"Kinfolks: The Wigus Stories" by Gurney Norman

A recent reread of this book was, naturally, prompted by the death of its author, Gurney Norman, who is most famous for his first novel, "Divine Right's Trip: A Novel of The Counter Culture" which I had reread and written about earlier this year. I honestly don't remember the first time I read this collection of short stories. It is composed of a collection of ten short stories which have a cast of common characters who are all either family or friends of the protagonistg, Wilgus Collier, an Appalachian male who is raised in the home of his maternal grandparents. I believe all but one of the stories had been previously published in several literary journals around the country. In some respects, an argument could be made that it is a similar kind of collection to Mildred Hauns's "The Hawk's Done Gone". However, this collection falls a bit short of Haun's book in being a major part of the argument about what actually constitutes a novel versus a collection of short stories with a common setting and a common cast of characters. Norman's book and the stories it is comprised of is less tightly timelined across the lives of the characters, and falls a bit short in the depth of the character development of most of the characters as opposed to Haun's work. Enough about that. The protagonist is a member of a family which has a complicated structure and mercurial interactions. He is the grandson living in the home of his grandparents, is a close friend of his slightly older uncle Delmer who teaches him how to drink among other acts of coming of age. This book is generally perceived a series of coming of age stories and spans the boys adolescent years to his young adulthood. He is better educated than the other family members and is often viewed as a source of assistance when family problems arrives. One of the stories is about the illness of the grandfather and Wilgus' spending a night sitting with him in hospital. A similar incident with different characters is also a significant part of "Divine Right's Trip" in which D. R. the protagonist in that book performs the same chore for a family friend. The family fight often, love each other always, and show it clearly when the chips are down. They might fight each other in private but they always fight common enemies in public. These stories will make you laugh, and make you cry. They will make you a fan of Wilgus and his extended family. I sincerely doubt that any of these stories will be forever enshrined into the pantheon of great American Literature. But they are already enshrined in the pantheon of serious Appalachian Literature. This book is well worth reading especially if you are a devotee of the American short story.

"Divine Right's Trip: A Novel Of The Counterculture" by Gurney Norman, Observations On A Rereading

I just looked back over the blog and realized that I haven't written a post since March about anything which was absolutely Appalahchian in its focus. It is long past time to do that and my subject matter today cannot be more clearly Appalachian. "Divine Right's Trip" by Gurney Norman is subtitled "A Novel Of The Counterculture" and I do agree that it is. But speaking from the viewpoint of having been a hippie in Eastern Kentucky when the book was originally published in the corners of the pages of "The Last Whole Earth Catalog", I cannot think of a more Appalachian book. Admittedly, it covers a lot of ground on several topics and geographic areas which are not Appalachian. But it covers those topics from the viewpoint of a protagonist who is a fine example of the young Appalachians I knew when I was growing up not more than 30 or so miles where Gurney Norman grew up, and we both are definitely native Appalachians. The protagonist in this novel is David Ray Davenport, Divine Right, or D. R. as he is severallly known both inside and outside his head. He and his girlfriend Estelle are on a trip around the country in a Volkswagon van name Urge which has been painted in a very random fashion by D. R. and an equally random collection of his friend and momentary contacts. They are sometimes under the influence of marijuana, LSD, and malnutrition. Movement and new sights to be seen are generally more important to them than a normal workaday world. They are very typical characters of the hippie counterculture of the late 1960's and early 1970's. D. R. is a bit of a lost ball in the high, high weeds having been raised for the most part by his grandparents in a fictional county in Eastern Kentucky which can be assumed to be at least a marginal facisimile of the Letcher County in which Gurney Norman spent his childhood. D. R. does not know his father and his mother has given him the last name of a less than desirable step-father. Estelle is at least a competent enough woman that she can usually drag D. R. out of whatever mire in which has found himself. They take turns driving Urge across the country from one crisis to the next, from one interesting interaction to another with generally benevolent strangers. Eventually, the return to Cincinatti where they have friends and family and then become separated from each other somewhat unintentially when D. R. goes to visit his sister and her family and fails to return to Estelle on time. Then he hears by telephone from the local female country storekeeper Mrs. Godsey that his uncle Emmit is dying on the old homeplace in the head of a holler in Kentucky. D. R. offers to come and care for the dying uncle and actually delivers on the promise. They spend a few weeks getting to know each other again as the uncle attempts to train D. R. in the daily routine of his ramshackle house and a plethora of rabbits and chickens. Mrs. Godsey and her husband Leonard take D. R. under their wing so to speak, allowing him to have credit in their little store with little or no proof of ability to pay and he grows up a bit during the deterioriation and death of his uncle Emmit. He spends the last few days of Emmit's life caring for him in the local hospital, arranges his funeral, helps dig the grave in the old family graveyard in order to save some money, and decides to try to track Estelle down through a mutual friend who actually accomplishes the task. Estelle comes to Eastern Kentucky to live with D. R. and they decide to get the married. The final wrapping up of all the loose ends of D. R.'s life are brought togehter during the wedding which is performed jointly by the local mainstream (for Eastern Kentucky) preacher and a very hippie type of friend from California who is known only as the Annaheim Flash. The wedding is attended by a large crowd of people from both of D. R.'s worlds, Eastern Kentucky and all of hippie America. As many great stories end, a fine time was had by all. The old homeplace contains many of the things which have endeared Appalachia to thousands, perhaps millions of us: the homeplace itself now strip mined to near total destruction, the old family graveyard in danger of being buried by strip mine sludge, good friends and neighbors who step in at both the best and worst of times, and all those sometimes lost but never forgotten heartwarming experiences which always make home a home and prove that Thomas Wolfe was wrong. You can go home again, at least if your name is David Ray Davenport.

Appalachia Day Homecoming, AliceLloyd College, October 12, 2024

 

Yesterday, October 12, 2024, I attended Appalachia Day Homecoming at Alice Lloyd College with my wife Candice, our friend Eugenia "Genia" DeCoursey Hall, and her friend Sharon White who is the wife of John White with whom I worked nearly fifty years ago as cooks at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Prestonsburg, Kentucky.  Genia, Sharon, and I had all attended ALC many years ago and Genia and I have been friends for over fifty years.  My wife Candice is actually an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, in Platteville, Wisconsin.  But over the last 32 years, she has become a lover of Appalachia and Appalachian Culture.  Candice and I left our home at about 8:30am in an attempt to arrive by no later than 10am since it is about a 70 mile drive from our house and somewhere near 30 miles of the trip is over two lane roads including US 460 from our house to Salyersville, Kentucky, Kentucky 7 from Garrett, Kentucky to the Floyd/Knott county line, and Kentucky 899 from there to Pippa Passes where the college is located.  Amazingly, we got there in time to get the last handicapped parking space on the highway on campus instead of having to park half a mile away.  Most of the various vendors were already set up selling a large variety of arts, crafts, food, and books.  The crowd was comfortably large but not overwhelming.  The main highway or street through campus was shut down totally and vendors were actually set up in parts of the road where visitors wandered around or stopped to listen to local musicians and the Alice Lloyd College Choir, The Voices of Appalachia.  

