"Stranger In A Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein, Reflections On A Rereading

My first reading of "Stranger In A Strange Land" must have taken place sometime shorty after it had originally been published in 1961. Until this rereading, I had never read the 1991 original uncut version which Robert A. Heinlein's wife had published after his death. This uncut version is about 60,000 words longer than the 1961 original published version. The difference in the word count apparently came about because the publisher felt that the manuscript was too long for the modern readership. The 1961 version was a massive hit with the reading public and quickly became ingrained into American culture both because of its literary quality and its truly unique story about a man known as "The Man From Mars" who is actually a human but born on Mars due to the fact that both his parents were members of the first Mars expedition from earth.The book and its story is similar in some ways to at least two other classics in the field of science fiction: "The Man Who Fell To Earth" by Kentucky born writer Walter Tevis,and the original first book in the Dune series by Frank Herbert. All three involve protagonists who arrive on earth or an earth like planet from outside the solar system, come to be somewhat or absolutely messianic figures, and untimately change the world around them. Since it has been so long after I had originally read the shorter version of the book, I cannot say much about the material which was deleted from the original and restored to the 1991 edition. The original version of the book brought two or three words or terms into common use in everyday spoken English. The most widely known of these words is "grok" which is a very widely applicable word for comprehension, understanding, or simply grasping the meaning of new information. Another new term which was introduced in the book was "Fair Witness" which is a term for a professional person whose work it is to be present at meetings, court proceedings, or other encounters between people and others with whom they might have some ongoing conflict. A Fair Witness is trained to verbatimly memorize every word which is spoken in their presence and, if necessary, to testify in a court about what actually happened in those encounters. A Fair Witness is literally a human recording device which is without error or falability. The book also described a contraption very much like a waterbed before the waterbed was invented. When the first patent attempt was made in the USA for a waterbed, it was initially denied under the judgment of the US Patent Office that the information from the book had constituted prior art as the office described it. It is likely that if Heinlein had chosen to contest that patent application and file his own application that he would have held the patent for the waterbed. The protagonist Valentine Michael Smith is the Mars born son of two US astronauts who traveled on that first Mars expedition while not married to each other and had Mike Smith out of wedlock and born on Mars. His conception and birth on Mars brings into play a legal concept on earth regarding rights of explorers in space to claim ownership to worlds they discover. Since Smith was the only survivor of that first expedition, it is claimed that he actually owns Mars and everything on it. But Martians, which is what Smith has been reared to be by his Martian caregivers, have no concept for personal property and Smith has no ideas about owning anything which would be meaningful to an ordinary earthling. Smith is originally placed in seclusion in a hospital by the planetary government on earth both to make it possible to control him, deprive him of his assets, and prevent him from having contact with anyone on earth who might interfere with the ongoing government effort to rob him of his alleged wealth. But a nurse, Jill Boardman, who meets and befriends him helps him escape from the hospital and eventually takes him to the truly unique home of Jubal Harshaw who is both a doctor and an attorney. He is also a worldwide public figure and author, incredibly intelligent and adept at the practice of law and become endeared to Smith and Boardman. They gradually learn that Smith has truly unique powers including the ability to use nothing more than his mind to make literally anything or anyone to "discorporate" or disappear permanently from the earth. His mental powers are truly prodigious and he quickly devours all the written information he can be supplied about earth and everything on it. Later in the book, Michael and Jill decide to leave the protection of Harshaw's home and begin to ramble around the country. Along the way, they join a traveling circus as a sideshow act and Smith uses mild examples of his Martian powers to perform "tricks" in the sideshow. But he is seen as a typical sidewhow fraud and is fired for his failure to attract good audiences. They are also invited to a church service by a major figure in the one dominant church on earth which is also controlled by one worldwide government. As a result of being exposed to the religion of that church Smith decides to start a church of his own, teach his mental powers to its members, and he becomes a cult leader and/or a messiah figure. His church is rapidly growing and putting the strangle hold of the original church at risk. That church also controls the government and the great majority of the masses on earch. As a result, Valentine Michael Smith becomes the victim of an assassination which is, of course, the most likely end of all messianic figures including Jesus Christ. The book is one of several in which Heinlein wrote in a fictional context about his somewhat unusual religous beliefs. Another such book is "Job: A Comedy of Justice". No matter which version of "Stranger In A Strange Land" you choose to read, you will find that it is one of the best books in all of science fiction and fantasy literature. But, I would strongly suggest that you choose to read the Unabridged Edition since it is the form in which Heinlein intended to publish the book before his editor and publisher overruled him.

