Thursday, December 3, 2020

On "Hillbilly Elegy," the film, and cultural and geographical divides in the United States

I published this today in The Conversation, about the new Ron Howard/Netflix film, "Hillbilly Elegy," based on J.D. Vance's book by the same name.  Here's an excerpt:

I admit to delight when I read professional critics trashing the film, which is based on J.D. Vance’s widely praised memoir detailing his dramatic class migration from a midsize city in Ohio to the hallowed halls of Yale Law School. I was expecting the worst based on my dislike of the book, and these reviews confirmed my expectations.

But once I saw the film, I felt it had been harshly judged by the chattering classes – the folks who write the reviews and seek to create meaning for the rest of us. In fact, the film is an earnest depiction of the most dramatic parts of the book: a lower-middle-class family caught in the throes of addiction.

Everyday viewers seem to find the film enjoyable enough – it has solid audience reviews on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.

So why the big gap between the critical response and audience reaction? Could it be yet another sign of the country’s steadily growing class divide?

I want to be clear that I didn't see the film depicting rural in any sustained or meaningful way.  Middletown, Ohio, Vance's home town is not rural by any measure.  Indeed, it's not even technically Appalachian.  But about the first 10 minutes of the film take place in Jackson, Kentucky, the Vance Family's ancestral home.  That's Vance's real claim to "hillbilliness," and I don't dispute that a certain hillbilly culture followed his family into the Rust Belt.  

Cross-posted to Working-Class Whites and the Law. 

1 comment:

Robert Earl said...

RECOVERY OF STOLEN FUNDS (SCAM FOCUS).
BINARY OPTIONS, BITCOINS and LOAN SCAM.
The essentials you need to know about The Global-KOS C.E.H RECOVERY COMPANY.
(leroysteckler@gmail.com)
Reading Time: ⏱️2MIN.
Hiring a professional hacker has been one of the world most technical valued navigating information. High prolific information and Privileges comes rare as it has been understood that what people do not see, they will never know.
This is The Global KOS hacking agency where every request concerning lost funds or hacking related issues are fixed within a short period of time.
The crucial benefit of contacting The Global-KOS hackers is
• ZERO TRACE: After a successful hack recovery is carried out by the Global-KOS, no active or passive attacks will be used to trace any of our hacks to our clients or our organization. One common practice that attackers employ to evade detection is to break into poorly secured systems and use those hijacked systems as proxies through which they can launch and route attacks. So in a nutshell, attackers effort on this platform are useless because our systems are protected with a vigorous firewall switching and a firm security system to prevent unauthorized bodies from tracking or modifying our network accessible resources. I.e the hacker and clients are 100% safe and anonymous.
Secondly,
CHALLENGES WE HACKERS FACE:
• REPEAT CLIENTS and SERVICES: E.g, after helping a client recover all money lost to fraudulent practices, most of this clients come back requesting we provide the same service in disguise as a different person.
⚠Note:
Repeatedly recovering money from a fraudulent source to the same client are not allowed on this platform.
However, you will be assigned to a designated professional hacker who is systematically known for operating on a dark web protocol. The operation of these hackers is to potentially deploy a distinguished cyber security technique to retrieving back the victims stolen funds via the application of a diverse CM breacher which enables you to track the data location of a scammer and extract every data on the con database. This is achieved using the systematic courier tracking method.
Which of the uneasy situation do you find yourself in right now?
✅(BITCOIN INVESTMENTS, BINARY OPTIONS OR LOAN SCAM?
This shocking study points to one harsh reality we all face today. It saddens our mind when a client expresses annoyance or dissatisfaction of unethical behaviors of scammers. We have striven to make tenacious efforts to help those who are victims of this fleas get off their traumatic feeling of loss.
The company is large enough to provide comprehensive range of services such as.
• MOBILE PHONE HACKS.(Catching A Cheating Spouse)📲
• CREDIT SCORE UPGRADE,
• PENETRATION OF WEBSITES AND DATABASE.
• UNLOCKING FROZEN CRYPTO WALLET📲
• EMAIL HACKS
• HACKING A FRAUDULENT WEBSITE.📲
• UBER FREE PAYMENT LICENCE.📲

For prolific services and info,
Contact:
✉️Email: theglobalkos@gmail.com
leroysteckler@gmail.com
®Global KOS™
2020.