I have no idea if this is true or not, but I can believe that Mawmaw would use those words and that kind of phrasing when talking to her grandson. For heaven's sake she set Pawpaw on fire while he slept one night 😳. Talk about weird.
No, it doesn't ring true. Regardless, I suspect that he would write a totally different book today now he's MAGA, and that he would leave that part out, or find someone, perhaps a teacher or librarian to blame for those feelings.
I always thought I was one of a very few who weren’t wowed by that book. I hated being preached to. And there was way too much”telling” and very little actual showing. I dislike Trump intensely but Vance scares the bejesus outta me.
“Vance, a product of the de-industrialized heartland, may be overcompensating by engaging in industrial-scale self-reinvention with wildly shifting narratives to fill his political costume of the day.”
You nailed that, Doug. He was reinventing himself in that book and every single day since the publication of Hillbilly Elegy. His “moral core” is defined by who will give him the most money.
I have not read Hillbilly Elegy nor do I intend to. I appreciate your comments that validate my choice to ignore it, as I also try ignore him and his running mate.
From listening to Vance, his rhetoric bears little credibility so why would his book differ. Doug, your writing has more substance and eloquence than anything Vance could pen.
I have no idea if this is true or not, but I can believe that Mawmaw would use those words and that kind of phrasing when talking to her grandson. For heaven's sake she set Pawpaw on fire while he slept one night 😳. Talk about weird.
Thank you for dissecting this “reality” so clearly and candidly. My experience tells me you are right on target for calling his story for what it is!!
The question is, is Burns in a position to say, definitively, that the story is false?
No, he isn't.
No, it doesn't ring true. Regardless, I suspect that he would write a totally different book today now he's MAGA, and that he would leave that part out, or find someone, perhaps a teacher or librarian to blame for those feelings.
Great unpacking of a very strange story. Thanks.
I always thought I was one of a very few who weren’t wowed by that book. I hated being preached to. And there was way too much”telling” and very little actual showing. I dislike Trump intensely but Vance scares the bejesus outta me.
“Vance, a product of the de-industrialized heartland, may be overcompensating by engaging in industrial-scale self-reinvention with wildly shifting narratives to fill his political costume of the day.”
You nailed that, Doug. He was reinventing himself in that book and every single day since the publication of Hillbilly Elegy. His “moral core” is defined by who will give him the most money.
Your last paragraph is a work of art that neatly sums up the whole of Vance as far as I can tell.
I have not read Hillbilly Elegy nor do I intend to. I appreciate your comments that validate my choice to ignore it, as I also try ignore him and his running mate.
with the political leanings of iowa and south dakota i'm truly fearful that we're all being pulled into the eternal fires of maga...
From listening to Vance, his rhetoric bears little credibility so why would his book differ. Doug, your writing has more substance and eloquence than anything Vance could pen.