Some Thoughts on Donehower

Predictably, I really engaged with last Tuesday's discussion of Donehower, including how Appalachia is perceived and othered. I apologize for the late post, but a slew of personal happenings prevented me from writing this earlier. But I disgress.

Thank you, Amanda, for passing around your literature on Appalachia; I have added most of them to my "to buy once I have money" list! And Justified is now on my "to watch once I have cable" list. At the risk of sounding stereotypical, I could go on for hours about the colloquialisms and regional dialect of my Appalachian experience, including:

·      "you're runnin' around like a chicken with its head cut off"

·      "I live up the left/right fork of Beaver"

·      "Look over yonder at them there _____,"

·      "bless hit's little heart!"

·      "I'm not gonna do it, by God!"

·      "sissy" and "mamaw"

I am proud of us for not digressing as a result of the above discussion—we successfully discussed how Appalachia is a storytelling culture, which is why I almost failed my first college composition course. Then we reaffirmed my assertion from my "My Appalachia" post that Appalachian literacy is not necessarily "non-literacy," but a different literacy that serves unique purposes in the region. Who says academic discourse is needed in Appalachia; who says that literacy in Appalachia needs to be changed at all? Thinking about these questions relates to Donhower's "solutions": modernize the region, preserve the region, or abandon the region (42). While I think modernization such as technology and distance learning can benefit the region, I believe that "solutions" based on stereotypes is problematic. I wonder how we can "help" or extend benefits to Appalachia without seeming pushy, reinforcing stereotypes, or alienating the region further.

I was also intrigued by our discussion of how to define Appalachia and who belongs to this group. I do not think there is a problem with a regional classification so long as the stereotypes are dumped, but I do not think that is possible now that the stereotypes are more ingrained in the perception of Appalachia. How, then, do people belong to Appalachia? We pondered classification based on faith, socioeconomic status, education, and values. But I don't really think we can define someone as "Appalachian" purely based on certain categories—growing up, many people around me defied categorization based on the above characteristics (of course, they were usually more forward-thinking, bullied, and outcast, much like myself). We even pondered the question "should we think of Appalachia as distinct? Is that possible? Preferable?" I, for one, don't think it's possible to ignore the "otherness" of Appalachia, and it's proven that we have to think of categories to make sense of the world (to bring in my introductory knowledge of Psychology). Our authors argued that there are inherent problems with defining an "other," which applies to more than Appalachia. I believe it's okay to talk about Appalachia and discuss the region and its intricacies, but problematizing it is problematic (see what I did there?!).

Last, my thoughts began to wander when we discussed the odds of educated people from Appalachia coming back and changing their communities. I can say with confidence that not many people leave for good (I break that cycle). Most who "go away" to become educated do not go far, and a fair percentage drop out of college. Those who graduate often return and, lacking a job in their field, take any employment they can find. A few succeed and achieve good positions in the community that make a difference (like President of a college, Mayor, etc.). That is rare due to the scarcity of such positions. Since most people return to Appalachia (or never leave in the first place), Appalachia is continually "othered" due to lack of knowledge about how Appalachia works. That's why it is especially important for those like Amanda (sorry to call you out!) and myself to act as "ambassadors" for educating others about Appalachia. This is hard for me, because it requires me to put away my bias and negativity in order to represent the region fairly. But I disgress again.

I'm not sure if this post will elicit discussion or not—it's more of a narrative of my thoughts during discussion. Enjoy! J

P.S. I absolutely loved Ashley's connection that mountains themselves are the "others" of the land, that they are mysterious and contribute to otherness by evoking the feeling of exploration.