Old Mortality by Katherine Anne Porter

 Old Mortality by Katherine Anne Porter


Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:

-              https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E


This is an unexpectedly long short story.
In fact, approaching it with an inappropriate mindset I had trouble following and concentrating on the plot and characters.

I was expecting the usual twenty, maybe even forty pages.
It is much longer...what? Two hundred e-reader pages?

And the narrative seemed somewhat convoluted.
There is a dead aunt Amy that, together with some other relatives from the past is compared with some of those living.

As is often the case, the good old days and the honorable ancestors were much better than the present.

Even when some of those heroes and heroines are not exactly text book examples of good behavior.

This aunt for instance, got herself engaged and then separated from a suitor called Gabriel.
Our feelings can change, but why encourage someone you don't like.

At least that's my perspective, given the incomplete attention that I paid to this account.

We have some serious themes and issues, touched upon in passing or contemplated in more detail.

Feminism is one.
In the days of this tale, women did not have the right to vote.

So it is admirable for a woman to not just stand for those ideals, but go to prison for them...
Three times.

Throughout the account the reader learns about racing horses and the bets placed on some of them by the protagonists.

There is also a jocular reference to some good equines.
A relative has gained a lot of weight and her husband wouldn't let her ride on his good horses...

He is admonished:

-          But don't you think about her pride and feelings?
-          I care more about my poor horses' health
-          Really?
-          Besides, if she had pride, she would not reach this pyramidal shape.

Words to that effect

Then we have the humorous, for this reader, reference to the need to learn Latin.
And what argument is used?

Well, the quote given by Lincoln's assassin

-          Syc semper tyrannis

In other words, it is good to have a quote handy under any circumstances.

Even if we are Southerners, what John Booth did, killing the president is not good...

At least they add a rejection of the

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