I sat down and in
willful disregard for my vow to read more China-focused material for a change,
read one more book, trying to plumb the American soul. J.D. Vance has written a very thoughtful
memoir and a trenchant look at the cultural otherness of Appalachia. The book moved quickly and I decided to read
it in one sitting. And now, later in the
evening I feel the residue of his story, his family, his choices, his
emergence, all buzzing about my consciousness.
Aside from the seductive 'hard luck kid makes good', tale
itself I was intrigued by his efforts to define a distinct hillbilly
culture. This is the culture he grew up
with and was an ambassador for when he enters the “normal” coastal world, that
his audience mostly understands. We
don’t think of these Scots Irish white, mountain people as a distinct culture,
but rather as a class position. Vance was
able to explain his distance from and his admission into the dominant class in
a few years, a way that someone from an immigrant group might take generations
to navigate.
Vance describes in some detail the deterioration of his
working class factory town but aims to show that the disciplined individual,
with some help from the extended family can steer his way through. We learn why the aquarium he started out in lost
its shine over time and became unattractive and toxic with factory closings,
poor schools, drug addiction. Vance
wants us to know though that his pathway to Yale Law School was one of will
power and discipline rather than institutional help.
I tried to explain the book to the Mrs. Importantly, within seconds of introducing the
topic I realized that I knew how to say “elegy” in Chinese. Back in 1988 there was a remarkable,
groundbreaking TV documentary in China known as “River Elegy.” (He Shang) The film casts China as tired, old and yellow
where the west was young and fresh and blue.
China and its yellow river metaphor were, for the directors, a death
spiral.
Elegy’s as metaphors are often premature, and always
provocative.
Sunday, 02/12/17
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