Month: October 2016

Our chapters say that their interest were displaced. It also says that the interest came from a position of presumed cultural superiority along with it being naive, an unconscious practice of Orientalism. It also says that Norman resented Schnekkans presumption of his right to appropriate the history of eastern Kentucky for his own “artistic” use and political agenda without any consideration of the effects of that use upon the people who live and struggle in the social matrix he viewed in such a limited way. Next it says that if those who criticized the Appalachia region had actually gone and approached it with clear intentions to exploit its natural and human resources the situation would be different. It is important for the media to portray the region in such a way because that is the norm, also portraying the region in such a way grabs more attention from the population. It is interesting to us to see how those from the Appalachia culture lives and carries themselves in a such a different manner than we do ourselves. If the media portrayed the region in any other way i feel like we as outside people would lose interest in the Appalachia region, eventually causing it to fade from exsitence.

Help Received: Book Deondre Anderson

The role music played in Appalachian struggles were that the music would relate to what is going on in the lives of the Appalachian people. The music would refer to the social context and reflect changes they and everyone else were experiencing. For example there was a ballad about a young man killed on a railroad from Grayson County in West Virginia and in that ballad Stoneman made a reference to the Johnson law, which exempts corporations from the consequences of accidents that occurred on their property. The music was mostly country and many of the early country stars were women. We see music play a significant role in US struggles at times when things terrible would happen, such as a huge natural disaster, a major political figure being killed, or representation of something important. For example, we play the star spangled banner as a way to unify our country. Most Americans have respect and or a emotional attachment to the sound of the star spangled banner because of the pride it brings to almost each and everyone of us. The sound of “Taps” is also another example of how music plays a role in US struggles. When Chris Kyle aka “American Sniper” died. The playing of Taps was a symbolic way of honoring are fallen hero.

I do not find Harney’s depictions of Appalachian people problematic because i feel as if he was describing what he was seeing during the time he was around. If he was saying these things without any evidence whatsoever of the Appalachian culture then i would describe his depictions as problematic. For example on page 2 Harney talks about the people he met and their faint speech and poverty. He talks about passing a poor man with five little children with there stock on a donkey traveling from Tennessee into Georgia. He also talks about when he knocked on the door of a small white cottage, the door opened and all he saw was an unspread bed, foul table, unwashed dishes, had the smell of half-eaten food, and a poor helpless old man sitting on a stool.

I do not find Frost depictions of Appalachian people problematic because i dont feel like his intentions was to talk bad about the people and culture. I did find somethings concerning such as when he was describing the people as poor white trash, , moonshiners, homicides, and illiterates. This concern me because i felt like it was not necessarily the right words to use. However on the second page of the article he talks about new american architecture such as the log cabin, and balconies. Also stuff that may seem strange to us was apart of Appalachian peoples everyday life.

Help Received: Article Deondre Anderson