Candice and I had driven together, naturally, and Genia and Sharon had driven in Genia's car but arrived a couple of hours after us.  Candice and I had naturally worn our Kamala Harris shirts and, since it was a fairly cool early fall morning, we had chosen to wear Harris/Walz shirts on the outside and Harris/Walz tee shirts underneath so we could change our outer layer when the sun warmed up to about 75 or 80 degrees.  The photo above is of my Harris tee shirt which my regular readers have seen before.  I had not been on the property very long when I encountered a man who approached me and said he liked my shirt.  We had a fairly long conversation about politics on which we agreed fully, learned that we hadfew friends in common from the ALC days.  Then to my surprise, he asked me to take a selfie with me and actually used both our phones to get the photo below.  I told him of the death of a good friend of both of us a few years ago due primarily to a tragic accident in which our friend had been asleep in a recliner in the living room of  his ground level apartment and was hit when an impaired driver literally drove into his living room. Then we parted ways.  The photo below is of the two of us at Appalachia Day. 

 

Then Candice and I wandered around, sometimes together, sometimes separately, looking at the things which interested us, talking to a few people here and there, getting registered, etc.  Candice also decided she wanted to order a sweatshirt which ALC was selling which is Appalachian in nature.  The people who were selling the shirts for the college could only provide a few tee shirts on the spot, could not take credit or debit cards, and Candice had to pay in advance for the shirt with cash, fill out an order card, and wait some undetermined time to receive the shirt.  I am certain that more of the shirts would have been bought if all those issues had not been part of the deal. The photo below is of Candice's Harris/Walz tee shirt. 

I saw an older Mennonite woman selling books at a table next to some male author whom I did not immediately recognize.  Since I have numerous Mennonite friends in our home county and also have known a few members of the Mennonite congregation in Knott County where Alice Lloyd College is located, I moved over to her table and struck up a conversation with her.  It turned out that we did have a few friends in common and I bought a copy of one of her books, "Flooded...Yet Not Alone" by Miriam Moyer, which is an oral history type book about survivors of the 2022 Eastern Kentucky Flood in Knott County which is the county of my birth and childhood. 

 

While I was talking to Miriam Moyer, the man next to her approached us and said, "You are Roger Hicks aren't you?" At that point, I recognized him as Dr. Dennis Campbell, a psychiatrist from Campton, Kentucky, with whom I had worked for about three years in my other career as a mental health and substance abuse therapist.  We had a fairly long talk and I did not immediately buy any of his books, of which he has written about a half dozen since he retired a few years ago.  Eventually, I did return and buy two of his books after I was assured that Candice didn't want to buy anything else from other vendors.  I knew and told Dennis that since he lives not far from me that I could always get in touch with him and buy his books later.  The books I bought from Dennis are "Tales From The Red River Gorge" which was actually published under the pseudonym Maribeth Wagner, and "To Conquer Eternal Summer" which was published under the pseudonym B. Camp.  "Tales From The Red River Gorge" contains two fairly long stories, one of which is described as "A Romantic Suspense Thriller".  The other is described as "A Tale Of Wilderness Survival".  I always enjoyed working with Dennis and trusted his skills absolutely as a psychiatrist when we were working together in an environment where most of our clients were dually diagnosed and suffering from serious mental health issues in one of the poorest counties in Kentucky.  

 

 

I knew that my friend Genia had also been a nurse in the medical practice where Dennis worked for several years as a general practice medical doctor before returning to the University of Kentucky to complete training as a psychiatrist because, as he puts it, "I realized that a very high percentage of the clients I was treating as an M. D. were also suffering from mental health problems."  I can't wait to read his books. When Genia and Sharon arrived, Genia and I returned to Dennis' table to have another conversation with him together since he knew us both but had never known that we are nearly lifelong friends.  I also introduced him to Candice.  The second of his books, "To Conquer Eternal Summer",  is described as "A Cultivation Trilogy" which is within the field of Fantasy Literature.  Dennis' books are all available from Amazon. 

During the course of the day, I was approached at various times by two more couples who also gave me compliments about my shirt(s) and briefly talked politics with all of them.  One couple was a retired high school history teacher and his wife from Carter County Kentucky who described TRAITOR Trump as  "very dangerous".  I gave him the titles of a few books which also describe that same trait of TRAITOR Trump the same way in more lengthy and accurate words.  Another couple were ALC students, a male senior communications major and his girl friend who also felt  very strongly that America and American Democracy are in danger from TRAITOR Trump.  Another couple, perhaps in their thirties, were from Marion County Kentucky and approached about the shirt and expressed their fears about the upcoming election and the dire possibility that TRAITOR Trump could actually be elected for the first time in his life.  Candice and I ate lunch from a food trailer specializing in some Anglicized "Mexican food".  Candice didn't eat much there and I had a steak fajita which was bland but fairly good.  Then we checked in again with Genia who had somehow gotten separated from Sharon White, tried to help her locate her, and eventually gave up to leave in time to get back home at a reasonable hour.  It was good day and wonderful to spend time with friends, both old and new, and to receive some new reading material.  

Book Signing And Reading, Kirk Judd & Edwina Pendarvis, Huntington, WV, July 28, 2023

 

On July 28, 2023, my wife Candice & I spent a long, rewarding day in Huntington, West Virginia, part of which I wrote about in this earlier blog post regarding our visit to the Huntington Museum of Art.  But our primary reason for visiting Huntington was to attend a joint book signing and reading by two of our friends at Cicada Books on 14th Street West.  The two friends are Edwina "Eddy" Pendarvis and Kirk Judd who have both been very active in the West Virginia literary scene for many years.  Both are excellent poets and Eddy has also produced several excellent works of nonfiction both in the field of Appalachian Studies and in her professional academic career in the field of education.  I have known Eddy for about 6 years and known about Kirk and his work for probably forty years although we had never met face to face before this reading.  Kirk and I had both participated in an online reading to promote the posthumous book "Milky Way Accent" by Bob Snyder, one of my early mentors and one of the best poets West Virginia has ever produced.  We have maintained an intermittent Facebook communication pattern ever since but this was our first meeting. 

Kirk and his wife, Eddy, Candice and I all arrived at the book store about an hour early for the reading and were able to converse awhile before others arrived for the event.  We talked about a wide ranging series of topics as most people do in such settings and at least hit the high spots concerning Appalachian Literature, poetry in general, the art museum, and God only knows what else which is the very kind of conversation which I enjoy.  The reading had a very sizeable attendance by the standards of such events in small venues and the room was soon filled with a wide variety of aficionados of literature.  We were able to meet and talk briefly with several others whom we had never known, most of whom were friends of either Eddy or Kirk and his wife.  

