{and, O(tf Sport·: %e 'Etlinic Editorial Assistant Scott T. Melton Sen.sibillty of!}". Scott 7itzgeraftf. .................................................... 87 Dan Shiffman Copy Editor Life .Jitfter %irtysometliing ·-··--··-·-·-.. ···-····-·-··-·········-····-·-·--····· 97 Carolyn Light Cameron Margaret J. Heide (jarrison ~illor's 'Wo6egon :Jkroes ....................................................... l 0 7 Cover Jennifer A. Cognard-Black Photograph by Joan Paxton 'Ifu Parent tz'rap: Jt Mytli of tlie ~unitttfSeCf ......................... l21 David B. Broad Linguistic ~eatures of Cartoon Captions in %e iJ{ew ~ ...........................................................................................................133 Therese Steffen Garrison Keillor's Wobegon Heroes He did not lock literature into an ivory tower; instead he emphasized its centrality to the development of civilized and humane society . He knew also that the way in which we understand ourselves is less through theory than through story. In the life of any individual, as in the lives of communities and nations, stories are primary. Margaret Atwood on Northrop Frye The name "Garrison Keillor" evokes two images. One is visual-­ of a tall, bushy-haired man sitting with a slight slouch under a spotlight. The other, however, is not so much visual as visceral. Somewhere from the subconscious bubbles up warmth, a "down-home" hankering, which is captured not only in Keillor's monologues but in his voice. As Peter Scholl notes during an interview with Keillor, "Keillor's speaking voice ... [is] soft, and as he frequently says about himself, slow. Slow doesn't capture his delivery, which [is) extremely deliberate and measure . His answers [are] punctuated with long pauses, but his sentences once uttered [have] nearly the precision of written text" (50). It is this voice, the modulated voice of the storyteller, which emanates every Saturday night from radios in four million homes. The voice becomes the medium for the famous fifteen-minute segment nestled between a folk song and a fictitious commercial for Standard Sandpaper or Old Folks At Home Cottage Cheese (not made with formaldehyde or arsenic). It is the voice we equate with the mythical small town of Lake Wobegon and its hero, Keillor himself. In 1985, Keillor published Lake Wobegon Days, and in 1987 he published a kind of sequel, Leaving Home, a collection of stories direct from radio scripts. In those two books and in recordings of a Prairie Home Companion, it becomes apparent that there are two primary elements of Keillor's storytelling which make him irresistibly compelling to the American public. One, he creates a functioning myth system out of his portrayal of Lake Wobegon by 108 Popular Culture Review Garrison Keilor's Wobegon Heroes 109 using what Jung defines as "archetypes of the unconscious." Such a myth system enables Keillor's audience to identify with his to the adult idea of what the rites should be. Thus, one sees a clash characters, who become a satisfying representation of "the good life." not only of generations, but of myths. Two, he makes it difficult, if not impossible, to differentiate between Any culture's myth system i~cludes "a nu~ber of understood, Garrison Keillor, a true person, and Garrison Keillor, the persona who unwritten rules by which people bve. [An ethos IS there, a mode,] an grew ~p in .Lake ~obeg~n. Thus, Keillor places himself in a unique understanding that 'we don't do it that way"' (Campbell 9). TJ_te role wtth hts radio audtence: he is simultaneously the author and invaders of North American brought with them a myth system built the hero of his stories. Combined, the elements ultimately make us, upon an "old-time religion," one that "belongs to another age, ~~other his audi~nce, trust him and trust ourselves. Through his storytelling, people, another set of human values, another universe (13). then, Keillor demonstrates that each of us is important and effective Currently, however, our culture's religious precepts have all but in his or her own life. faded in the new "sheerly mechanistic world, as interpreted. thr~u~h In The Power of Myth Joseph Campbell uses Jungian theory to our physical sciences, Marxist sociology, and behaviO~nstic explain how myths emerge "out of the depths of the (human] psychology" (130-31). We are told we are "nothing but~ predt~table unconscious" and how the "energies of life come to us" through these pattern of wires reponding to stimuli." We live in a society Without myths. Campbell likens the energies to an inexhaustible cauldron, faith, a society Campbell calls "a mess." "the bubbling spring from which all life proceeds" (218-219). He Conversely, Keillor has constructed a place almost untouched by believes images of myth are the reflections of the spiritual capacities modern notions. Lake Wobegon is consciously and stubborn~y of every person, and through contemplation, people summon such pragmatic, shunning "new-fangled" computers a~d breakthroughs 1r J'?Wers in their individual lives. Shared myths are present in very laser surgery. Keillor has also succeeded in making the place rea! t~ dtverse cultures, separated by history and demography, and often his audience. Lawrence Sutin notes that "Lake Wobegon, a mythtca. contain the same imagery. Campbell cites recurring themes in stories small town, set in the Minnesota prairie heartla~ds, [is a .town] tha· such as a virgin birth; a savior who comes, dies, and is resurrected; millions of otherwise practical-minded Amencans bebeve to ~E the initial creation of the human species; and the journey of a hero. absolutely real ... Lake Wobegon and .its res~dent~ h~ve ~~ken on hfE These are the stories of the search for human significance, self­ by the sheer fact of their vivid place m our tmagmatiOns (42). knowledge, and meaning in our world and in ourselves. In essence, Lake Wobegon's very nature is both imaginary an~ ~art of an.ora they give people a sense of identity and security. Campbell believes tradition makes the town and its inhabitants a myth m Its o":n nght what humanity seeks is the experience of being alive: the act of Furthermore, the mythical place has in turn a mytholog>: of I~s. own translating the purely physical plane into a resonance with our own a set of rituals and rites which hearken back to a more tradt~I~nal innermost beings (5). American lifestyle, one that existed before the advent of graf~1h an< . When a society no longer embraces a myth system, what happens gangs. In any homogeneous culture, the unwritten rules compnse tha to Its sense of itself? The intrinsic need for myth leads the society to culture's "unstated mythology" (Campbell 9). In Lake ~ob~on,. t~t ~eate a new o~e. For instance, if a society lacks the rite of puberty (as unstated mythology sounds something like the follo~mg: Thts I ntes are physical manifestations of a cultural belief in myth), the the way we eat sweet com; this i~ ~hat ~o~ do w~th your extr; society lacks a rite which enables a person to know when it is time to tomatoes; this is how we view telev1s1on; th1s 1s the kind of beer w• leave childhood for adulthood. In such a society, children will drink· this is how to drive your car," or, in Keillor's words, "ca create their own rites to make up for the deficit, as is evident in owne~ship is a matter of faith. Lutherans drive Fords, bought fron modem North American culture where children set up their own Bunsen Motors, the Lutheran car dealer, and Catholics drive Chevie puberty rites in urban gangs' initiation ceremonies or with first date from Main Garage" (Lake Wobegon Days 112). rituals (Campbell8). The "new" set of rites usually does not conform Not only do Wobegonians have faith in such qmr~y-but-s1mp~ "rules" by which to live, they also believe in the mystical rooted II 110 Popular Culture Review Garrison Keilor's Wobegon Heroes
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