Live in such a way that no one wishes you gone

Luke O'Neil

27 Aug 2026 • 11 min read

My bog

Man they don't make em like that anymore. What a woman.

By almost any measure Dolly embodied "the American Dream." Some people come from nothing and make it big and then consider the problem of poverty now solved. If they ever even consider it again. Others will remember that there are still so many people with nothing and use what they have to help.

Just something to think about during this latest round of "this person who isn't poor wants to improve the lives of others" we've been hearing so much about whenever a DSA member has more to their name than a barrel with straps on it.

I'm sorry to poison Dolly's memory with this transition here but it's something I saw yesterday and just severely depressed me. I know it's nothing new. I know this is exactly how the right thinks. But it's nevertheless illuminating to see it spelled out so plainly.

After winning the special election Republican primary to assume her late brother's senate seat in South Carolina Darline Graham explained how she differs from her opponent Annie Andrews.

“Gun control, government-run health care, abortion until the moment of birth—bad idea after bad idea. Annie Andrews backs them all,” she said on Tuesday.

“I have a different background and vision for our state.… I grew up in the back of a bar and a liquor store in one room in central South Carolina. My parents worked long, hard hours to make ends meet. We didn’t take vacations. If they were sick, they had to get up and go to work because if the doors weren’t open, we weren’t making money. My mother passed away when I was 11, and my father just over a year later.”

And that is as good as it should ever be for anyone. We all must suffer like that.

I'm thinking now about the contrast between the days Lindsey Graham and Dolly Parton died. Virtually no one had a single bad thing to say about the latter. We're all going to die but – as I wrote here – I think the only thing is to try live your life in such a way that no one wishes you gone.

I quite liked this piece by Rahawa Haile.

"For those of us not born to wealth, conviction is our greatest fortune. Dolly never squandered hers. Her values were clear: Pay your union dues, stand with labor, love the castaways, put money directly in people’s pockets. Make great art (and own your work). Share books freely. Uplift the land as the land has lifted and lifted you. Higher still, even. And help the people climb."

For more reading on Dolly please see Natalie Weiner here:

Or here:

Niko Stratis also has a lovely piece on Dolly and her mother here:

When I was young, never to be old, music was something that came with stories told by my mom in her kitchen. I write little notes in the app on my phone about the silence and the cicadas. I think about Dolly being gone. I make coffee and move through our apartment, Bowie is asleep in his bed, the cats the same, and I’m alone but not really alone. Dolly on the stereo. I text Lysh to tell her the sad news, then my mom, who did not call me back but does respond to my text with a heart emoji. We text back and forth about her, about her music, about how my mom saw Linda Ronstadt once, a story she has told me countless times before. I will listen to it again, I will listen to all of them forever if I could. I will absolutely be annoyed at times about her repeating stories, and I will miss them when they’re gone. It will destroy me when the stories stop.

I called my parents too the other night when I heard the news. Of course they both had heard. Of course they both were sad. I listened as they told me a couple of stories about her life as reflected through their own lives even ones I already knew the endings of. Like this great punchline about refusing to sign over publishing rights to Elvis when he wanted to record I Will Always Love You.

When the 1974 recording of the song reached number one on the country charts, Elvis Presley indicated that he wanted to record the song. Parton was interested until Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her that it was standard procedure for the songwriter to sign over half of the publishing rights to any song Elvis recorded. Parton refused. She recalls:

I said, 'I'm really sorry,' and I cried all night. I mean, it was like the worst thing. You know, it's like, 'Oh, my God… Elvis Presley.' And other people were saying, 'You're nuts. It's Elvis Presley.' […] I said, 'I can't do that. Something in my heart says, Don't do that .' And I just didn't do it[…] He would have killed it. But anyway, so he didn't. Then when Whitney [Houston's version] came out, I made enough money to buy Graceland.

We're probably going to do a Dolly Parton week at Flaming Hydra next week. Maybe I'll write more then. In the meantime I'll be listening to this.

Speaking of Flaming Hydra the next edition of the print magazine will be shipped out soon. It looks so good! This one is about the end of Gawker. For my contribution AJ and I went back to an interview we did years ago and annotated it. Older versions of ourselves commenting on the things we said earlier.

I would like to make sure that another sad passing does not go unnoticed. Soraya Roberts was a long time online pal and respected colleague and she also left us this week.

You can find much of her recent work highlighted anew at Defector right now. She was a talented writer and a critic of taste. Most importantly for me we shared a strident anger over the years about how freelancers are treated in this business and would both speak out against it regularly.

Soraya's former partner and Hell World contributor Corey Atad has written a beautiful and moving piece about her life and work here:

Paid subscribers can keep reading for more from me down below. Thank you for being here.

Celebrate eight years of Hell World with this nice discount. Thank you

50% off one year!!!!

Here's a newish poem for the road.

Hospitality

Four pigs waddled into the restaurant and let the wooden door slam shut behind them on its rickety hinges. The clap startled the dinner crowd. They tucked their fat asses into a booth without asking and began ordering the hostess around. Just a minute she said heading back toward the kitchen to consult with her grandmother. Their stench spread like poison throughout a room that had a moment ago smelled of peppers and cooking oil. Desecrating a place of community. There's one just like it where you live too. In almost every town in the country. We love their food here so much. Our food. They laughed amongst themselves about whatever it is hogs find funny and waited impatiently for the staff to prepare their meal and to serve it with eyes down all the while knowing that they were shortly going to ruin as many of their lives as they could. On full stomachs. The dishwasher had already left so the owner was in the weeds now trying to catch up. The cook’s hands grasping his knife unsteadily. Praying to God. Not Jesus today but one of the meaner ones. They have laws against this. Every person knows that. In every culture throughout human history we have had laws written and unwritten about this exact thing. Not here though. The blender behind the bar had stopped whirring.

Oh my god dude you have got to watch this video loooolllll holy shit. What in the world are they thinking?