Thanks! Next week I'm planning to post my piece about the trial itself. I know this amounts to a lot of prose about one subject in a time when most people have a 5 min or less attention span for anything written, but I like these pieces and think what they're about (which is not only Susan Smith) matters.
Brilliantly composed. I particularly enjoy your ability to interweave your personal experience with a factual account.
As to the crime, I was a young and clueless Yankee transplant back in ‘95 and yet that crime is indelibly written in memory. Having experienced SC’s culture for 30+ years now, I finally understand the immediate plausibility of her original story and the communal denial that bought it.
You eluded to society’s disdain for entertaining the notion of a mother killing her children just because. The taboo repeats itself so infrequently that it must be so….or it possible to do so without remorse? Such a deep question dropped among the story like a commercial break. Brilliant.
Thanks for this. I tried to email you but I think it didn't go through. I don't seem to understand the substack software. Why send me emails I can't reply to?
Love your writing - really transports you to the time & place. Captures the ambience of SC where my CT-born parents relocated & lived for 45 yrs. And where my youngest sister grew up, married, and raised her family.
Boy oh boy. I remember when that happened. To help my aging parents, I wound up spending far more time than I wished in the Upstate region of SC for a while. Used to meet a Charleston friend for lunch at Piggy Park sometimes. (Mustard-based sauce.) Nice work. You paint the picture.
Thanks so much for commenting....It's amazing to get feedback about writing so quickly!
xo
Thanks! Next week I'm planning to post my piece about the trial itself. I know this amounts to a lot of prose about one subject in a time when most people have a 5 min or less attention span for anything written, but I like these pieces and think what they're about (which is not only Susan Smith) matters.
Finally had a chance to read this after first reading it years ago. Still as powerful as ever. Thank you!
Brilliantly composed. I particularly enjoy your ability to interweave your personal experience with a factual account.
As to the crime, I was a young and clueless Yankee transplant back in ‘95 and yet that crime is indelibly written in memory. Having experienced SC’s culture for 30+ years now, I finally understand the immediate plausibility of her original story and the communal denial that bought it.
You eluded to society’s disdain for entertaining the notion of a mother killing her children just because. The taboo repeats itself so infrequently that it must be so….or it possible to do so without remorse? Such a deep question dropped among the story like a commercial break. Brilliant.
Thanks for this. I tried to email you but I think it didn't go through. I don't seem to understand the substack software. Why send me emails I can't reply to?
New to me too but I still prefer it to other platforms
Love your writing - really transports you to the time & place. Captures the ambience of SC where my CT-born parents relocated & lived for 45 yrs. And where my youngest sister grew up, married, and raised her family.
So nice to hear from you, Cynthia!
Boy oh boy. I remember when that happened. To help my aging parents, I wound up spending far more time than I wished in the Upstate region of SC for a while. Used to meet a Charleston friend for lunch at Piggy Park sometimes. (Mustard-based sauce.) Nice work. You paint the picture.
Mustard-based sauce the only way to go! Source of debate, as I'm sure you know....