Recent events, most notably former President Trump’s Vice-Presidential pick, JD Vance, is catapulting regionalism back into the national spotlight. At this point, his politics have taken a backseat to what actually catapulted his name into the national conversation: Hillbilly Elegy, a book that has been (in my opinion, righteously) criticized by Silas House and bell hooks, to name a few, for its exploitation of Appalachian culture and Appalachian people.
My purpose here is not to add directly to this discussion; for one, I’m not Appalachian, though I spent better than a few years there, have friends there, and a connection in that my daughter was born there. I love the mountains and appreciate the culture, the music, and the complex history. But I am not OF the place, which is an important distinction that I make. Geography has played a major role in my writing for decades, whether I’ve been traveling or living in a single place. When I lived in Phoenix, the desert crept into my work; when I lived in Northwest Illinois, my Big Sky Country obsession was stamped in my language.
The Geography
But I grew up in the Ohio Valley. Bethel, Ohio, where I am from, is roughly 13 miles from the Ohio River. The house I grew up in was about 10 miles from the river, the closest point of connection being Moscow. I used to ride my bike there when I was a kid. As a young man I bounced around Cincinnati, Ripley, Aberdeen, New Richmond, Moscow, Maysville, Ironton, and Portsmouth. I spent a lot of time along the river. And while my current job along and on the Ohio is the first time I’ve made a living on the river, the entire geography of my childhood was shaped by it.
The Ohio River Valley – defined geographically by the 981 mile long waterway that begins in Pittsburgh, PA and ending in Cairo, IL – is a unique region from the Midwest, the South, and the Appalachian regions, which has birthed unique artistic, musical, and literary styles. The richness of this aesthetic comes from the diverse populations that came to the region from rich and troubling history of commerce, diaspora, colonization, and the consequences of living around such a profound nature boundary.
Even though artistic regionalism has gained marketability… and as a result, respectability… the Ohio River Valley is overlooked. The river, in general, is overlooked, even though it’s still a major commercial artery and, in some places, a tourist destination.
Defining “Gothic”
In trying to describe the unique nature of the Ohio River Valley Aesthetic, I found myself pondering the word “Gothic”… not in the sense of vampires, but in the sense of the 1930 painting by Grant Wood. It’s been interpreted as both a defense of and a critique of rural life.
Wood’s painting spoke to me the first time I saw it in an art book. You don’t always notice the details in the first viewing. But it’s difficult to miss the fact that all the windows are covered, even the Carpenter’s Gothic style upstairs window, covered in a blanket of stars.
What does it mean, the covered windows? What does it mean, the blanket of stars? Let’s then consider what I mean by gothic. The term gothic was first coined by Italian writers in the later Renaissance period (late 15th to early 17th century). The word was used in a derogatory way as a synonym of ‘barbaric’. They denounced this type of art as unrefined and ugly and attributed it to the Gothic tribes which had destroyed the Roman Empire and its classical culture in the 5th century AD (www.vam.ac.uk) Over time it’s taken on the imagery of vampires and monsters. And when I apply the term gothic, as in the Ohio River Valley Gothic, I’m taking in not only the monsters, but whatever washes up in the river. The Ohio River continues to be a major transportation artery, though it’s mostly commercial traffic. It continues to be a driving economic force for the towns and cities that have sprouted up along her shores. All manner of things come down the river. Some part of all of it stays. The rest of it carries on down with the current.
There is art and music and writing in the Ohio River Valley that is distinct from the Midwest, Appalachian, and Southern geographies that surround it. Like the river, it has elements of them all. But there is a unique voice and vision that is, for lack of a better word, “gothic.” We have our ghosts. We have our stories and songs. But to understand them, and what makes them unique, you have to start with the river. And in order to understand the river, you have to start the the GatorHorse.
