In honor of the 30th anniversary of its publication, I am going to be writing a series of essays on Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. This is the second installment of the series.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a non-fiction novel by John Berendt. The book, Berendt's first, was published in 1994 and this year marks the 30th anniversary of this blockbuster book’s publication. While I can never pin down my Favorite Movie, Food, or TV Show; I have no issue declaring my favorite book. Midnight is my favorite book, hands down! It is (along with the first book of Fellowship of the Ring) the only book I make a point of reading each year. It is without question the gold standard of Creative Nonfiction.
The central narrative concerns the shooting of Danny Hansford, a local male prostitute, by his sometimes lover Jim Williams, a famed and rich Antiques dealer. But, most of the book follows John Berendt’s journey as he discovers and observes the people and happenings of Savannah Georgia.
In the last installment, we talked about the Politics of the book and Savannah during the 1980s. Seeing as the primary goal of this series is to analyze different aspects of the wonderful book I thought it would be interesting to explore the concept of Masculinity and how it is presented in the book. It's a complex aspect of American life at present and the political landscape, to say nothing of changing cultural norms has made it something of a fertile crescent for exploration.
In this very divisive world, there are increasingly many different views on the rule of Masculinity, some claiming that it contains a toxicity that negatively impacts most avenues of human life. Any hostility on that front will, and has, resulted in counter-hostility. Thus resulting in an even more toxic debate on social media about an ever-expanding listing of social issues. Before long your TikTok and Facebook reels are flooding with muscular podcasters behind brick walls screaming into microphones or equally frustrated Generation Z influencers that condemn any aspect of traditional American life.
I mention all of this not to pick a side. One of the reasons why I love John Berendt’s character in Midnight is because I relate to him; I’m not here to insert myself. I’m observing and taking notes. I do mention it to point out that the world of Midnight is radically different, and in most cases, the changes happened just in the past few years. The book was written and published long before every single person on the planet had a platform built into their phone that would allow them to engage with everyone. So things were a bit more simple and binary back then. For the purposes of this essay, we are going to look at Masculinity as it was famously defined by Robert Brannon in 1976.
Now on to the good stuff, I have selected four Male characters from the book and placed them within the four determined categories of Masculinity as it was defined during the time of the story—
1. antifemininity -summarized as the stigma of anything feminine, bottling up intimate or emotional aspects of their lives.
2. Status and achievement -success, status, and the need to be looked up to. Doubling down on masculine behavior.
3. inexpressive and independent -self-reliant, confident, and needs minimal emotional support
4. Adventurousness and aggressiveness - living on the edge, adventurous, and willing to resort to violence if necessary.
As a rule for myself, I have not included either Berendt’s narrator in this or The Lady Chablis...Oh, I’m sorry I mean the Grand Empress!
1. Jim Williams (antifemininity) — A closeted man who lived a very guarded and private lifestyle. He rebuilt homes, focused on appearances, and dressed the part of a wealthy man. Status was important, yet control was critical. He was also known to be a male chauvinist, renowned for patronizing women, and didn’t place must stock in their opinions. At the same time, he couldn’t really ever shake off the smooth grace that was a major part of his personality. A man who masked his identity and his motives.
2. Danny Hansford (Status and achievement)— Recklessly violent with quick moments of mindless rage. Yet, he was also obsessed about his status and his place in the world. Most of his uncontrollable temper was because he felt worthless. One of the major charges leveled against Williams during the trials was that he used Danny to inflate himself. Given the fact that Hansford was a street hustler and known for his sexual encounters, this can be seen as him trying to double down on his image of masculine behavior. He was also death-obsessed and would often state that if he died at Mercer House he’d get a large gravestone (yeah he didn’t). He placed great importance on his clothing, his fast car, and Williams’s money. Despite his rage and youthful appearance, he is perhaps the most insecure figure throughout the entire book. That is saying something when you have a man who glues Flies to his shirt in the book.
3. Sonny Seiler (inexpressive and independent) — Famed trial attorney from Savannah, Georgia, and the owner of the University of Georgia Bulldogs live mascot Uga. Perhaps one of the least eccentric personalities in the book and largely the only sane voice of reason throughout the story besides the nameless narrator. By all accounts a tolerant Good ‘Old boy who was a world-class lawyer, always kept his cool unless the Georgia bulldogs lost, never gave up on Jim, and was supremely confident in his abilities.
4. Joe Odom — I mean who the hell else!? “Just call me the sentimental gentleman from Georgia!” Odom says when we first meet him. Another Savannah-based lawyer, but the absolute polar opposite of the calm and measured Seiler. You could even argue that he was the anti-Seiler. Odom lived on the edge and consumed every aspect of life, he would occupy (invade more like) famed homes when the owners were away and throw it wide open to anyone and everyone. In the course of the book he filed for bankruptcy, was arrested (twice), almost got electrocuted, slept with god knows how many people (actually awoke to Danny Hansford in his bed), was robbed (twice), started two different piano bars, was sued (twice), and was always a loyal friend to our narrator. All while being intoxicated! Listen you can’t read any encounter with him and not imagine that there is a cigarette in his mouth and a half-empty drink in his hand.
Now keep in mind this is only my opinion. One of the reasons for this series is to talk about this amazing book and to make up for the fact that it has a fairly limited presence on social media and discussion pages. So if you have any thoughts I would love to hear about them.