"Sylvia's Soul Food" By Slyvia Woods and Christopher Styler, A Wonderful Soul Food Cookbook

In one of my frequent trips to what I call "junk stores", I found a wonderful little soul food cookbook called "Sylvia's Soul Food: Recipes From Harlem's World Famous Restaurant" by Sylvia Woods and Christoper Styler. Sylvia Woods either is or was the owner of a soul food restaurant in Harlem which has now morphed into a soul food empire according to their website. I have found what appear to be puffed descriptions of Mr. Styler which describe him as being a chef, writer, etc. but I suspect he wasn't much more than a ghost writer in this effort. The edition of the book which I found was a hardback printed by the William Morrow Company in 1992. The copies I find on the interet are very different from the plain red cover I found in a Goodwill store for $1.59. They all appear to be paperback with a gaudy photo montage on the cover. When I found the book, I scanned it and realized it has some very interesting recipes which are rarely found in cookbooks published anywhere. I have eaten and loved other people's versions of some of the recipes, never had a few others, and would love to try nearly all of them. This book is a little joy to behold and can be found fairly cheaply on most used book websites. However, if you order it from the used websites, be sure to know in advance if you are getting the hardback or the paperback versions. There is also a second cookbook from the restaurant which I have never seen. I'm surprised I never ran into it anywhere before, at least on the internet. The pork section of the book is a joy to behold especially if you grew up in the south or Appalachia. It contains a recipe for Backbone In Gravy and I have to admit I have never seen a backbone recipe in any cookbook anywhere, not even in one from some little southern church. I grew up on backbones and love them still today. But I have to admit that I almost totally eliminated pork from my diet about seven years ago when I realized that I had a totally blocked carotid artery and was facing a potentially life threatening surgery. As part of an effort to live as long as possible, I changed my diet drastically and took up daily exercise. But I can still exercise fond memories of grease and colagen up to my elbows and back to my ears on occasions. The cookbook also contains a recipe for Pigs' Tails. I have eaten a lot of pig tails in my time and love nothing in the world better than a large restaurant sized pot full of pig ears, tails, and feet cooked along with potatoes,carrots, and an onion or two. I also love that same large pot filled with organ meats at hog killing time. But I stopped that when it came to a choice of such foods or a coffin. But I did dearly love pork livers, kidneys, hearts, lungs or "lights", and spleens or "melts" as we called them when I was a boy. It is fun to find a cookbook and a big city restaurant which is proud of its pig tails, chitlins, and backbones. In this cookbook, there is even a recipe for Fried Chitlins. I have never seen a printed recipe for chitlins in my life. I also have to admit that I have never tried chitlins even though I spent years believing that "no hog should ever have to die in vain" and that we should "eat everything except the squeal". That recipe calls for the chitlins to be "thoroughly cooked to make them tender before they are quickly fried". I will say that in the right cook's hands I would try chitlins. But I have never been in a home where they were being cooked. A variant of the Fried Chitlin recipe is Chitlins and Maw which calls for 2 pounds of pork maw and 5 pounds of precooked chitlins.This is a boiled recipe and I can assure you that with 7 pounds of the two meats in the pot along with several vegetables it won't matter if an extra mouth or two shows up at the supper table. For those of you who don't know the term "maw" it is pork stomach or tripe. I have had tripe on a few occasions in a Vietnamese restaurant I love to visit and I like tripe a lot. In restaurants and butcher shops, tripe may have come from either cattle or hogs. The great recipes just go on and on in this book. The Beef section has Oxtails In Gravy and Grilled Beef Liver. All through my life I have eaten liver from beef, pork, and chicken; and, about two weeks ago I had chicken gizzards which can still be found on the menu of a local Lee's Famous Recipe. I have considered several times to buy an ox tail and cook it at home but never carried through with the idea In the Poultry section, there are recipes for Chicken And Dumplings, Turkey Wings And Gravy, and Roast Turkey. The book has a separate section