The reading began with Eddy reading some from both her historical body of poetic works and some short selections from her new nonfiction book "Another World: Ballet Lessons from Appalachia" which is available from the Jesse Stuart Foundation in Ashland, Kentucky. Although I can't say that I knew this book in its embryonic stage, I had been aware of it in a limited way as Eddy had worked on the manuscript and had eagerly anticipated its arrival in the world since I have enjoyed literally every word of Eddy's work I have ever read.  "Another World..." is based on interviews which Eddy completed with 24 women who took childhood ballet lessons in Appalachia and discusses various aspects of ballet and how it affected the lives of these women.  I am certain that the book is and will forever be a thorn in the sides of those perpetual detractors of Appalachia who live under the misconception that this is a region without both culture and cultured people.  It is an unusual topic for an Appalachian book and I admit that I have never seen another book about ballet in Appalachia.  Like myself, you may find this to be your introduction to the topic within the region.  I must say that this makes me justifiably proud as does any other occasion when I see those detractors set back on their heels.  But I must also say that for several years I had been aware that the father of the actor Richard Thomas, of "The Waltons" television fame, grew up to become a New York ballet dancer during his childhood in nearby Paintsville, Kentucky.  I will report more fully on the book after I have completed reading it.  

Eddy's poetry reading was and always has been a fulfilling experience.  Her imagery is crisp, both human and humane, and always reflective of her highly productive life as a successful Appalachian woman, professor, poet, and educator.  She read a limited number of her fine poems and both Candice and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing her once again.  

 

Kirk Judd's reading was somewhat longer than Eddy and came, in part, from a new book of poetry which he coauthored with three of his long term female poet friends, Susanna Connelly Holstein, Cheryl Denise, and Sherrell Runnion Wigal.  He says that the four of them frequently take a shared writing period together at a cabin retreat in West Virginia.  The book, "Porch Poems" and its title reflect their long lived practice of sitting, talking, and writing poetry on the very porch which is pictured on the cover of the book which is available from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions.  Kirk has a wonderful reading style which is as much performance as it is some more tame form of "reading poetry".  Both his vocal style and poetic rhythms are geared and polished over years of writing and reading in public to function best in this environment.  His work is the product of a lifetime of honing, fine tuning, and perfecting a style and a body of work which is best suited to such a delivery technique.  I have seen other lesser poets attempt to utilize such a delivery and rarely seen it succeed.  With Kirk Judd, the writer, the poetry, the delivery, and the pleasure therefrom are melded into exactly what such a style should be.  Kirk often performs his reading with the accompaniment of an old time fiddler and his earlier book, "My People Was Music", was published in its original edition with an accompanying CD of such an accompanied reading of some of the poetry.  The current second edition of that book is published with a computer code on the cover so the purchaser can access the recorded versions online.  

 The reading was a success both in terms of the pleasure the audience obviously received from both poets and based on the sizeable attendance in a small bookstore located in a somewhat seedy section of West Huntington,West Virginia.  All the books mentioned in this blog post from both authors are well worth purchasing by the student of Appalachian Literature.  I recommend the work of both authors without reservations not because they are my friends but because I respect both them and their work. 

"Duets" by Edwina Pendarvis & Harry Geig--Poetry

 

This is a little, self-published, 24 page book of poetry by the Huntington, West Virginia poets Edwina "Eddy" Pendarvis and Harry Geig.  Eddy is a professor emeritus from Marshall University and her partner, the late Harry Geig, retired from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.  Eddy and I have been friends for several  years and, sadly, I never knew Harry.  Both were widely known, at least in Appalachian and West Virginia poetry circles for the quality of their writing.  While I would not clearly classify everything in this little book as love poems it is constructed and published with love and strong emotions based in a relationship which lasted literally to the day of Harry's death.  My one objection to the book, and one  I  have had with other multi-authored books of poetry is that the individual poems are not labeled as to specific author.  But this is a really nice little book of which I had known for several years but had never been able to locate a copy until recently.  The book was published under the company name Shoestring Publications, Lavalette, West Virginia, and was no doubt done in a very small press run of no more than a thousand copies based on how rarely it ever appears for sale on used book websites.  Since the only Shoestring Publications I can locate on the internet has a Maine land line number, I suspect this book was not done by that company and was, instead, a single effort with a private printer and the authors.  

As I said in my first few sentences, both Edwina Pendarvis and Harry Geig have been recognized as serious and high quality poets in Appalachia and West Virginia for quite a few years.  The book is filled to overflowing with high quality poetry and is remarkably consistent in tone and flow for a book with multiple authors. I have previously read works by both authors and each has always had a unique style in my opinion.  I believe I can sometimes discern which of the two wrote a particular poem but not always.  Harry's poetry tends to flow like scat music, street talk, and is usually about human interactions in an urban environment.  Eddy Pendarvis' poetry often has a more rural, less edgy quality to it.  But I won't bother you my guesses as to which author wrote which poems in the book.  Instead, let's talk about some of my favorite poems and lines in this little jewel.  

The poem "Come and See" opens and closes with some finely chosen words which clearly show the love with which they were written: 

When a long-dead comet    un-named

showered us with an after-image    of meteors 

I went with you   to a hilltop

to watch   you

.....

Whenever   wherever

eye-bright fireworks rise   and die

in a black

                      and purple night    it's you

it's you I want to see  

That opening and closing pair of stanzas is what a well-written love poem is all about.  

The poem "Soldier" is longer than most in the book and chronicles a sad, end of life story about a strong, effective soldier in his "shiny black Pony-ac Ventura...during the strike (but the assailants are still unidentified)".  These couple of lines paint a picture of a strong, effective man in a bad situation who is able to hold his own.  But because the poem is an end of life story, we come to the closing lines and find a seventy-two year old man who speaks out about about being robbed "...three kids callin' me pops..."  and he "...couldn't do nothin' about it...not a fuckin' thing."  That is a strong story about an old man, near death, complaining about his weakness and inability to defend himself.  

The next to last poem in the book, "Christmas or Anytime, Honey" is one of the real, heart string tugging love poems which make the book the little jewel it is: 

"But listen, If you were dying, I'd save you.  I'd stand

at the foot of the bed, challenge Death to his old game, and, 

lousy player that I am, 

I'd win anyway."  

That is just about as strongly poetic a statement of love as I have ever read.  

If you can locate a copy of this little jewel somewhere in a used book store, yard sale, online book seller, grab it up, read it, and enjoy it to your heart's content just as I have. 

"The Kentucky Cycle", Pulitzer Prize Winning Drama by Robert Schenkkan

 

"The Kentucky Cycle" by Robert Schenkkan is a Pulitzer Prize winning dramatic script which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992.  It is comprised of nine short one act plays which are intended to be produced by the same company of actors in one or two days and has been produced onstage in only a small number of cities.  Yet, it won the Pulitzer over four other finalists including "Two Trains Running" by August Wilson, the great African American playwright whose plays had won two Pulitzer prizes in the previous five years, and whose crafting of drama was so consistently above average that in his lifetime he had five plays nominated for the prize including two which were winners.  In fact, Wilson's "Fences" is generally considered one of the greatest plays ever written.  I am not certain that the Pulitzer committee got it right in 1992.  

