tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post1145466575587322099..comments2024-03-29T04:32:39.897-07:00Comments on the joy of sox: MLB: "Profoundly Irresponsible" And "Entirely Predictable"; The "Unmitigated Bullshit" of Hillbilly Elegy's "Bootstraps Porn"allanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673233312198832937noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-38731294380641191512020-10-16T21:39:46.135-07:002020-10-16T21:39:46.135-07:00If I hadn't read and been so bored by Educated...If I hadn't read and been so bored by Educated, I would have read this book. Maybe I'll put it back on my list.laura khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05524593142290489958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-25531143443583702532020-10-16T11:42:42.631-07:002020-10-16T11:42:42.631-07:00Well, I have seen positive and negative reports fr...Well, I have seen positive and negative reports from people on our side, which is certainly interesting. Calcaterra seems more to the left than your average liberal sportswriter. Perhaps he feels the "bootstrap" crap outweighs or negates any empathy expressed by Vance.allanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04673233312198832937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-26959942724125899882020-10-16T10:42:54.108-07:002020-10-16T10:42:54.108-07:00I liked 'Hillbilly Elegy' quite a bit, may...I liked 'Hillbilly Elegy' quite a bit, maybe because I live in an area probably as depressed and poor as the Appalachian hollers and rustbelt cities Vance writes about--and it was an anthropological glimpse into the ways of people I live with and who I taught for decades but whose values and lives I can only know indirectly. <br /><br />Perhaps because I was so interested in the family story and the anecdotes and Vance's anger, the bootstrap mentality, to the small extent I noticed it, didn't undermine my appreciation of his writing and his accomplishment.<br /><br />I spent decades teaching smart and willing people ground down by generations of systemic poverty and a political and social system that only values individual effort and pretends to believe that everyone can accomplish everything in their 'American dream' if they only set their mind to it. The poverty on the one hand and the system's contempt for those who remain poor on the other...break many people, so badly they can't easily be fixed--and Vance does not ignore that truth.johngoldfinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09322562737172405323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-41651116972948094712020-10-16T07:05:09.008-07:002020-10-16T07:05:09.008-07:00PS: To be fair, many on Goodreads do fault Vance f...PS: To be fair, many on Goodreads do fault Vance for his bootstrap mentality. laura khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05524593142290489958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-31186910185484040212020-10-16T07:00:59.208-07:002020-10-16T07:00:59.208-07:00This is a great post, and you know I agree.
Howev...This is a great post, and you know I agree.<br /><br />However, this view of Hillbilly Elegy seems off. The vast majority of people who read this book did not come away with the impression that the author thinks the challenges faced by rural Americans are their own fault. Like you, I haven't read the book (not another poverty memoir!), but I've read multiple reviews, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27161156-hillbilly-elegy" rel="nofollow">opinions on Goodreads</a>, and have heard many readers talk about it. <br /><br />Typically people compare it to something like "Between the World and Me," but for poor white people. By (almost) all accounts, it's an extremely moving and sympathetic book, showing how the effects of poverty and addiction continue to reverberate, even if people later acquire wealth and privilege, and humanizing people who others call "trash". Definitely not a book that portrays impoverished people as lacking moral character.<br /><br />The quote reminds me of the critiques I saw about the book White Fragility, claiming the book teaches white people to adopt a different brand of racism, and in fact the whole idea of the book is racist. Or, from the other side of the political spectrum, that JK Rowling's Casual Vacancy was a socialist diatribe. I think politics and worldview sometimes prevent a clear reading of what's really on the page.laura khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05524593142290489958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-40486502182655190302020-10-16T06:03:19.602-07:002020-10-16T06:03:19.602-07:00Ahh, yes, the illusion of safety. And the Red Sox ...Ahh, yes, the illusion of safety. And the Red Sox will find a sponsor for it. And the CEO will be on NESN broadcasts frequently. And Dave O'Brien will have him in the booth frequently (because MLB WILL have fans at games and normal broadcasts). There will be promos galore to make up for the 60-game season and Dave the carny barker is your man. 4-hour games the norm. And any sane person will be gone by 9.00.Jimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10275164807141705059noreply@blogger.com