devoted to Barbecue which has a great looking recipe for Barbecued Pigs Feet. I have eaten pig feet my whole life but never had the barbecued. This one is worth trying! The truncated Fish And Game section of the book is a disappointment after the great preceding sections on Beef and Pork. It only has six recipes but one of them is for Rabbit Flavored And Fried ang another for Hash Venison. But I must ask where are the recipes for alligator, muskrat, ground hog, elk, squirrels, bear, raccoon, and other wild game which many southern cooks are still cooking and eating regularly. The section labled Beans, Potatoes, Rice, And Salads has a recipe for Red Beans And Rice which uses a smoked ham hock instead of the andouille sausage which nearly all other such recipes for this dish use. It might be interesting done with the ham hock. It also contains another chitlin recipe called Rice And Chitlins Perlew which is worth investigating. This section also has recipes for pinto beans, butter beans, and lima beans. Nearly all of them use smoked ham hocks for flavoring. There is a separate section labled Vegetables And Greens which has the obligatory recipes for okra and collard greens. But it also has an interesting recipe for Collard Greens And Corn Meal Dumplings. I have never seen corn meal dumplings in my life and I'd love to try this recipe, or to try corn meal dumplings in the customary way that regular flour dumplings are usually made...like the BIG FLUFFY DUMPLINGS which my mother used to make. Yes, I know that it would be very hard to get fluffy corn meal dumplings since the nature of corn meal doesn't lend itself to fluff. The idea of corn meal dumplings is very intersting to me since one of my favorite occasional breakfasts is corn meal hoe cakes. A favorite supper for me is also fried cornbread and gravy which is made by slicing left over cornbread, frying it in bacon grease, removing the cornbread temporarily from the skillet before making the gravy, and then bathing the cornbread in the gravy. All in all, this book was one of best deals I have ever made for $1.59. If you like soul food, southern food, pork and beef innards and other southern, African American, or Appalachian foods, this is a great book to own.

Reflections On Rereading "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" by John Fox, Jr.

The first time I read this book must have been at least forty or fifty years ago, maybe even longer. I didn't like it then and I like it even less now. Yes, John Fox, Jr. could write well. But that is not the real issue(s) which I have with this book. It is often described as an Appalachian book since it is set primarily in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. It is also sometimes described as a Civil War novel which is a bit more accurate. But the majority of the book is not about the Civil War, perhaps less than 20%. That is enough to say about my doubts about it being a Civil War novel. It is most frequently described as an Appalachian Novel and has been for nearly all of the 120+ years since it was published in 1903. I disupte the idea that it can be called an Appalachian novel. Yes, it is set primarily in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky in a fictional area that is roughly near the headwaters of the Kentucky River, perhaps in the region of the current Kingdom Come State Park in Harlan County. Yes, many of its characters, including the protagonist Chad Bufford are natives of Appalachian Kentucky. But John Fox, Jr. was not remotely an Appalachian man. He grew up and lived much of his life in the area in and around Lexington, Kentucky, which is not remotely a part of Appalachia. It is the heart of the Bluegrass and Central Kentucky. Fox later moved to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, which is in Appalachia. Upon his death there, he was returned to Bourbon County Kentucky for burial in a family graveyard. Bourbon County is very much in the heart of Central Kentucky. For those who might have a tendency to make the claim that if Fox spent time in Appalachia and lived there at his death it made him an Appalachian, I would ask you if you believed that if you moved to Watts in Los Angeles, California, would it make you either African American or Hispanic? You know absolutely that it would not. Neither did living in Appalachia make John Fox, Jr. an Appalachian. As for the novel itself, I believe, based on my life and experiences as a native Appalachian with a strong base of knowledge and expertise in Appalachian Culture, that "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is actually an anti-Appalachian novel. Throughout the novel, Fox