Forty Years of a Stereotype

James Dickey's infamous novel Deliverance celebrates its birthday.

This book, much like Erskine Caldwell's novels Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre a generation before, did much to perpetuate the stereotype of the rural southerner and the hillbilly as inbred degenerate buggerers. Dickey's novel was evil enough in this role, but the movie made from it established images that burned into America's memory:



And, of course:



The rape scene was written by Dickey in his novel, but the "squeal like a pig" section was improvised by the actors, Bill McKinney and Ned Beatty. I'd have to think that Beatty never did a more brave thing in his entire career than consent to doing this scene, which for its time (1972) was truly horrifying.

I guess that, if the mark of a successful book is how well it drives the reader into a frothing, hate-filled rage, then Dickey wrote a successful book,and helped make it into a successful movie.