Before I ever heard of Flannery O’Connor, I had heard of Milledgeville. In Georgia it is a synecdoche for the state mental hospital located there, so one sometimes hears about cousins and in-laws who had a “nervous breakdown” and “went to Milledgeville.” A classic instance of Southern indirection, it was a nicer way of saying “looney bin.”
Gone in Milledgeville
Gone in Milledgeville
Gone in Milledgeville
Before I ever heard of Flannery O’Connor, I had heard of Milledgeville. In Georgia it is a synecdoche for the state mental hospital located there, so one sometimes hears about cousins and in-laws who had a “nervous breakdown” and “went to Milledgeville.” A classic instance of Southern indirection, it was a nicer way of saying “looney bin.”