will sometimes make a few positive comments about the people of the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky and will, almost immediately, follow those postive comments with very negative statements, stereotypes, and defamations. Those negative descriptors he resorted to include poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, feuding, and a wide variety of other defamatory remarks. The Encyclopedia Virginia website describes the novel as a local color novel which is more accurate than the claim that it is Appalachian. The California Learning Resource Network website describes local color as being: Local color is a literary term that refers to the unique cultural, regional, or social characteristics that are often used to describe a particular place, community, or group of people. Sometimes "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is described as being a coming of age novel which is also more accurate than saying it is Appalachian. The novel has Chad Buford, the teenage protagonist, making his first trip to Frankfort, Kentucky, as part of a log floating operation down the Kentucky River. When he arrives in Frankfort with his friends he is soon hopelessly lost in "the big city" and forced to try to make his own way back to the mountains. This type of description of a mountain boy becoming lost on his first trip to town is a typical case of portraying native Appalachians as being inept in urban areas and can be found in hundreds of cheap, tawdry novels today, many of whose authors may well have learned the trick from Fox's work. Miraculously, Chad is rescued by Major Buford who turns out to be a relative who suspects their kinship and takes the boy in with the unspoken idea that if he can prove the relationship he will have the boy educated and made into a gentleman. As the novel progresses, that is exactly what does happen. Major Buford takes him in, he falls in love with the daughter of a general who at least initially either belittles or ignores him for his coonskin cap and backward mountain ways. Eventually, Chad becomes friends with the girl, her two brothers and the entire family of General Dean. Then the Civil War intervenes and the novel turns toward the conflicts between family members and neighbors in both Central Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky. One of General Dean's sons joins the Confederate Army and the other, along with Chad Buford, joins the Union Army. In the mountains, two brothers, both giants, Daws Dillon and Tad Dillon, who also join opposite sides of the war and come to hate each other totally. It is an interesting point that Fox chose to create two giant brothers in the novel since a very famous giant, Martin Van Buren Bates, was born in Letcher County Kentucky, not far from Kingdom Come in Harlan County. Bates lived from 1837 to 1919, fought in the Civil War at 7 feet 9 inches and later toured the world as a sideshow act. It is even possible that Fox met Bates during his time traveling in the mountains to buy land and mineral rights from the locals. I have little doubt that the Dillon boys are both based on Martin Van Buren Bates. The Civil War ends and Chad Buford goes to visit his friends in the mountains who include Melissa Turner, a young woman whom Chad grew up with and who saved his life during the Civil War by misleading Rebel sympathizers who were attempting to waylay and kill Chad. As a result of her winter trek through the mountains to save Chad, Melissa becomes ill and dies. Upon Chad's return to the mountains, Melissa is dead and he doesn't even stay for her funeral before returning to Central Kentucky and then on to an unwritten life wandering the country. This failure to attend the funeral of a close friend is a very basic misstatement of behavior by any native Appalachian, especially in 1865. Another related misrepresentation of life in the time of the novel describes Major Dean's disinterment of Chad's parents to transport their bodies for reburial on his Central Kentucky farm with his relatives. At the time of the novel, nothing was considered more sacred in Appalachian Culture than the graves of the dead. This is just one of many misrepresentations of the Appalachian lifestyle in the middle nineteenth century. While "The Litte Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is an entertaining novel and written in a professional literary manner, it is an insult to every Appalachian who ever lived and loved his/her culture and homeland. If you choose to read it, paperback copies can be found all over the nation. But read it with a very jaundiced eye. It is not what it is often misrepresented to be.