"The Kentucky Cycle" is described as a "...sweeping epic of three families in Eastern Kentucky (which) spans 200 years of American history from 1775 to 1975."  The world premier of "The Kentucky Cycle" was held in Seattle and the production opened on Broadway on November 14, 1993, almost 11 months after the Pulitzer Prizes were awarded.  The Broadway production closed on December 12, 1993, less than a month after the opening with a total of only 33 performances which says the play was less than a success in New York.  It averaged less than 57% of capacity during the Broadway run.  

I do not claim to be an expert on drama as literature or on dramatic production but I have acted in numerous one act Christmas plays during my grade school years, played leads in a few college plays, and read drama on a regular basis.  In my estimation, this play or plays, if you prefer, since it is composed of nine one act plays which were intended to be performed in either one day with a lunch break or over two days with five of the plays on one day and four on the other, is of less quality than the average winner of a Pulitzer Prize.  The script is filled with gratuitous violence including a double murder in the opening minutes; one case of patricide; one case of filicide because the child was born a girl; contains numerous negative stereotypes of Appalachian people; frequent use of the cultural and ethnic epithet "hillbilly"; and appears to have been written primarily as an experiment in minimal staging and unique production elements.  I tend to believe that the Pulitzer was awarded for two reasons: 1) the unique staging with minimal sets and little changes during the switches from one play to another made it a unique creature in American drama; 2) August Wilson had just won two Pulitzer Prizes for his plays in the previous five years and the committee had no intentions of being accused of considering him a favored playwright again.  

The script is a unique creature as I have stated above and it does have some redeeming qualities but those qualities and the Pulitzer win were not enough to keep it in frequent staging around the country at outdoor theaters, college and university drama departments, or other venues.  It obviously had to be premiered in Seattle instead of Broadway and had to garner the Pulitzer before a Broadway producer and theater would take a chance on it.  Its use of the cultural and ethnic epithet "hillbilly" is just as reprehensible as the use of any other such epithet about any other such minority group.  Its demands on the stamina and time commitment of an audience make it a production that is more likely to be endured rather than simply enjoyed.  Its use of dialect writing which is often less than perfect also makes it unlikely to be admired by the general American audience and more likely to be perceived by such an audience as another depiction of "those poor, ignorant hillbillies".  I can say that I am glad I read it since it is alleged to depict the history of Eastern Kentucky albeit that depiction is less than perfect.  It is a piece of the greater puzzle of the literature of Appalachia and Eastern Kentucky and it is not the first piece of literature to be well received by some small, perhaps previously prejudiced, portion of the general public and less well by Appalachian audiences.  I would not bet ten cents that it will ever be produced again anywhere in America.  Don't waste your time reading it unless you are a theater buff who loves to read all scripts or an Appalachian scholar who loves to read and study the entire body of Appalachian Literature.  

I would also like to thank Millie Perdue who located this script and gifted it to me because of my expressed interest in reading it.  Thanks, Millie! 

"Hillbilly" Is A Cultural And Ethnic Epithet

 I suppose that with a title like the one above the first thing I should do is give you a definition for the word "epithet".  The website dictionary.com gives this definition of "epithet" which I believe is the most appropriate for our purposes here: "a word, phrase, or expression used invectively as a term of abuse or contempt, to express hostility, etc." And, as bad as I hate to have to, I suspect I should also give a definition for the word "invective".  The website dictionary.com gives this definition of "invective": vehement or violent denunciation, censure, or reproach;  a railing accusation; vituperation; an insulting or abusive word or expression."  While it might still be fairly common for natives of Central and Southern Appalachia as well as the Ozark Region to sometimes use the term "hillbilly" about themselves, it is also generally understood that the use of the word of the word to refer to such residents will usually result in its being interpreted as being insulting, abusive, a reproach, a censure, or an accusation. Other cultural, ethnic, or racial epithets are also sometimes used by members of the groups they denigrate and defame but, just like "hillbilly", those words are rarely accepted by members of those groups when use by outsiders and they should never be accepted or even used by members of those groups.  In my mind, the word "hillbilly" is no different from, just as defamatory, and just as damaging as any of those other words: the "k" word, the "q" word, the "n"word, the "f" word, or the "c" word.  These words all fall within a class of language which should never be used any more than the more common, but less defamatory, curse words should be used.  Being a member of the particular group in question does not make it any more acceptable for you to use those words than it does for a stranger.  

I have recently located a nineteen year old doctoral dissertation from Lousiana State University by Dr. Laura Grace Patillo entitled Appalachia on Stage: the *Southern Mountaineer in American Drama which due to its length (379 pages) I have not completed.  But the dissertation is intriguing for its content and intention to address the "scripting of America's hillbilly other" as well as for its dedication to "a strong Appalachian woman of faith, patience, and wisdom".  I firmly believe that if more native Appalachians such as Dr. Patillo, myself, and the mentors who taught us to seek positive self image instead of accepting cultural epithets and assumptions about us all natives of Central and Southern Appalachia would have benefited both directly and indirectly.  Without having ever known Dr. Patillo or her work, it is obvious to me that she was raised and mentored by the kind of Appalachian people who sought to emulate our strong, ambitious, and self-sufficient forbears and to pass those qualities on to every person they met in some direct or indirect fashion.  

I have also been able to locate a second refreshingly positively entitled doctoral dissertation by Dr. Casey R. White at South Dakota State University which states its intentions in the title:  "REDNECKS AND HILLBILLIES: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF PRIDE AND HIGH SELF-ESTEEM EXHIBITED BY SOUTHERN CHARACTERS".   Its stated intent to examine the "construction of pride and self-esteem exhibited by southern characters" is exactly what I hoped to engender with this blog post.  I hope to be able to read both these dissertations fully and to report on them succinctly in later blog posts.  

I have also frequently directed others interested in the public image of native Appalachians to watch the AppalShop movie "Strangers And Kin: A History Of The Hillbilly Image".  It is an excellent and timeless examination of the creation and proliferation of the negative image of Appalachian people as "hillbillies".  In a sidelight to this discussion, I am also reminded of a former supervisor I worked under as a mental health therapist in a juvenile treatment facility.  This person was a native of Mount Sterling, Kentucky, and I will never forget the conversation in which he informed that he did not believe that there was such a thing as an Appalachian Culture.  When we consider the Appalachian Culture in the light of the commonly recognized elements of culture, it is strikingly clear that few cultures anywhere more clearly meet those elements.  Religion, Art, Politics, Language, Economy, Customs, Society, and Geography are listed among those key factors in culture on the website Quizlet.  As we examine each of those listed elements we learn that religion in Appalachia is strikingly unique with Old Regular Baptists, Freewill Baptists, Holiness, Primitive Baptists, and Serpent Handlers all being key segments of religion in Appalachia.  Appalachia is also the home of a truly unique group of folk artists including Edgar and Donny Tolson, Minnie Adkins, and Tim Lewis.  The language of Appalachia is also incredibly unique and traces its roots directly to the British Isles of the 15th and 16th centuries.  

If you are a native Appalachian, be proud of your heritage.  Do not allow anyone to denigrate, defame, or demoralize you because you are Appalachian.  Speak out both verbally and in writing in defense of the Appalachian Culture and history.  

