"I think we Southerners have talked a fair amount of malarkey about the mystique of being Southern"

Reynolds Price is suggesting that Southerners have actually romanticized the idea of being Southern. He thinks that the concept of the South has been overemphasized which the truth of the South is not as attractive as it is often portrayed. He is suggesting that the South is not as unique as some individuals make it out to be. He is also suggesting that Southerners have been too fast to embrace the idea of the South as a place of mystique and beauty. He is stating that the South is not as unique as some people make it out to be and that the idea of the South has been over-exaggerated. He is recommending that Southerners should be more realistic about the South and not get too captured up in the glamorized version of the South. He is stating that the South is not as unique as some individuals make it out to be which Southerners should be more reasonable about the South and its culture.