The Midwest

The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia ed. by Cayton, Sisson and Zacher claims that Sam Shepard, author of Chicago (1966) and the Pulitzer Prize winning Buried Child (1978), often “employs quintessentially midwestern tropes of growth, decay and rebirth through cyclical nature.”

The question I have is not if Sam Shepard actually engages these themes but whether or not the tropes actually exist as quintessentially midwest.  As a filmmaker I’ve considered the west coast but I would sorely miss the four distinct seasons that the region offers.  The humidity makes the summers hotter, the geographic location makes the winters colder.  The intermittent fall and spring provides remarkable beauty; beauty that is not only inherent in the seasons themselves but also in the wide recognition from strangers and friends alike that this world is indeed remarkable.  Change itself makes people recognize the amazing in the every day landscape instead of taking it for granted.

So - are the cycles of growth and decay typical of quintessential midwestern art, literature and thought?