 

J. D. Vance, "Hillbilly Elegy", And The Defamation Of Appalachian Character

 Let me say unequivocally that the fact that I chose to read this book and write about it on this blog should never be considered a recommendation that anyone read the book, watch the movie, or waste your time, money, and mind on such efforts. 

Several years ago when I wrote the blog post at this link, I sincerely hoped that it would never again be necessary to write another word about J. D. Vance, his horrible and horribly ignorant book "Hillbilly Elegy", or his defamation of the character of every native of Central and Southern Appalachia who ever lived.  But now, after  the release on November 11, 2020, of Ron Howard's movie version of the Vance diatribe, I find myself once again wasting my time writing about J. D. Vance and his stupid but popular attacks on Appalachia and Appalachians in general.  Just as happened with the book, reviews of the movie are nearly universally negative.  And, just as happened with the book, a sizeable portion of the population of Appalachians, the people who should be universally incensed at this trash, are oohing and ahing at the movie which critics are using their most negative words to attempt to describe.  On several Facebook groups which are, theoretically, populated by natives of Appalachia, people are identifying with the aberrant, ignorant, criminal, and dysfunctional characterizations of the members of Vance's immediate family which both he and Ron Howard are attempting to pawn off on the general public as shining examples of the deviants whom they claim populate the entire Appalachian region.  I said in the November 2017 blog post about the book:

In my twenty years of practice as an Appalachian mental health professional, I never had a client walk into my office seeking professional therapy and carrying a biopsychosocial of their own composition.  If one ever had, that biopsychosocial very well could have carried the title "Hillbilly Elegy..."  The book is a wonderful piece of work if one were working with a single client or family unit in a mental health setting in an altruistic attempt to successfully intervene in the mental health and substance abuse problems within that particular family unit.  As a piece of literature intended to be considered as a blanket analysis of a culture, and particularly the Appalachian Culture, the book is garbage.  The fact that the book was seized upon by mainstream American critics and readers as a legitimate assessment of the overall Appalachian Culture is a great miscarriage of both justice and common sense. It is also an indictment of the decision making capacity of that general readership.(R. Hicks, Blog Post Cited And Linked Above, 2017)

I also said that earlier blog post that I had sworn when the book was released and I had read the early reviews of the book by legitimate Appalachian scholars and intellectuals that I had no intentions of ever reading the book until a copy had been given to me by my dear friend, Warene Hobson, after she and her husband, P. J. Laska, had chosen not to read it.  I swear to each of you who read this post and to the heavens above that I will never waste my time, money, or mind watching the movie, not even if some well meaning fool offers to pay me well to do so.  In a review in "Rolling Stone", David Fear and his editors chose the sub-headline "J.D. Vance’s story of growing up poor gets the prestige-drama treatment — and ends up as a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing".  I commend them in their choice of verbiage and I could not have said it better myself.  If David Fear and "Rolling Stone" had been the only major outlet to eviscerate the movie, his review could be discounted as false.  But nearly ever major writer, magazine, newspaper or press outlet which have wasted ink on reviewing the movie have concurred with David Fear in most opinions they express.  In a "New Yorker" review, Richard Brody states that 

"the film’s stagings, images, and tones are as formless and as vague as its characters’ mental lives, and that vagueness replaces elements of Vance’s book which are politically and ideologically quite explicit—and which have been criticized for the simplistic lessons that they extract from his experience." (Richard Brody, "The New Yorker", November 23, 2020)

Richard Brody is just as accurate in his assessment of the work of Ron Howard and J. D. Vance as was David Fear.  J. D. Vance, in his malignant narcissism and the resultant wounded response to the familial trauma which caused it, attempted to blame the entire world, Central and Southern Appalachia, in which his mother and grandparents grew up for his damaged psyche.   And, Director Ron Howard, who has spent the majority of his life 3,000 miles or more away from Appalachia, chose to take Vance at his word as have many of those mislead individuals who have read the book or watched the movie.  In my 2017 response to the book, I discussed the use of the cultural and ethnic epithet "hillbilly" in this manner: 

"The word "hillbilly" is just as much an ethnic and cultural epithet as the "n" word, the "q" word, the "k" word, or the "s" word.  It is just as inflammatory and derogatory as the "c" word.  Any person who would use such a word in reference to themselves, their extended family, and their dominant culture and ethnicity is both defaming and denigrating those to whom they refer.  For an excellent film discussion of the use of the word "hillbilly" to discuss and describe Appalachia and Appalachian Culture, please acquire a copy of the Appal Shop documentary "Strangers And Kin: A History of the Hillbilly Image". It is particularly enlightening to learn about the history of the mascot of Appalachian State University, a character named Yosef who is dressed as a "hillbilly" in overalls, a flop hat, and no shoes. That character is the one occasion I can remember in which anything positive ever came out of the creation of a "hillbilly" character.  If J. D. Vance had held any respect for his homeland and its people, he would have never allowed the word "hillbilly" to cross his lips, his pen, or his keyboard. And he certainly would not have used it hundreds of times, as he does throughout the book, to describe his closest family members and alleged role models.  The book is no more an assessment of the overall Appalachian Culture than it is a re-examination of "War And Peace"."(R. Hicks, 2017, Cited and Linked Above)

 I find it truly disheartening in this time when the general public is much more cognizant and enlightened about cultural stereotyping and defamation that the same cannot be said about a large portion of the natives of Central and Southern Appalachia.  If the average Appalachian were as aware of our culture and our history as is the average member of most other minority ethnic and cultural groups in America, those people like J. D. Vance who choose to defame, shame, and denigrate us could not succeed to the degree they do in achieving success in their endeavors.  In perhaps the most easily understood example of the flawed and erroneous pseudologic which Vance uses to press his argument about the negative nature of Appalachia and Appalachians, in an early chapter of the book, he makes the statement that in spite of the large number of men with whom his drug addicted mother kept company none of those men was abusive.  In the very next chapter, he tells the story of how, as a teenager, a physical fight between his mother and one of those men awoke him and he had to come from his bedroom in order to intervene in the altercation.  An error in logic of that nature would not have been well received by Vance's law professors at Yale.  Neither should it be well received by his readers. He also proudly tells the story of how, after he fell asleep on a funeral home pew, his grandparents lost awareness of where he was, assumed he had been kidnapped, and, at gunpoint, assailed the departing mourners at the edge of the parking lot in an attempt to locate him before someone, presumably funeral home staff found him asleep on the pew.  Such behavior is not admirable.  It is not exemplary of any human trait of value.  It is criminal and it is also a typical example of the behavior Vance's family members engaged in and which he attempts to pawn off as typical of all Appalachians.  

I have begun and will end this discussion of J. D. Vance, the book, and the movie, which I once again sincerely hope will be my last, as I began and ended that earlier blog post about the book in 2017.  

Let me say unequivocally that the fact that I chose to read this book and write about it on this blog should never be considered a recommendation that anyone read the book, watch the movie, or waste your time, money, or mind on such efforts.