"Bradbury Stories" by Ray Bradbury, Thoughts On Reading 100 Short Stories By The Master

This massive collection of Ray Bradbury's short stories was first published in 2005, seven years before the author's death, and contains an introduction by Bradbury himself. The book is 893 pages and contains stories which Bradubury wrote and published in a multitude of magazines and a few of his own books roughly between the years of 1945? and 2000. Much of the world, even the literary world, think of Bradury as a "science fiction writer" which he was having written two of the best novels ever in that genre, "Farhenheit 451" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes". But Bradury was much more than just a science fiction writer or even "one of the best science fiction writers". It is much more accurate to say that Bradury was "a writer", period, the end. He wrote in many genres, and nearly all genres of stories appear in this collection. If you love the short story as I do, you need to read this book. In terms of time from the first published story in the book to the most recently published story, it covers roughly sixty years in the development of the American Short Story. In terms of genres of short stories, it covers science fiction, mystery,suspense, coming of age, humor, and nearly every generally accepted type of short story in the American oeuvre. My wife and I often read the same books together with me reading aloud while she washes the dishes in the morning, and then I rinse the dishes becasue it requires more motion and she is in a wheelchair. We usually take turns choosing a book to read in the mornings which is customarily a novel with an occasional work of nonfiction. But we have also, of late, decided to read a single short story after supper each night, sometimes from an anthology, sometimes from a complete collection by one author such as this one. This is the most massive collection of stories we have ever attempted and, at one story a day, it naturally took nearly four months since sometimes we are out and about and just don't have time to read a story when we get back home. But this collection was well worth that time. It contains many of the Bradury stories you might have heard or seen mentioned in magazines, books, and on television as being among his best. It also contains some others of his best which don't usually get mentioned in those common settings. In the introduction, Bradury specifically mentions several which I assume he considered among his best, or simply his favorites. One of those is "The Laurel And Hardy Love Affair" about a man and woman who both love a particular scene in a Laurel and Hardy movie, The Piano Movers Scene as it is generally known. They reenact some of their favorite moments from the work of Laurel and Hardy as a part of their love affair and that love for the two comedians helps bind their love for each other together. Actually, Bradury's love for Laurel and Hardy is the subject matter of more than one of his stories. Other stories also highlight parts of the lives or works of other Bradbury heroes, great writers, great actors, great politicians, and all of the stories which fall into this subset are among his best. There are also seveal stories which fall into a genre known as Coming of Age Stories in which teenage boys are the protagonists. Those stories, much like the novel "Something Wicked This Way Comes", leave you believing that Bradbury must have had a wonderful childhood. One of those stories, "All On A Summer's Night", is about a young boy who lives in his grandmother's boarding house with a broad collection of both men and women; some young, beautiful women; some single men who often buy gifts for those young, beautiful women; and one somewhat older, less attractive, female librarian who has helped the young boy to enter the wonderful world of books. That story is typical of several others in the collection which are set in the literary world or feature literary authors or their worksHe watches the older males buy gifts for the beautiful young women on the Fourth of July, heads off to the store to spend his savings on fireworks for the night's celebration, and changes his mind after he gets to the town's commercial district. He decides to spend his savings to buy the ignored librarian some perfume and to ask her to go out with him on the town that night to observe the celebration. It is a touching story and one of Bradbury's best. There are also several stories set in an Irish pub owned by a man named Heber Finn and peopled by a group of local men who typify the Irish whom Bradbury met during time he spent working in Ireland on a movie script. They are a fine group of local characters including a well offman with a fine collection of wine who directs in his will that the wine be opened and at his burial and poured into his grave. Heber Finn and his customers, including the local priest, find a way to both carry out the man's directive and subvert it simultaneously. The humor of the Heber Finn stories is among Bradury's best. The book contains stories which have been published in "Playboy", "McCalls", "Collier's", "Saturday Evening Post", "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction", "Harper's", "Weird Tales", "The New Yorker", "Esquire", and at least a couple of dozen others. Few writers in American literary history can say that they have been published in such a wide ranging collection of magazines. But then Bradbury wrote and published over 600 short stories in his life. Who else can say that?

