Two stories of psuedo-European culture in Georgia

October 15, 2021 5:17 AM

Bizarro Bavaria: The author of Southbound finds the town of Helen, Georgia, attractive and troubling — but she isn’t giving it up by Anjali Enjeti for The Bitter Southerner and The troubled triangle of Scottish heritage, Southern racial politics, and Stone Mountain by Jim Galloway for Atlanta Magazine
posted by hydropsyche (15 comments total)

When I visited Culloden and walked its grounds, I saw struck by an eerie similarity. At first I couldn't figure out what it was, but when I reached where the Scotts had started their ill fated charge straight into massed English canons and long guns, it hit me. I was looking at Gettysburg writ small and on another continent. Sure, the terrain was worse, with gorse and boggy land, but the idea was the same: run straight at certain death hoping enough of you survive the fire in order to kill the opposing force which outnumbers you, planning on winning by virtue of being stronger, more masculine, and nobler fighters.

Gettysburg isn't lauded the same way Culloden is, the supporters of the Confederacy focus more on their victories than the Scotts for some reason (Falkirk Muir is never mentioned). And the cause of the Jacobites was less unjust , looking to trade the membership of one end of an extremely shallow gene pool for the other, which wouldn't directly destroy hundreds of thousands, and so was just inflicting the horrors of an unnecessary war on the population. But the two battles and the two wars have remarkable similarities and it's not surprising that both wars have a lost cause narrative behind them.
posted by Hactar at 6:24 AM on October 15, 2021 [5 favorites]

As a recent transplant to the state of Georgia I'm happy to find a new strange place to visit soon! Thanks!

Also a shout out to The Bitter Southerner
posted by djseafood at 6:36 AM on October 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

My mostly-apocryphal* understanding of Helen, GA is that it exists so that members of high school German clubs in Western/Western Piedmon NC, Upstate SC and the rest of Georgia dress up in dirndls and lederhosen, load into activity buses, and try to score beer/make it to third base after performing a "Ferris Bueller" inspired mash-up of "Danke Schoen" and "Twist & Shout" (but translated into German) during Oktoberfest.

*I was in the Latin Club. There were fewer of us. They just took us to universities and tried to ignore us when we tried to sneak into college parties after we memorized Virgil.
posted by thivaia at 7:08 AM on October 15, 2021 [7 favorites]

I actually read both of these yesterday, live in the Atlanta area, have been to Helen a few times, but still when I saw the title I thought "wait, isn't Georgia in Europe? Or is it in Asia? I never know where the border is."
posted by madcaptenor at 7:15 AM on October 15, 2021 [4 favorites]

Helen is very white. Roughly 95% of its inhabitants are non-Hispanic white

one of the thousands of places I'm not planning on going because neither my partner nor I are remotely close to white-passing. my partner and I are part of the Asian diaspora and lived about a mile away from the spa shootings that occurred last year. we likely heard the gunshots, which are a semi-regular thing along the Cheshire Bridge corridor, and chalked them up to another local, barely covered news story (ie paraphrased APD press release that gets no real investigation) we'd read in the morning

must be pretty nice having the freedom to travel and explore in the state you live in, and to be so cavalier and open about visiting these places
posted by paimapi at 7:38 AM on October 15, 2021 [5 favorites]

From the article:

Ivanho was more than a chivalric tale that appealed to duel-happy, white Southern aristocrats. In the background of the novel’s 12th century setting, noble and brave Saxons still struggled against the damned Yankees—er, Normans—who had conquered them in 1066.

I actually read Ivanhoe in high school, and ironically the way I remember it is that the "noble and brave Saxon" main character was laid up with an injury for most of the book, leaving a Jewish woman named Rebecca and a court jester named Wamba to do most of the ass-kicking.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:41 AM on October 15, 2021 [10 favorites]

I've been to German-ish towns in California (Solvang) and Leavenworth (Washington). It was fun. I bet it must be weird to go as a PoC in Georgia, though.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:52 AM on October 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

I tried reading Ivanhoe -- or was it another Scott? -- and it was so exhausting that I quit almost right away and never tried Scott again. And I like Victorian prose and historical fiction, a genre which some say Scott invented.