 

"Poetry II" edited by Lillie D. Chaffin--Book Review

Lillie D. Chaffin served as the editor of this little pamphlet of 23 pages and was a Kentucky Poet Laureate and a literature award in the name of her and her husband is still being awarded by Morehead State University.  She was the author of several chap books and the Appalachian children's book "We Be Warm Till Springtime Comes", which is one of my favorites in all of Appalachian Literature.  This book we are discussing here was published under the name of Poetry Press, Pikeville, Kentucky, and I suspect was only issued in a small number of copies, most likely less than 1,000.  It also may very well have been self-published in some cooperative arrangement by the poets included.  It will be difficult to locate if you decide you want to try to find a copy.  I bought it in a pile of rare Appalachian books and pamphlets out of a partial estate a friend of mine bought in Morgan County Kentucky.  The stated theme of the poetry is "Marriage" which is not in the title on the cover but is on the inside cover as a part of the publication information.  

The only poet of any note besides Lillie D. Chaffin to be included is Jane Stuart, the daughter of Jesse Stuart.  In my estimation, her poem is not particularly good.  The list of other poets includes Mildred Williams Boggs, Camella Joy Schreyer Thompson, Lois Duncan, Rae Cross, Jan Faires, Frederika Blankner, Jan Seale, Lena Winston, Lyn Lifshin, Thelma Scott Kiser, Phyllis Maples, Travis, Du Priest, Nell Abbott, Mary Newton Baldwin, Florence Holmes Ryan, L. R. Wagner, Fred W. Wright Jr., and Harry Brown.  I always try to include a full author list when I locate and write about these small edition books and pamphlets since it is sometimes possible that surviving family members of authors will not even know that the writing by their family member ever saw print.  If you turn out to be one of those people with a connection to an author, I sincerely hope you locate a copy.  

For me, the best poem in the book is "Discovery After Marriage" by Lois Duncan.  It is composed of four stanzas with a loose and irregular rhyming pattern which occurs in only part of the lines.  But it is well worth reading.  The first stanza reads: 

"I, who was never beautiful before you came,

I, who turned my face when loveliness passed by, 

Oh, suddenly there is nothing in the world as beautiful as I!"  

The poem then progresses through two more stanzas describing how a body "which has lain asleep so long...could be stirred to flame."  That is a good way to end a stanza about improved self image if I ever saw one.  

The fourth and concluding stanza reads:

"I am a silent bird who finds that it can sing.

I am a tree who stood all winter long with branches cold and bare

And now I wake, and it is spring."  

In my opinion, that is poetry worth reading.  If you find a copy of this little pamphlet somewhere, preserve it, read it, enjoy it, and pass it on to someone else with similar interests when you feel ready to die.  Or donate it to the special collections department of some Appalachian college library. 

Random Thoughts On Having 100 Followers!

 

 

Sometime early this morning, April 12, 2020, this blog had its 100th person sign up to follow the blog and it only took nine years, almost to the day, from April 15, 2011, when I wrote and posted the initial blog post entitled "A Brief Introduction To My Appalachian Life".  I realize that neither nine years to achieve the milestone of 100 followers, or that number of followers themselves approaches anything like a record.  But I have been writing and posting more frequently and steadily for about three and a half years since I have retired from my full time occupation as a mental health and substance abuse therapist and my part time occupation over the last ten years as a self-employed auctioneer.  But I will say that 100 followers on any blog is above average and most bloggers and blogs never achieve that level.  It can be assumed that at some time over the last nine years that number of people have read something at least once on this blog which left them interested enough in my writing to try to come back and read more of it.  In the spirit of total honesty, I will also say that having 100 followers listed on any blog does not mean that all of those 100 people are actively reading the blog which they are reputed to be following.  Some of them might have died, decided they are no longer interested in that blog but are too lazy to delete it from their list of followed blogs, or they might have simply stopped reading anyone's blog. 

Roger D. Hicks & Loyal Jones, Photo by Candice M. Hicks

But I remember how long it took for this blog to achieve even fifty followers and that was most of these first nine years.  Over the last four years as I have written more steadily on the blog, I have seen a surge in followers which is also linked to the fact that I have also begun to more frequently post links to my posts on Facebook both on my own Facebook page and on several group pages devoted to some aspect of Appalachian Studies.  As the title clearly implies, the main focus of the blog is Appalachia and Appalachian Studies.  But over the last four years, I have also written more and more frequently about American politics.  I suspect that most of my followers are interested primarily in Appalachia and Appalachian Studies.  But I also believe that my political writing has attracted a few of the people over the last four years.  I also realize that some of both groups of followers are not particularly interested in the other aspect of the blog.  I know that some of my followers who are interested in Appalachian Studies might dislike my politics and my political writing.  Tough shit if you are one of those!  With the fate of the country I love lying in the hands of a Russian Owned TRAITOR, you can bet your ass I will continue to write about American politics, and I will continue to push for the indictment, prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment of that TRAITOR until the day one of us dies and I sincerely hope it is him because I would love to piss on his grave so long as he dies, as he should, in a federal prison cell after having been held legally responsible for his many crimes against this country, the remainder of the civilized world, and the entire human race.  I also know that an equal percentage of the followers who have joined this blog over the last four years because of my political writing wish I would stop wasting their time with more articles about Appalachia, the place of my birth, my education, my culture, and my life.  Tough shit if you are one of those!  I will never stop writing about Appalachia as long as my mind and my typing fingers work.  And since I follow at least one blog written by a woman who is a quadriplegic who must write with adaptive software using eye blinks, you can bet that I would not quit writing about Appalachia so long as I live.  I do sincerely hope that I can someday devote far less of my writing time to American politics. But that will not happen until we are blessed with an actual legally and duly elected president which I look forward to on January 20, 2021.  I hope all of you join me in supporting that effort to elect a president who has not committed TREASON in order to illegally occupy the White House.  If that happens, I will probably write very little about politics and most of you politically interested followers can smile and go home with peace in your heart which I am certain has been absent every day since January 20, 2017.  I realize that no matter who occupies the White House for the remainder of all our lives that there will be other crises which will crop up.  But you can bet your ass those crises will be much less stressful on us, less dangerous to the country, and far more quickly, ethically, morally, and legally dealt with when we have removed, via a legally conducted election, the current scourge from his TREASONOUS occupation of the White House.  

But I would like to thank each one of you who is actively following this blog for your interest in my work.  I know a few of you personally, some of whom I knew before I started this blog, and several I have come to know because of this blog.  I actually got to come to know one of my literary and Appalachian Studies heroes because of this blog.  I will always treasure the day the great Appalachian scholar Loyal Jones, the founder of the Appalachian Studies Program at Berea College left a message on my phone inviting me to lunch because he had read some of my work based on some of his work.  I also treasure the day Bill Best, another professor emeritus at Berea College and I became friends because we both write about and love Appalachia and despise the current illegal occupant of the White House.  Because of this blog, I have also come to know Frank Barnett and his sister, Mary Marguerite Barnett-Price, who along with me, grew up on the waters of Beaver Creek.  Frank is a noted expert, along with Bill Best, in the field of saving, preserving, and propagating heritage food crops in Appalachia.  They have taught me a lot about the crops my ancestors grew and I am appreciative of them both.  John D. Shelton and I connected because his wife is a descendant of a few of my common ancestors and John also agrees with most of my politics.  Jay Shuck was known to me for several years before I began this blog.  He and I have completed a graduate school program together and worked for the same institution for a few years.  Marie Manilla, a noted Appalachian author whose work I appreciate, decided to join this blog sometime after we were introduced by our friends Edwina Pendarvis and P. J. Laska, both of whom are noted Appalachian poets.  I do not know all of you followers but can rest assured that I appreciate your interest in my work.  If you are remotely interested in Appalachian Fiction, you might consider going to the section at the bottom of the front page of this blog which is labeled "Links To Other Sites About Appalachia" and read one or two of my fiction pieces on various websites around the country.  If you do that, always feel free to send me an e-mail with your honest opinions of that aspect of my writing.  Be honest!  I can take it.  My work has been rejected by experts and yet a few of them have enjoyed it.  

If you choose to continue to read this blog, know that I will always tell you the truth.  I will not lie to you either in print or to your face.  If you want to know my unvarnished opinion of anything or anybody, just ask me.  I will not wait to determine what you believe before I tell you.  I will answer you immediately based on my honest opinion and to the best of my knowledge.  You can take me at my word.  If you ever desire to contact me, feel free either on the comments section of the blog or on one of my listed e-mail addresses.  My telephone has never been unlisted and it will never be.  Call me if you feel the need.  Maybe we can have lunch together some day and actually learn if we like each other.  Once again, Thanks To All Of You who follow this blog.  

Photo of Freeway Carpets Marquee, El Paso, TX, photo by Roger D. Hicks

"The Tragedy Of Platitudinous Piety" by Bill Best--Book Review

I have written previously about the work of Bill Best on this blog.  Bill is both  an internationally known expert on saving, propagating, and preserving heritage food crops and an Appalachian author of some note.  He managed to do all that while working as a swim coach and administrator at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky.  I first became aware of Bill and subsequently became friends with him when we both recently had true Christmas stories published in an anthology from the  Jesse Stuart Foundation.  I respect Bill and his work tremendously both for what he has previously accomplished in his highly productive life and for the work he continues to do today in a variety of ways including his work with heritage crops, the ongoing work he does in the field of Appalachian Studies, and his continued work on a part time, volunteer basis with Berea College.  

This little book was published in 1982 by Kentucke Imprints, a short lived publisher in Berea.  The book was reviewed in winter 1983 Volume 10, Number 2 of Appalachian Journal by Tijan M. Sallah.  It is also anthologized in Bill's book, "The Great Appalachian Sperm Bank and Other Writings" which was also published under the Kentucke Imprints label and might be easier to locate a copy of in that collection, which I will also discuss at length in this blog at some date in the future.  "The Tragedy Of Platitudinous Piety" is more appropriately a pamphlet since it is only one piece of satire of about fourteen pages.  If you attempt to locate a copy of the book, in either form, you will likely have better luck on used book websites such as Alibris or AbeBooks where I often locate such disappearing works.  But be aware that AbeBooks does not have the tight systems of response time and other aspects of quality control from their independent vendors which is more commonly adhered to on Alibris. 

Bill loves to write satire and this is one of his best.  My only objection to it (and this might be due to my own density at times) is that it can be a bit slow for the average reader to figure out the actual subject matter which (if my aforesaid density has not misled me) is the Jonestown Mass Suicide and cults of personality in general.  Platitudinous Piety is actually the main character in this little story and becomes enamored with a cult which leads to his eventual demise.  A great deal of Bill's thinking in the greater discussion of cults of personality can be contained and summarized in the final paragraph of the work.  That paragraph reads "I must say that, although I disagreed with Platy's philosophy, his activities, and his programs, I was very upset and saddened by his death.  He was truly a lonely, searching person, and none of us knew how to reach out to him in ways which he would understand."  Since this book was written about the Jonestown Mass Suicide, it is easy to pass it off as not being relevant in today's world.  But having come to know the author a bit more than superficially, I can assure that Bill Best would tell you that "The Tragedy Of Platitudinous Piety" has a very serious application in American politics today.  Nearly every person who falls victim to a cult of personality is "...truly a lonely, searching person..." and in most of those cases "...none of us (knows) how to reach out to.." them in ways which can salvage these people both from their own self-destructive tendencies and from those people like Jim Jones, Marshall Applewhite, and the TRAITOR Donald Trump who would use them, abuse them, and discard them when they are no longer useful or when their destruction will serve the cult leader's purposes more than their ongoing lives might. 

Since Jonestown, America has suffered from several other cults of personality and related mass suicides including the Heaven's Gate suicide of 39 people in California.  But the worst case of a cult of personality in America is ongoing today and involves the irrational, indefensible, and bizarre devotion of a few million people to the TRAITOR Trump.  He is far more dangerous than Jim Jones or Marshall Applewhite ever work and is wreaking havoc on the moral and political centers of American society while serving the needs of his Russian master Vladimir Putin.  But what the hell?  Why should I waste my time and energy continuing to warn America and the world about what is going on when no one seems to listen?

Read this little satire by Bill Best, or better still, go dig up a copy of "The Great Appalachian Sperm Bank and Other Writings by Bill Best and read several of his satires in one volume.  They are enlightening, informative and fun.  

Reflections On "The Hawk's Done Gone and Other Stories" by Mildred Haun

A recent Facebook message exchange with another lover of the short story cycle genre has reminded me that I have never written specifically on this blog about "The Hawk's Done Gone and other Stories" by Mildred Haun.  I have thought about it numerous times and have even reread the book at least once since I began this blog.  I was first exposed to this book about 1974 in Beckley, WV, by the great Appalachian poet and educator, Robert "Bob" "Billy Greenhorn" Snyder.  Bob loved this book and rightly so.  It is one of the most truly Appalachian books in all of Appalachian Literature.  It is also one of the finest works in Appalachian Literature which utilizes dialect writing.  I have said before in this blog that I do not generally attempt to write in dialect because it is very difficult to do appropriately and can be quite laughable and, yet, demeaning when it is done poorly whether the dialect being written about is Appalachian, African American, southern, or nearly any other dialect which is depicted as the dominant manner of speech for any minority group.  

This book falls squarely into the genre of literature known widely as the short story cycle.  I, like many other students of American Literature, was not even aware of the term until fairly recently.  Yet, I had also known literally since the days I was first exposed to the book that it has often been the subject of an ongoing argument as to whether it is a group of short stories or a novel.  Other well known books which also fall within that genre include "The Nick Adams Stories" and "In Our Time" by Ernest Hemingway, "Winsesburg, Ohio" by Sherwood Anderson,  "Go Down, Moses" by William Faulkner, and "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan.  "The Hawk's Done Gone" was written primarily in an undergraduate short story writing class at Vanderbilt University when the author was completing her bachelors degree and needed one more course to fulfill the requirements.  It was originally published in 1940 and a later edition with a few extra stories was released in 1968 two years after the author's death.  It has been the subject of much readership and discussion primarily by students of Appalachian Literature.  But it has also often been a point of argument in the discussion of the short story cycle.