March 19, 2025, An Interesting And Informative Day In Prestonsburg, Kentucky

On March 19, 2025, my wife Candice and I took a trip to Prestonsburg, Kentucky, to complete a variety of intended actions including a minor amount of shopping, eating out for lunch, and a hike for me at Jenny Wiley State Park where I often hike when we are in Floyd County. Our first stop was at Wal Mart to do a minor amount of shopping, and then off to Jenny Wiley State Park where one of my favorite hiking trails starts near the lodge and has about 4 miles of linked trails around the mountain, over and along the ridge, and a connecting trail which can take you off the mountain to the site of the former Jenny Wiley Amphitheater which still exists as a building but is, sadly, no longer in use due to the demise of the Jenny Wiley Summer Music Theater which functioned there for several decades. When we got to the park, I left Candice reading in the van as I often do and headed out to hike toward the trailhead near the lodge. As I approached the trailhead, I could see yellow construction barrier tape across the start of the trail with a printed message taped to a post. The message stated that this portion of the trail was closed due to a mudslide, and that the remaining portions of the trail could be accessed at the amphitheater spur. I started back in that direction, stopped for a few minutes to read the names and text on a monument to the children and bus driver who died in the 1958 Floyd County School Bus Wreck, and then headed on toward the amphitheater which is situated near the convention center which is used for a variety of purposes including state employee training sessions, weddings, banquets, and other public events. I have even once seen a rained out performance of the Roger Miller written musical "Big River" in the convention center. As I approached the convention center parking lot, I realized that several vehicles including a group of travel trailers, several cars from various othet states, and one or two vehicles actually marked with signs for the American Red Cross were in the parking lot. I realized the convention center must be in use as the stationary site for the Red Cross Disaster Response to the recent flooding in Eastern Kentucky which had devestated larger portions of Eastern Kentucky and Floyd County in particular. I also remembered that the Jenny Wiley State Park Lodge was once again in use as emergency housing for flood victims as it has been used on at least one other occasion under the incredibly effective and compassionate leadership of Governor Andy Beshear. I had to walk past the rear entrance of the convention center to get to the trail and when I turned that corner I saw two people sitting at a table outside the rear entrance. I suspected they were Red Cross volunteers and stopped to verify that and thank them for their work. We introduced ourselves and my hike turned into a long conversation with these two people and a third who showed up a bit later. They were from three different locations in the country, all long term Red Cross workers, one with ten years of service, one with sixteen years of service, and the third with an amazing forty-one years of work with the American Red Cross and on their third deployment to Eastern Kentucky in disasters. Our conversation quickly turned political and they opened up to me about their fears for the future of FEMA and the likelihood that TRAITOR Trump will destroy that agency and further worsen the disaster response to upcoming hurricanes, floods, forest fires, and other disasters. I expressed my own identical opinions and they reassured me that the Red Cross will always continue to provide disaster services since it is a private non-profit agency. But we all agreed that the future response from the federal government to disasters in the next four years, if TRAITOR Trump is not removed from the White House, will be slipshod at best with any federal funding likely to come to the states in block grants which will be pillaged on two or three levels before any of it actually reaches victims themselves. One of these Red Cross workers had actually been part of the response to the most recent Puerto Rican hurricane disaster when TRAITOR Trump was living in White House the first time and sent almost nothing to the people of Puerto Rico for a variety of reasons including his racism, ignorance, TREASON, and total lack of compassion and empathy. It was very refreshing to have this conversation with people who have traveled the world doing good works for the betterment of the human race, who understand the dire straits our country has been in since January 20 2025, and who can speak as openly as I do about the danger which is presented to the country by TRAITOR Trump and his Criminal Syndicate. I never finished my hike due to the length of that conversation but I have put in about a half hour between my parking location at the parking lot of the old golf course, the lodge, the closed trailhead, and the convention center. I also got a second half hour afterward at the Big Sandy Community and Technical College walking track and campus. As I walked across the campus, I encountered the sign at the top of this blog post, realized immediately that it would be considered a violation of TRAITOR Trump's malicious executive order against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and decided to document these signs for my readers before the Right Wing Radical Repugnican head of the state community college system in Kentucky can force these signs to be removed from the campus, and order that racism, sexism, and mysogny be practiced in the community college system across the commonwealth. Below is the seond sign which was available on the BSCTC campus and all the other community colleges in Kentucky.

