Insider/Outsider Narratives

While Bill Bryson is explicit of his role as an outsider entering the trail - his inexperience and distance often serving as a subject for humor - his position carries with it an indifference and lack of sympathy. His anti-romanticism and cynicism, though self-directed and widespread, seems at times unnecessarily harsh. With the subtitle “Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trial,” the reader might expect the locals of Appalachia to not so simply be reduced to caricatures, as Bryson often does.  In describing the dangers that he might encounter on the trail ahead, Bryson follows a list of dangerous animals with “loony hillbillies destabilized by gross quantities of impure corn liquor and generations of profoundly unbiblical sex.” While admittedly this line made me chuckle upon my first reading, Bryson’s stereotyping of rural culture is left unaccompanied by a genuine analysis or comment.

Is it impossible, I wonder, for an outsider to truly capture the narrative of the insider? Bryson, of course, hardly attempts – capturing the voice of the Appalachian local is not his objective.

Conversely, the photographs of Shelby Lee Adams provide an intimate insider view into the lives of Appalachian locals. Having been raised in rural Kentucky, Adams notes that: “I think of my work as an insider’s view…When your blood’s connected, and you’re born and raised in a place, you’re always connected.” His work portrays a culture of people who are rarely seen but frequently portrayed in popular representations through hyperbolic stereotypes. Adam’s work provides a direct glimpse into the ordinary aspects of their lives that Bryson, as an outsider, not only ignores, but instead actively speaks over. 

In our Common Experience Seminar, the narrative of those living in areas of the Adirondacks with high rates of illiteracy and poverty have gone largely unheard. The fractal peripheries of the Adirondacks are such that the insiders of this place are often simultaneously outsiders – the owners of Great Camps and luxurious summer homes have access to a different Adirondacks than the farmers and hermits do. Nearing the end of our time here, I see this place through a liminal lens - as much as I might take advantage of the local discount, there are a myriad of Adirondack aspects I can still only understand from afar.

Some of Adams' Photographs: