Essays
Regarding that thing and some facts
Read moreThis was published in the Morganown, WV Dominion Post yesterday. It’s my rebuttal to a letter to the editor from the day prior. The writer of the original letter claimed, as is so often erroniously repeated in America when this is mooted, that Australia has become a free-for-all of criminality and fear since the National Firearms Agreement. I will grant that Australia and America have very different underlying cultures that don’t make particular decisions on this immediately parallel; however, if you are going to posit an argument, you have to work from the facts.
Art, Pizza, Annihilation
Read moreLast night I watched Alex Garland’s new film Annihilation; I remember seeing the trailer some months ago and, as it was portrayed as potentially just another ’the team goes in; creepy things happen; most die’ scenario, I didn’t pay much interest. However, I’ve read a few articles on it since and, as it’s gone straight to Netflix, it was a ready choice (and it was Saturday night after a day of overtime work).
Violation and Liberation
Read moreMy parent’s house was recently robbed. I’m unsure how passive to make that sentence; should I instead say that my father was robbed? That he and I were? I think it’s most appropriate to say that the house itself was robbed—that the casualty is ultimately a sense of home and safety. Dad is, understandably, rattled and having to go through all the process of protecting his identity (they stole a load of paperwork). Unfortunately, they also stole my mother’s jewellery, grandfather’s watch, and other sentimental items.
The story makes the world
Read moreI studied film production in University; our directing teacher was the venerable Dr Katherine Stenholm. One day in class she made this statement about filmmaking which, at the time, seemed ludicrous, “We make reality.” To my young indoctrinated mind, that was beyond our human capacity; God made reality and it was so. However, I’ve grown to understand more of the nuance of what she meant. This morning I read George Monbiot’s excellent Weekly Review article in this week’s Guardian. His title and premise is, It’s time to tell a new story if we want to change the world. He articulates much of what I’ve been ruminating recently about our individual and collective need for a better story from which we live.
On reading Hillbilly Elegy
Read moreThere is a challenging pivot point between observations made as an ‘insider’ and those from an ‘objective’ outsider. Often the person on the inside is too close to the subject to speak comprehensively about a given matter; however, the outsider risks generalisations and fills gaps with assumptions based on limited knowledge. (I think this is where good journalism marries the two; a competent journalist can give voice to the insider who would otherwise not be heard.)
What kind of heritage?
Read moreI’m Appalachian. I’m specifically from West Virginia, which ‘sided’ with the North in the American Civil War; regardless, I consider myself ‘Southern.’ Each of the above are layers of identity and heritage. Above those labels I’m an American which, though we consider it some kind of concrete identity, is really so diverse an amalgamation as to defy any sort of compact definition. If anything, America, as I was raised to ideally understand it, is composed of dissimilar peoples who have come together in the United States. Our similarity is based on and strengthened by our diversity. My personal identity is expanded though by further experiences I’ve had in other places and cultures. In other words, my identity doesn’t come from existing in one place or only referencing that single place. Identity comes from an understanding of my place in the larger whole. It’s both looking back and forward, not something static and based wholly on the imagined past. It’s also tempered by an informed understanding of other people and their experiences. Neither my culture or my personal history have formed in isolation; before I can comprehend my own place in the story, I need to make the effort to properly ‘read’ that of others. Otherwise, I’ll have only a narrow and weakly formed identity based on my internal monologue.