J.D. Vance is a Poser
I recently finished Hillbilly Elegy as well as J.D. Vance is a Fake Hillbilly by Frank Kilgore. I’m not impressed.
My thought process was this: since I am doing this project on hillbilly horror that looks at Appalachian folklore versus folklore about Appalachia and the commodification of these ideas through hillbilly horror, I should find out how and what hillbillies think of themselves and maybe why.
J.D. Vance is a total poser. He’s not a hillbilly. He never was a hillbilly. He was a kid raised by hillbillies in a dysfunctional family. He did not grow up in the hills of Appalachia. He did not experience that culture for himself. What he experienced is similar to generational trauma. He grew up in a family that moved from Appalachia to find work.
He wrote this book with the same intent that others have done documentaries about Appalachia: exploitation, commodification, to make a name for himself (as well as that talk show circuit money), and to frame Appalachia, like those documentaries did in the 60’s, as the poster child for the War on Poverty.
People love an underdog story. People love stories about the American Dream and being able to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. He was a poor kid from a dysfunctional family who eventually moved in with his grandmother. He did crappy in school (mostly by choice), went into the military and graduated from Yale Law School. Now he’s a senator for Ohio (and resides in California).
I seriously have my doubts about venture capitalist writing a memoir about being a hillbilly without having any kind of ulterior motive. Yes, the story is his from his point of view. But, he made a choice here to present himself a certain way. He made another choice to talk about Appalachia a certain way, with wide brush strokes painting the entire area, where he has never lived, based on his experience in Southwest Ohio being raised by a both a hillbilly grandmother and mother who changed husbands as often as the rest of us change underwear.
Instead of going to therapy he decided to air his family’s laundry in public. I hope it was cathartic for him. He then went on a talk show circuit where he has implied he is some kind of expert on hillbillies, the working poor, and Appalachia. At the same time he has reinforced every negative stereotype about hillbillies there is, except maybe being inbred and cannibals. I don’t what the point in that was other than making his personal story more of a Cinderella rags to riches sort of thing.
One thing is certain, Hillbilly Elegy is part of the Appalachian conversation. This book has done a lot of harm to the Appalachia area and it’s people. I was thinking this book served no use in my research but as I write this, I realize that might not be true. It might be useful to note how his book has influenced how people view Appalachia, especially since his book came out a year prior to the pandemic and that time between its release and lockdown was spent touring. There have been at least 8 horror/thriller books written since the pandemic (some during the pandemic). The book has also been hailed as explaining why so many people in Appalachia support Trump. Considering that any upticks in hillbilly horror corresponds to times of national trauma (Vietnam, 9/11, the Covid-19 pandemic) there may be a link. I will have to dig further.
As for Kilgore calling him out in J.D. Vance is a Fake Hillbilly, I wanted to get behind this as well, but he had to make everything political. He too has an agenda, only I am not sure what it is. All I know is overuses the word ‘woke’, makes everything political, and doesn’t say much more than “We all aren’t like J.D. Vance claims.” I haven’t decided yet if this book is a rant against Vance or just an excuse to use him as a launching point to share political beliefs.
At the end of the day, neither of these two books have told me crap about how hillbillies think of themselves.
