Quote of the Mo'
On the Origins of Red Dirt Marijuana
from Paul Krassner's
Impolite Interview with Terry Southern; The Realist, #50, May;
1964
[The short story Red Dirt Marijuana] is a scene from the hero's youth--his first exposure to certain insights of the great cool spade world. It is interesting that in the rural south, or southwest--this was in Texas--there's a very free and easy association of white and Negro children, which does not seem to occur anywhere else in the country. I doubt if there is anyone from such an are who hasn't had a very strong spade influence in his past. And to my mind that is the great teaching of our time--any really profound wisdom that may be found among whites necessarily stems from the southern Negro, as well, of course, as America's one great art, and the only art indigenous to it--jazz.
Editor's Note:
Paul Krassner stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Terry on the front lines of 60s culture-shock jocking--and his work is widely available and worth checking out: IMPOLITE INTERVIEWS (including the one with Terry) is published by Seven Stories Press, and High Times Books is publishing POT STORIES FOR THE SOUL in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of their magazine, and in October Artemis Records will release SEX, DRUGS AND THE ANTICHRIST: PAUL KRASSNER AT MIT.
(c) The Terry Southern Estate; all rights reserved.
