Justified and Philosophy by Arp Robert Carveth Rod

Author:Arp, Robert, Carveth, Rod [Arp, Robert; Carveth, Rod]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780812698886
Publisher: Open Court

Coal Keeps the Lights On

We see Appalachia not for itself but through a frame established by popular culture and the archetype of the hillbilly and the redneck. Whether in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, or Georgia, our expectations of the people who live there will, we expect, refer to these archetypes. Appalachianism shows us things about the mountains and the people who inhabit them that they, themselves, with their humble origins and ignorance about the ways of the world, cannot see. Things that only ‘objective experts’ can see.

Said exposed the representation, or misrepresentation, of the Orient in western science, showing how it was used to justify colonial exploitation of land, labor, and resources. However, today, we don’t need science when we have images. The Image is a much more powerful representation of what is obviously true than anything science might prove.

We rely not so much on science for our understanding of Appalachia, but popular culture, and not even fiction, like the sodomy and incest in Deliverance, but reality TV. Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Appalachian Outlaws, Moonshiners, Mountain Monsters, and Kentucky Justice; even Duck Dynasty and Swamp Men: all presentations of The Other that do nothing to challenge the archetype, rather they reinforce our prejudices while showing us urban folk how we are so much more civilized than ‘those people’.

I will simply mark the coincidence of growing criticism of King Coal and the popularity of these programs. Of course, the fact that the Duck Dynasty guys used to be a bunch of clean cut, golf-playing, preppy-looking, rich boys before Hollywood backed up a truck full of money at the warehouse and started shoveling it out we should all just ignore. Colonization cannot work without collaborators.

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