Any Texan overhearing this artless chitchat would have known that these two were talking Texas. Both had had a decent education, yet their conversation sounded like the dialogue in a third-rate parody of Texans. This was partly due to habit and partly to affectation born of a mixture of superiority and inferiority, as a certain type of Englishman becomes excessively Oxford or a Southern politician intensifies his drawl. Each was playing a role, deliberately. It was part of the Texas ritual. We're rich as son-of-a-bitch stew but look at how homely we are, just as plain-folksy as Grandpappy back in 1836. We know about champagne and caviar but we talk hog and hominy.
Source.
Ms. Ferber had them pegged, I'd say.
Now, bear in mind the rule that the convert is always more pious than one born into the faith, scratch the "had a decent education" part, add a bit of Faulknerian Idiot-Manchild syndrome, and you have, in spades, the yokels pictured here.
posted by RETARDO MONTALBAN @ 6:01 PM
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