Rednecks: a short fiction
February 19, 2018 8:08 AM   Subscribe

"The miners are coming down from the hills, rising up out of the ground... They have knotted red bandanas around their necks, as if their throats have already been cut." A short story about very fine people from North Carolina novelist Taylor Brown, inspired by the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain--the largest labor uprising in United States history--and the bloody 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville.
posted by xylothek (6 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- Brandon Blatcher



 
For those tuning in for Charlottesville, C'ville is not an actual setting for the short story. It exists in the introduction as part of an inspiration. More or less, Brown writes two parallel stories, one about the lead up and aftermath of Blair Mountain, and the beginning of a rally similar to what happened in Charlottesville (more about one individual's path to finding himself confronting KKK/Alt Right individuals).

Despite being the largest land battle in the United States since the Civil War, the site of the battle is threatened with mountain top removal coal mining, as forces attempt to get it recognized as a National Historic site.

Per the story, I had difficulty understanding the connection between the two, outside of maybe an insistence that the protagonist in the present day story is driven to fight for general rights in part of a shared legacy of resistance. I.e., an American legacy of resistance to those who would trample rights.
posted by Atreides at 9:16 AM on February 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


Holy fuck, this story is a goddamn punch in the air. Thank you for posting it. I am sharing broadly.
posted by corb at 1:18 PM on February 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


I've always wanted to film a Battle of Blair Mountain movie, starting with the Matewan Massacre, ending with the aftermath of the battle. I've always imagined it as a Terrence Malick movie.
posted by gucci mane at 6:29 PM on February 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


For historical fiction about the Battle of Blair Mountain itself, I highly recommend Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina.
posted by eviemath at 5:55 AM on February 20, 2018 [1 favorite]




Unfortunately, the premise of the strike as the origin of "redneck," meaning "a working-class person from a rural area," is provably wrong. There are uses of the identical term from the 1890s, and one from the 1830s that seems to be the same meaning but cannot be confirmed to be.

It's a common false etymology. The author should be ashamed to not have done basic searches of reliable reference works. The story would still be strong without it.
posted by Mo Nickels at 10:00 AM on February 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


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