"Getting The Spirit" by Vernon Abner, Thoughts About An Interesting Little Book

The author "Getting The Sprit", Vernon Abner was a former US Navy sailor who was born in 1937 presumably in Jackson County Kentucky where he spent most of his life. After leaving the US Navy, he entered Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, as a nontraditional student at the age of about 36. During his time at Berea, he took at least one class from my friend Bill Best whose work I have written about several times on this blog. During his career at Berea, Bill Best encouraged many hopeful Appalachian writers and Vernon Abner was one of those. Bill Best actually wrote the preface to this book which was the only published work, to my knowledge, by Vernon Abner. This book was illustrated by Jon Howson with wonderful black and white drawings including the cover which is a portrait of Vernon Abner. Bill Best concluded his preface with these words: "The other students remember him as being "real", as someone who "understood his own life. He helped create in them a desire to understand their own lives more deeply. Those who take seriously this collection of his story will understand." In an essay on the back cover of the book, Carl and Sally Glover wrote "As you read this collection, we hope you celebrate Vernon Abner's humor and wit, feel his sorrow and depression, and share in his love and appreciation for all living beings. We trust that your venture into Vernon Abner's world will reward you for your time and effort." I am unable at this time to verify my belief that the Glovers were the owners of Kentucke Imprints which was the publisher of this book and is now defunct. "Getting The Spirit" was published in 1985, just 4 years before Vernon Abner's death. It is my understanding that this book was his only published work. The book is broken into three sections: Fiction, Poetry, and Philosophy. The Fiction section is composed of six short stories which are clearly Appalachian in nature. They are replete with examples of Appalachian aphorisms, cultural qualities, and demonstrate a writer who clearly knew the lifestyle of Appalachians quite intimately and effectively. I cannot say that these are great short stories. But I must insist that I enjoyed them a great deal and would gladly defend them as good examples of short fiction based on Appalachian mores and cultural values. They are at time riotously funny. They contain two central figures, teenage males and neighbors who love to play practical jokes on those around them. The title story is about the boys decision to place a hornet nest under the floor boards of a home where a local preacher is holding a service with the entire neighborhood in attendance with the nest situated in such a way that the hornets are able to invade the church service. Without using direct quotations from the story, rest assured that it is quite funny. For those of you with little direct experience in the Appalachia of the period in which Vernon Abner grew up in the 1940's and 1950's, such home based church services were common and I have attended many in my own childhood. This story is a fine reminescence of life in an Appalachia which is now almost entirely lost. The third story, "Did The Fleas Get To College?" is a rendition of another practical joke which is played on a visiting nurse who travels by horseback. It involves the use of a large number of aggressive fleas which the boys have managed to capture from some hogs which one of their fathers has bought and brought home. It is not quite as funny as "Getting The Spirit" but it is well worth reading. The other stories in the book are not at the same level of writing and humor as the two I have discussed but collectively the group of stories in the book make we wish that Vernon Abner had lived long enough to polish his demonstrated talent, produce more and larger books, and become the writer which his potential could have produced. The Poetry section is composed of three poems which are not at the same level of work as the short stories. The final section of the book, labled Philosophy, contains nineteen short essays of about a page each, perhaps averaging 500 to 750 words each. They discuss a variety of common subjects from everyday life in an interesting, but less than perfect, manner. It is regretable that Vernon Abner had not been able to produce a more lengthy book composed entirely of his short stories. He had obviously been compelled to live a life which required time in the US Navy before his college days, the need to earn his daily bread after arriving at adulthood in one of the more poverty stricken counties in all of Appalachia. Like many native Appalachians, he was born with a sizeable amount of talent and intelligence, a prodigous sense of humor, and a desire to share his world with the greagt world outside. It is a shame that life is sometimes not exactly fair.

