This is a sidebar to my book review on '
Hillbilly Elegy'
My 'review' went a little of course, so I pulled it aside.
ust started this a couple of days ago, and it is a powerful and beautiful listen. Read by the author, a wickedly thoughtful and insightful guy. Saw him on 60 Minutes the other night, and this book was mentioned. There is a lot to digest here, so for now I will just give you the official blurb. Will update with my thoughts postmortem in a few days.
In the meantime, in order to maybe better understand the struggles of the poor and downtrodden left behind white folk of Appalachia… I think cultural mensch Paris Hilton has some thoughts on that.*** I believe this was her 3 word review in the New York Times Sunday edition.
*** apparently, this was photoshopped and it spread like a virus. I don’t care. It’s funny. Reading this book shows me that poor white folk down South shouldn’t be our cultural punching bags anymore. So, let’s pick on Paris, instead.
In the top 20 poorest states (data linked here), 14 of them are in the ‘bible belt’. Why do I throw these numbers are you? They weren’t in the book, I researched them to make a point. Why is no one talking about or fighting for the very very poor (black… or white)? The only leader I remember who really brought of the issue and put it right in our face was presidential candidate John Edwards. He talked about ‘the two Americas’. Why is no one fighting for them or talking about it? Am going to make a few theories, based on wild and often uninformed observations. These poor folks in the bible belt don’t vote in high numbers. So many are fully disenfranchised. This means politicians aren’t going ‘to the mattresses’ for them. There is neither money nor opportunity in it. That is how Trump won the election. He brilliantly reached out to this Demographic and somehow convinced them a billionaire slumlord would be their advocate.
“[Hillbilly Elegy] is a beautiful memoir but it is equally a work of cultural criticism about white working-class America….[Vance] offers a compelling explanation for why it’s so hard for someone who grew up the way he did to make it…a riveting book.” (Wall Street Journal) >March 2019
update – lying in bed last night right after I wrote this, I have an epiphany. I don’t know shit about real struggle, class warfare, or family abandonment. That is why i am reading the book. You should too It’s quite a ale, and very well written. I always tell y’all I read these books because I want to walk in mile in their shoes. Having read this book gives me no excuse to pontificate on any of it. Look at all that high minded pseudo-intellectual garbage up there. What an asshole I am. I could just delete it. I’d rather be honest and d a strike through. This way, you can see through my crap. This is what happens why you try and write book reviews at 3 am.
I don’t quote the Times because I read it. I quote the times because I want you to think I read it. Plus the NEw York Times carries a little more cultural weight than if I cited Tweaker Bob. who told me the same story
