303WX Prompt 8

Donesky described The Kentucky Cycle as a drive by shooting, in my opinion, for a couple different reasons.  The first comparison I drew was the fact that the author, Robert Schenkkan, only spent a very short period of time in appalachian Kentucky.  Not only that, but he spent his time exploring the appalachian region with some people that weren’t of the common general population.  One man that he shadowed was a travelling doctor who seemed to have a personal distain for this part of the country.  He goes on telling the author about how his house back in California would never smell like the one of the young couples “shack”.  Another person he met with was a wealthy mine owner.  Now wealthy mine owners represent a very small percentage of people and their lifestyles in Appalachia.  It would have been more beneficial for Schenkkan to shadow somebody who is more deeply rooted in Appalachia.  Maybe a miner, and a local market farmer would have painted a better picture in his mind to what the real applachian region is like.  So in a sense, his take on the region and his skewed and selective research of the region led to his misinterpretation of the regions culture as a whole.  This in turn led to the work of The Kentucky Cycle.  The author quickly came and left, and only received a warped perceptions of the place that he would present as genuine, to the world.