Habits of Mind

Petrusich makes many inquiries throughout the book, “It Still Moves.”  She uses questions to explain what her journey is going to be about.  “How are our collective ideas about Americana changing?  Where did they start?  How are those notions preserved, celebrated, milked for profit?  How do the places come from-our hometown, our regions, our city blocks-influence the sounds we make?  And most important, how is Americana music transforming to accommodate the massive cultural and geographical shifts in the American landscape?” (Pages 16-17)  She asks these questions to figure out why things are the way they are.  This is what she will examine throughout the rest of the book and figure out how these things are changing to adapt to the generation and times.

Petrusich reflects on what she observes.  She tells about the history of Beale Street and what Dr. King did on that street.  It has a lot of history and then after she talks about the violent crimes in Memphis and it connects to the violent crimes that occurred during the civil rights movement and how Dr. King led them in a non-violent march.  Then some rebels started acting up, creating a violent scene.  “I nod, remembering Memphis’s impious reputation for violent crimes (rates here are two and a half times the national average; in 2006, Memphis racked up 147 murders-a grim ratio of almost one murder every two days-and the FBI tallied well over thirteen thousand violent crimes)” (Pages 30-31)  She uses the history of the street and connects it to the recent history to make the point of how some things never change.

She understands how most people would believe that a male would be on the road narrating about a journey to find what is Americana.  “The stereotypical narrator is the lonely male (the man on the road is the stuff of American legend; the woman on the road is the stuff of teenage fantasy), preoccupied  with achieving catharsis or reinvention, desperately fulfilling an awkward, unnamed quest for authenticity.”  (Page 17)  She understands how it is different that a woman is doing this journey.  She understands that maybe on her trip she will see things in a different perspective and she is ok with that.  It is a time for understanding and seeing things in a new light.

MW