Coleman Dowell's "Southern gothic" Is a novel about sexual repression. Miss ethel, a spinster school teacher, decides to write what she calls a "Perverse tale" About one of her former students, a kentucky farmer named Ji...Coleman Dowell's "Southern gothic" Is a novel about sexual repression. Miss ethel, a spinster school teacher, decides to write what she calls a "Perverse tale" About one of her former students, a kentucky farmer named Jim Cummins. Endowing him with unnaturally large genitals, she spins a tawdry tale of his frustrated relationship with his petite wife.