Comme promis, de courts extraits de la quatrième partie de Travels with Charley, dans lesquels Steinbeck profite de sa feinte incapacité à cerner le Texas pour livrer suavement quelques perles satiriques sur The Lone Star State…
« When I started this narrative, I knew that sooner or later I would have to have a go at Texas, and I dreaded it. (…) Once you are in Texas, it seems to take forever to get out, and some people never make it. (…)
Writers facing the problem of Texas find themselves floundering in generalities, and I am no exception. Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word. (…)
I’ve studied the Texas problem from many angles and for many years. And of course one of my truths is inevitably canceled by another. Outside their state I think Texans are a little frightened and very tender in their feelings, and these qualities cause boasting, arrogance and noisy complacency– the outlets of shy children. At home Texans are none of these things. The ones I know are gracious, friendly, generous, and quiet. In New York we hear them so often bring up their treasured uniqueness. Texas is the only state that came into the Union by treaty. It retains the right to secede at will. We have heard them threaten to secede so often that I formed an enthusiastic organization– The American Friends for Texas Secession. This stops the subject cold. They want to be able to secede but they don’t want anyone to want them to.
Like most passionate nations Texas has its own private history based on, but not limited by, facts. The tradition of the tough and versatile frontiersman is true but not exclusive. It is for the few to know that in the great old days of Virginia there were three punishments for high crimes — death, exile to Texas, and imprisonment, in that order. And some of the deportees must have descendants.
(…)
Most areas in the world may be placed in latitude and longitude, described chemically in their earth, sky and water, rooted and fuzzed over with identified flora and peopled with known fauna, and there’s an end to it. Then there are others where fable, myth, preconception, love, longing or prejudice step in and so distort a cool, clear appraisal that a kind of high-colored magical confusion takes permanent hold. Greece is such an area, and those pats of England where King Arthur walked. One quality of such places as I am trying to define is that a very large part of them is personal and subjective. And surely, Texas is such a place. »
