found grounds to believe the law hadnbeen violated (specifically that the ballotsnhad been filled in incorrectly, ornaltered). But the trial jury decided thatnthere were no such violations.nNow, there’s a great deal to be saidnfor literacy tests for voting, but whitenAlabamians forfeited whatever rightnthey had to say it by their behaviornprior to 1965, which was far shabbiernTexas is the latest target for intellectualncarpetbaggers and deracinated academicsndetermined to turn the LonenStar State into a literary Sun Belt andnHouston into “a new Literary Mecca.”nSuch is the impression left by a recentnissue of The Texas Humanist, the colorfulnand provocative magazine of artnand ideas produced by the Texas Committeenfor the Humanities. To be sure,nin surveying “The Literary Landscapenof Texas,” one of the contributorsnpoints with pride to the indigenousnwriters who “live out where the screwwormsnkill the cows,” and anothernacknowledges the distinctively Southwesternncharacter of past Texas writing,nshaped “outside the liberal traditionnand . . . loosely based on thensurvival codes of Southern Baptist theology,non ranching and farming, onncults of manhood and womanhood,nand on a stern frontier pragmatism.”nLike most regional movements, Texasnliterature relies on a growing numbernof small presses and literary magazines.n”It is quite possible,” observesnBryce Milligan, “… that a lot ofnwhat gets published in New York isninferior to what is appearing from thensmall presses and independents livingnand working in Texas.”nUnfortunately, the difference betweennwhat gets published in NewnYork and what gets published in Texasnis shrinking as the state’s literary establishmentnis taken over by highbrownnewcomers. Susan Wood, who recentlynmoved from Washington, DC, ton38/CHRONICLES OF CULTUREnthan anything the “Marion Three”nwere even accused of. Still, let’s hopenthat some day every American will bentoo well-informed, too self-respecting,ntoo proud to let someone else fill outnhis ballot for him. And, in fairness,nthose who still reproach Alabama fornthe sorrier aspects of its past shouldnrecognize how much the situation hasnchanged. Who can doubt that 20 yearsnCULTURAL REVOLUTIONSnbecome a poetry teacher at Rice University,nis very proud of the new CreativenWriting Program at the Universitynof Houston, especially since theynenticed Donald Barthelme back fromnNew York to join Rosellen Brown andnStanley Plumly on the UH faculty.nWood may be right when she says thatnthere’s less of “the narcissism of smallndifferences” in Houston than in NewnYork or Boston or Washington becausenthere’s not “a lot of people fighting forna little recognition.” But her comparisonnof Houston’s “literary landscape”nto “the city’s skyline—all those postmodernnpalaces rising out of thenswamp in the blink of an eye”n—suggests a prefabricated literaturenwith no sense of tradition. Even morendisturbing is Wood’s concluding pronouncement:n”Houston is not Texas,nbut near enough.” Substitute “NewnYork City” and “America” and wenhave the familiar perspective of cosmopolitannprovincialism.nHouston’s creative writing programsnare the key to the future. As one writernput it, Houston is a bulwark againstnthe “anti-intellectual heritage” of Texansnwho seem unable to understandnthat a writer “in Texas” who can “writenabout human conditions that applynuniversally” is more important than “an’Texas’ writer.”nWhat is happening here is explainednonly too well in an essay—perhaps thenbest in the magazine—by Don Graham.nGraham’s not nearly so happy asnWood about Houston’s success in lur­nnnago a “not guilty” verdict in a case likenthis would have been unthinkable?n”Alabama justice” should no longer benpronounced only with a sneer. ccnJohn Shelton Reed will deliver thenLamar Lectures at Mercer Universitynin November. His topic is “SocialnTypes of the Modern South: A FieldnGuide.”ning Barthelme back to the state, sincenvirtually “none of Barthelme’s workntakes the measure of Texas—though itndoes do an excellent job of capturingnthe frissons of upper Manhattan.” InnBarthelme, Graham sees yet anothernof the “Paleface” writers who want ton”rescue Texas writing . . . from itsnprovincial, embarrassing, and nativisticnroots,” while driving out all of then”Redface” poets and novelists whoncherish these origins. For the Paleface,nthe issues are clear: it’s “EAST/Ideas/nSensitivity/Art” vs. “TEXAS/Prejudices/Chauvinism/Art.”nGrahamncomplains that since Palefaces capturednthe prize committees of thenTexas Institute of Letters, two of thenlast three top awards have gone ton”books that have absolutely nothing tondo with Texas: the 1981 winner dealtnwith bachelor life in New York City;nthe 1983 winner with the internationalntennis circuit. Mr. Bachelor had barelyntouched down at the Houston airportnbefore the prize was his, and Mr.nTennis, who taught in Austin for anwhile, has lived in Rome the last threenyears.” Meanwhile, observed Graham,n”native Texans writing in and ofnthe state . . . languish at DairynQueens and honky tonks, exiles inntheir native land.” Even PaulnChristensen—himself a recent arrivalnwho thinks emigres from the East cannstimulate and broaden Texas literaturen—admits “there’s truth in the complaints”nabout the region’s loss of “itsnonce clear voice of the spirit” andn