Half-truths in Hillbilly Elegy

I´ve heard about Hillbilly Elegy by the current US VP J.D.Vance few years back, as a reference for understanding roots of local elites in the US few years back and the book - and the movie made after it - returned into my TBR shortly before the US elections. 

I may reckon that I haven´t paid too much attention to both the topic and the author, until I really started paying more attention to the elites configuration within the current Trump administration. I am not a specialist in US history and politics, but obviously this is an area that cannot be ignored, and the structures of elites is as important as the recent more or less unexpected geopolitical moves. My attention for this book, a memoir ´of a familyand culture in crisis´ was generated by an article about JD Vance´s life story, his family struggles and his achivements. I do have a special interest in such life stories, from rags to riches therefore I couldn´t resist to get the book, that I had access to in audiobook format, read by the author.

Hillbilly is usually referred to unsophisticated individuals, mostly used for the inhabitants of therural Appalachian areas. 

Vance is originary from such a family, with grandparents who never graduated, with an absent father and a mother with a serious drug addiction, plus an impressive number of stepfathers. Spiritual and material poorness and hopelessness. 

I am not going too deep into the critics about what Vance actually doesn´t shared about his life, that may explain how someone with such an incredibly sad family story ended up as the US vice-president. 

But there are no bad people in this story. Even his mother who literally was about to kill him and put Pepsi in his bottle when he was only few months old is still part of his story - and she was invited to his sworn-in ceremony, among others. 

Vance, who before graduating Yale Law School enrolled in the military and even fought in Iraq, is one of the 1% of hillbillies who succeed having a normal life. There is not unusual that people from humble background succeed in life, but they usually do so because at a certain point in their life journey, they receive proper support from teachers, society or religious institutions. Individuals that encouraged hard working individuals, no matter the background. 

The memoir is useful for understanding the mentality of the deep American countryside, but for the JD Vance story itself, I will just collect some of the facts, that do not however fill the whole puzzle. I may take a look to biographies of representatives of Trump administration soon, including JD Vance at a later date though as it is always an interesting riddle to understand the educational and personal background of decision makers.

Rating: 3 stars

 

Movie Recommendation: The Zone of Interest directed by Jonathan Glazer

A long classical music introduction, animating a completely dark image that lasts few long minutes. Then, we are introduced into the everyday routine of a middle-class German family. Children are trying to trick the adults, the stay-at-home mom is managing the whole household with a strong fist, while the father is spending long hours at work. His work is near his home, so he can come for lunch or invite some of his colleagues.

The family father´s name is Rudolf Höss and his workplace is Auschwitz. 

The multi-awarded movie by Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest that I´ve watched on Amazon Prime, is adapted from a novel by Martin Amis. I haven´t read the book but the topic of moral indifference and acceptance of everyday evil is more actual than ever. My favorite ever film on this topic remains though Mohamad Rasoulof´s There is No Evil featuring four separate stories of normal people in Iran involved at different extents with sending people to death. The Zone of Interest has a narrower focus, but with a similar question: how can we co-exist with evil in such a non-empathic way?

The family discussions do follow the usual pattern in a household. Her husband may be exhausted about his days at work. Unexpected changes are in sight. The challenges coming with the responsibility.

All we need to make complex judgments in this case is the knowledge about why there is smoke coming out of Auschwitz. To understand why Helvig, Höss´ wife, receives various belongings that obviously she didn´t buy herself. Or who are the emaciated humans coming from time to time to visit the Höss residence. 

But there is also a certain degree of indifference, moral human weakness of a different degree. Towards the end of the movie, people working in the Auschwitz memorial are doing their job, with no special contempt for the place where horrible things happened. 

Is this normal? Are we, generally as humans unable to moral empathy and relevance, unless someone close to us is directly affected? Hence, the role of the stories, connecting us, as representative of the humanity. 

There is a dark side to this movie, but personally I can imagine a way to counter it: by not giving up telling emotional stories, explaining contexts and not giving up in educating.

This movie is a good topic of discussion for the history of mentalities, but also for any discussion of artistic representations - especially through movies - of the WWII in the everyday life German social context.