Reflections On Reading "Appalachian Anthology: Histories, Historiographies, and Oral Histories of Appalachia" by Diane Alexander

Frequently, I buy books about Appalachia, with Appalachian titles, or some which allegedly cover Appalachian subjects, and sometimes I buy some I have to ask myself later, whey did I do that without digging deeper. This book was described on Amazon as "A collection of Appalachian journal articles, research papers, historiographies, and oral histories prominently featuring Appalachian culture, dialect, and stereotyping. Vignettes of oral history from the 30s and 40s..." It is also apparently one of those books which have been published over the last ten or so years by Amazon under deals which have them sold as printed on demand. As a class of books, I have usually found them to be less than the most rational purchases I have ever made, and I have often stated my intentions to never order another one of this type. But before I come off as totally negative about this book, let me say that it does have some merit, primarily in the purely oral history sections of the book. But it is amazingly redundant in the first two articles or chapters. The first is called "The Forties" and listed as being credited to a Joseph Alexander instead of the listed author Diane Alexander. The second article or chapter is called "Appalachian Youth in World War II: An Oral History" and Diane Alexander is listed as the author of that article or chapter. The first, "The Forties" is a genuine oral history which was apparently written by Joseph Alexander about his experiences during World War II both in the mountains of North Carolina and in Newport News, Virginia, where his parents emigrated to for employment during World War II. As pure oral history, it has merit, is relatively well organized, acceptably written, and covers the emotions of the young man about being removed from a rural Appalachian mountain life to life in a Tidewater city during the war. The second, credited to Diane Alexander, is nothing more than an article, or most likely a high school or college term paper, based on the oral history in the first section. It gives her rendition of several of the same episodes Joseph Alexander discussed in his oral history and the quotes from that oral history are ethically attributed to him. But the highly repetitive and redundant nature of the paper or article leaves it only slightly more than useless. Ms. Alexander would have been far better served to have used only one of the chapters in the book, either the pure oral history or her own conclusions about that oral history with credit to Joseph Alexander. But putting both in the book was a waste of both time and paper. By the time I had read both of these sections of the book, I considered abandoing the remainder which is an act of which I am rarely guilty. But I perserved as I almost always do in such cases since I know that I have also written some things which some people did not really choose to suffer through. I have always thought that is another person suffered through the effort to produce a book they at least deserve the respect to have me finish reading it since I chose to buy it and spend my money on it. The third section of the book, entitled "Firewood", is another piece of oral history written by Joseph Alexander about a chore of his youth in the North Carolina mountains. It has a degree of merit equal to that of his first contribution to the book although most modern readers outside a group of off gridders would find it more meaningful than simply something to read for a brief while. It is acceptable as oral history from a prior era and a man's discussion of a portion of the life which made him the man he was when he wrote it. Thankfully, Ms. Alexander does not insert her own article about this particular oral history. The next section, "Spotlight on Appalachia: Settlers and Speech, Music and Moonshine" by Ms. Alexander makes an attempt to discuss all three of the listed elements of Appalachian Culture over the next fifty pages of the book. After having spent the first twenty years of my life in an Appalachian area of Kentucky where moonshine was commonly made, sold, and consumed, and having grown up in a country grocery store where my parents regularly supplied sugar, malt syrup, cracked corn, yeast, and other items to several local moonshiners, I do know a little more than the average novice about this subject. Ms. Alexander does a minimally acceptable job of discussing the topics, but they would have been better served by having been individually discussed in shorter papers. This particular section also shows what is a common problem with the entire book. It would have been much more readable with a higher level of editorial input from a qualified person. That is a common problem in these books which are produced and sold by Amazon without editorial input. Most of those I have seen by all such authors whose work I have read are short on editorial input and long of errors of both omission and commision in all aspects of writing and language. I did think think about this book long enough to produce a blog post about it. I have also saved some of my readers both their time and money if they take my advice and never buy a copy. If you do decide to ignore my advice about the purchase, please do follow my advice about the utility of Joseph Alexander's oral history and the lack of utility in Diane Alexander's writing about it. It will save you half the time it would otherwise take you to read the book and glean most of the value from it.