The book is comprised of twenty-two interconnected short stories and a Prologue.  As is generally universal in the short story cycle, most, if not all, of the stories are capable of standing alone as highly readable, well crafted short stories.  But the stories are all set in a small community in East Tennessee which is based on Haun's own homeland in the Hoot Owl District of Cocke County where she spent most of her life.  Most of the stories are about various members of the White and Kanipe extended family and its matriarch Mary Dorthula White who also serves at the narrator of most of the stories.  Mary Dorthula White is a granny woman or midwife who delivers most of the local babies, prepares the dead for burial, and is sometimes suspected of being a witch.  I have written about the book in a comparison with "The Patron Saint of Ugly" by Marie Manilla in an article which has been published online in the "Mildred Haun Review Journal" at Walters State Community College in the area in which Mildred Haun spent her life.   In that article, I discussed how the book exemplifies several of the Appalachian cultural values which Loyal Jones wrote about in his seminal book, "Appalachian Vaules".  "The Hawk's Done Gone" is an excellent illustration of several of those cultural values including Love of Place; Independence, Self Reliance, and Pride; and Religion.

My favorite of the stories in the book is "Barshia's Horse He Made, It Flew" which I believe is Haun's masterpiece.  The story is narrated by Mary Dorthula White and the character for which it is entitled is her step-son Barshia Kanipe who can be described as being somewhere between odd and mentally ill.  Barshia uses the hide of a dead mule and other items to construct a winged horse which he hauls to the top of the family barn in an attempt to fly.  It is one fine piece of fiction and I won't spoil the story or the book by disclosing the entire plot and ending.

Many of the stories are at least partially involved with death and Mary Dorthula White actually maintains a family record in the family Bible which is the one personal antique she is able to prevent being sold by her shiftless husband, Ad Kanipe, and his sons from a previous marriage.  This book is one of my favorites in all of Appalachian Literature and I believe if you read it you will agree. 

"The Appalachian Renaissance at Berea College 1944-1994" by Bill Best--Book Review

For many years, Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, has been recognized as being at the forefront of  post secondary education in Appalachia.  But the story of Berea College and their efforts to educate and train leaders in, of, and for Appalachia has not always been without bumps along the road.  My friend Bill Best is both a Berea alumnus and a professor emeritus at Berea after having attended the college from 1954 to 1959 and having taught there from 1962 to 2002. Bill Best is also the author of two excellent books about saving, planting, and preserving heritage seeds.

During his time at Berea, Dr. Best served as an athletic coach, administrator, Director of Upward Bound, and in just about any other capacity in which the college asked him to serve.  He is still actively involved with the college and lives on his farm not far from  Berea.  No one was better qualified to write about Berea and the role it has played in the history of education in Appalachia.  The book is divided into three sections with an epilogue of a few pages.  The sections are labeled with Roman numerals and cover college history; the career of James Stephen Brown, a Berea alumnus and a person who was also deeply involved in the life and work of the college for many years; and a section of "Testimonials" from a large group composed primarily of other Berea alumni who have become successful in a variety of fields.  The book discusses the careers of the various presidents of the college over the fifty years the text addresses.  It also discussed honestly and openly a period of time when the college became more focused on changing Appalachia, Appalachians, and the culture of the region.  This period was eventually proven to be counterproductive to the goals of the college and was eventually changed to an effort which recognized the validity and importance of the deep seated and widely loved Appalachian Culture.  Naturally, my friend of the last few years, Loyal Jones, one of the most important figures in all of Appalachia and Appalachian Literature, played a large and irreplaceable role in that effort to cause Berea College to protect the culture of the region.  

The testimonial section is written by a sizeable group of figures who were important in the history of the college and the region.  Although I recognize the intentions of Bill Best in constructing the book in this manner, I also see this method of having others write a key section of the book is a double edged sword.  On the positive side, it clearly demonstrates how important Berea College has been both in the lives of these alumni and the region.  But is my personal opinion that the book could have been better served if the author had chosen to write this section personally based on his knowledge of these people and personal interviews with them.  But I do not make the statements in this paragraph with any intentions of denigrating the book or diminishing my respect for the book and the author.  I state it simply as a difference of opinion between two writers about writing style and arrangement of the work.  Each of the people whose lives are discussed in this section is an important figure in the life of Berea College and the region. I simply believe that an impartial third person assessment of these people and their work might have suited me better. And let me conclude this discussion with the strongly worded statement that I respect and appreciate the book, the author, and his writing.  This book is well worth your time to read.  If you are an Appalachian scholar, a Kentuckian, or an alumnus of Berea College, you will learn a great deal from this book.  Buy it!  Read it!  Enjoy it as I did!  And most of all, learn from it. 

Appalachian Heritage

As I said in the introduction to the previous article about Blaise Pascal, I recently dug up a box of old floppy discs and used a USB floppy drive to read them and save what I thought was worth saving for my own personal reasons or to pass some of it on either here in this blog or as ideas for writing to be published in more traditional formats.  Below, I have inserted a brief, less than 400 words, article I wrote many years ago about my thoughts of the importance of having native Appalachians acknowledge and believe in their heritage as Appalachians.  It is instructive to me both from the point of view of looking back on how my opinions and ideas have developed over time and from the point of view that it still ties in strongly with much of the other work on this blog about Appalachia and Appalachian Studies.  Here it is!  

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Appalachian Heritage

            For this little writing exercise, I will examine an issue that has been important to me for many years, Appalachia and Appalachian Heritage issues.  Many, if not most, of the students in Eastern Kentucky today are natives of Appalachia.  Yet the issues involved in living in the region and being of Appalachian Heritage mean little to most of these people.  They are not unique.  Most of the natives of Appalachia spend far more time forgetting than remembering their heritage.  Appalachians are a genuine American minority.  We have a unique culture, history, sociology, and lifestyle.  Yet we are ignored by mainstream society at best and ridiculed at worst.  The literature of the region is unique, as are the music, customs, art, and history.  Appalachian natives should seek to learn about, preserve, and promulgate our heritage.  There are several good museums, colleges, and community cultural centers in the area.  The Highlander Center in New Market, Tennessee, founded by Don West and Miles Horton is such a place.  The Appalachian Studies Program at Appalachian State University is another.  The graduate school there is named for Cratis D. Williams, a native of Louisa, Kentucky, and graduate of Morehead State University who has written several important Appalachian books and served as an educator and administrator at one of the best small universities in the region.  The Appalachian South Folklife Center in Pipestem, West Virginia, a second institution founded by Don West, is another fine center dedicated to the preservation of Appalachian culture.  All these institutions and several dozen more work on a daily basis to further the Appalachian way of life.  Writers such as Don West, James Still, Albert Stewart, Bob Snyder, P. J. Laska, Edwina Pendarvis, and Gurney Norman have all spent years writing about the Appalachian way of life.  I have studied and learned about Appalachia since I was in my early teens.  I work constantly to learn more and to pass that information on to other natives of the region.  Like any cultural minority, Appalachians must strive to avoid being assimilated out of existence.  We have many things to be proud of and we should show off that pride constantly.