“[By] claiming Scottish ethnic origins, Southern Scottish Americans . . . assert that their Southern identity derives from more than the Civil War ... In heritage lore, the Southern experience and identity unfolds in continuous tradition from Scottish culture and history, rather than from a relationship to slavery or Jim Crow.”

There's a certain kind of white person who really wants to be ethnic. It might be just a phase in life -- it was briefly a phase of mine, which I regret, but I was very young and at least have the insight now. But such a person, if they have Scottish or Irish ancestors, can easily glom onto them to enjoy the pleasures of ethnicity: distinctive clothing, food, culture, and a sense of ancient grievance. But this one they can take out for special occasions and put away when they're done, because there is nothing the Sassenachs did that has impacted their lives since their ancestor was transported, nor will there ever be. And if they don't have much insight in life, they will extrapolate their family experience to minoritized persons today, leading to any amount of poisonous fake pop historical ideas, even now.

It's not fair that I feel a terrible cringe when I see something about Outlander or a Highland Game. People can just be having fun; it's fine. And honestly, bagpipes are great. But this article explains how it's been dangerous in the past, and I appreciate knowing I have a broader basis for how I feel.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:07 AM on October 15, 2021 [15 favorites]

I dream of the day when that bas-relief Confederate abomination (a-bas-mination?) is dynamited off Stone Mountain by a responsible government official. Or an irresponsible one. Or a responsible citizen. Or an irresponsible citizen. My point is, whoever it is, I will applaud.
posted by SinAesthetic at 9:44 AM on October 15, 2021 [8 favorites]

No need for dynamite. If the state stops maintaining it, the mosses and lichens will obliterate it quickly.
posted by hydropsyche at 9:58 AM on October 15, 2021 [5 favorites]

If the state stops maintaining it, the mosses and lichens will obliterate it quickly.

....You have given me a genius idea that someone with the resources and a closer proximity than I have could run with:

Dress up like a maintenance worker and carry something rigged up to look like a power washer and say that you are there to "clean it" or "weatherize it" or something. But instead, you are spraying it with a solution of water and chia seeds and turning the thing into a giant chia pet.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:10 AM on October 15, 2021 [13 favorites]

I’m an Atlantan and I’ve been saying for years to just wad some kudzu up in wet toilet paper and fling it at Stone Mountain. Wait 27 minutes and the racists will be gone from sight. Problem solved.

Edit- or what EC said.
posted by pearlybob at 10:27 AM on October 15, 2021 [12 favorites]

I wonder if it is a point that a lot of immigration to the US from Europe happened at a time where the invention of the European nation states was at its peak. The second article in the FPP kind of gets there, but I wonder how much the author knows about its history and culture. I tried to google for an overview, but it is naturally a much contested reality. I don't think actual European historians will contest that the concept of the nation-state was more or less invented in the period from about 1800 to now, with several interesting iterations. (Interesting in the sense of the apocryphal Chinese curse: may your children live in interesting times). But most real historians are not very interested in simple overviews, which is totally fair.
Racism/xenophobia comes naturally with nationalism, but somehow nationalists who hate Poles in the UK can agree with the Polish nationalist government. It's all sad.

Small detail about the first article: AfD voters mostly live in the former East Germany, not in Bavaria. Not to say there aren't racists in Bavaria, but there is not a direct comparison to be made between politics in Georgia, US, and Bavaria, Germany.
posted by mumimor at 10:27 AM on October 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

I've been to Helen very briefly, staying in a cabin/retreat nearby and visiting Anna Ruby Falls as well. It was basically like what if an Epcot pavilion were forklifted out into the middle of nowhere--no cost of admission, but the food and souvenir costs were comparable. I guess there's probably plenty to say about Epcot too, but it may feel safer to anyone looking for this kind of experience. I admit a lot of the fun was the nature stuff nearby though--so quiet, and you could see the Milky Way at night.
posted by Wobbuffet at 11:56 AM on October 15, 2021 [5 favorites]

There's a certain kind of white person who really wants to be ethnic.

I get what you are saying, Countess Elena, but I think it is also important to acknowledge white culture as not being the default, and actually coming from somewhere- our imperfect ancestors gave this culture to us; it didn't come from heaven.
posted by Maxwell's demon at 7:40 AM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]