#Appalachian stories

[powerlineprincess]

American Hollow (1999) screencaps. Saul, Kentucky.

[pawpawholler]

Well, this is amazing: I have 100 kudos on this fic I sort of half-assed last spring. I’m glad people are enjoying ridiculous Boyd and shameless Raylan set in some of my best memories of home. Thank you all for reading.

[pawpawholler]

I found a minute, so I wanted to add to my reblog in support of OP. I know it's tough for a lot of non-Appalachians to understand, but Appalachians do, in fact, have our own cultural traditions. And, yes, "Appalachians" include, but are not limited to, the indigenous Native Americans of the area.

These cultural touchstones are not often taught in schools (see also: the school textbook wars and corporate control of school textbooks), but we carry them on nonetheless, and as OP stated, they're primarily an oral tradition.

Some outsider coming in and using our cultural touchstones as fodder for their own entertainment is cultural appropriation, no two ways about it. As is often the case for rural Appalachians, everything from our lungs to our stories are exploited to benefit outsiders.

Insult added to injury, the exploiters can't even get it right. I refuse to read stories set in Appalachia written by non-Appalachians because I am inevitably enraged. We're not some fantasy land that authors can bend to fit the needs of their story--we exist. We're real people in a real place, with our own values, history, dialects, and literature, which does, in fact, include oral traditions of stories about haints.

In the vernacular of my people, all them exploiters chap my ass. They can fuck right off.

what do you think of all of the people being scared of appalachia? i don't know if this is recent or not, but currently i've been seeing a ton of shit online like "never go to the appalachian mountains, it's so dangerous", and i just don't understand it. my family's lived in appalachia for forever, and none of us have experienced anything paranormal or endangering to us. you're one of my favorite blogs on here and i'd just like to hear your thoughts on it

first off, it means a lot that i'm one of your favorite blogs and im really happy i can contribute something to your experience here :') thanks so much for being here <333

but ok so.

my thoughts on it are many. it's been bothering me a long time and i've been meaning to get it off my chest. this will be long and probably ranty, so it won't hurt my feelings if anyone skims lol

lemme preface this little diatribe by saying the obvious: folklore is an integral part of any culture. the mythos of a place/people is tied directly to their histories and unique experiences and struggles and they are enriching. this is true of appalachia too.

oral folk traditions especially are incredibly historically appalachian.

i mentioned in a post i made yesterday about murder ballads, how the purpose of these was to warn kids away from doing dumb shit and getting lost in the hollers--falling down cliffs n mineshafts and shit at night. gettin got by wildlife.

it spooked us safe. they served a purpose, and once you got old enough to realize they're as real as the tooth fairy, they just become enjoyable and nostalgic. because they're you're culture.

probably every mountain kid has stories about haints n boogers that were told to them by their grandparents, and they grow up to tell them to their own kids, and so on. some of it stuck with me because i grew up with the folklore.

by that i mean, i'm a whole 31 year old woman and i still avoid looking out a dark window at night cause it gives me the shivers. i still get spooked when i hear a big cat yowling in the woods. but the difference is i know there's not really haints out there crying--it's just a product of my childhood. ghost stories are fun.

the problem comes in when someone outside the culture gets their hands on appalachian oral folk traditions. then, it becomes a familiar problem: outsiders cherry picking appalachia and harming us with the mess they make rifling through it all.

it's all about the surface level and the visuals. they all love a good aesthetic blog, run by some local from out west or some shit who's never stepped foot here.

but as soon as the spooky photo filters come off and the real life marginalized person is left standing there just out of frame, we go back to being disgusting examples of what not to be. decrepit churches n buildings are aesthetic and quirky until they stop being on a pinterest board, and then they just become damning images of an impoverished region who deserves to be laughed at.

now, not to holler 'splain you--this is more for anyone not from here who might read this: it's been a systemic issue for decades; there were literal government campaigns to demonize us to the rest of the nation so they could garner support to cut into our mountains and exploit our labor and resources.

well, they were fuckin successful, and we have been falsely made out to be this homogenous nightmare of a place--"welfare exploiting" maga country who deserves everything we get, and nothing we don't.

by going so far as to take appalachian folklore that we tell each other and picking out the "aesthetic" stuff--the haints and general paranormal--they are pruning what they like from our culture--the safe things, like ghost stories--for their own aesthetic use.

but not only that, they are using it to demonize us… yet again.

'appalachia is scary. it's full of things that will kill you. don't look out the window at night cause a booger will get you.' only they don't call them boogers cause they ain't even from here. ask them what a haint is and they'll ask if u mispelled 'haunt.'

it gets even worse when you consider that so much of it has roots in native american culture, and how that continues to be exploited and misrepresented.

i'm not even innocent of that. a while back i had to check myself because i made a comment on here about ~spooky appalachia~ ignorant to the fact that what i was commenting on was actually a deeply important cultural and spiritual element to local indigenous tribes. my comments were harmful by my failure to educate myself and know better, thereby saying things carelessly.

my point being--i'm from the area. i should have known better.

when outsiders start saying the kind of shit they say about what they think they hear in the woods without even knowing where such an idea comes from, they're disrespecting a displaced, abused and exploited people, harming real cultures just for clicks without even knowing. that's on top of the damage they're doing to greater appalachia.

it's fuckin gross.

i think my favorite one i ever seen was this middle aged white lady going through her pristine mcmansion somewhere in suburbia, pulling the million curtains and locking the million doors, going "nighttime routine in appalachia!! 🤪🤪"

i could be wrong about this particular person--i didn't check their other tiktoks because im sick of them accounts and tired of giving them the benefit of the doubt--but it immediately came off as a transplant because:

1) mcmansion, 2) i dont know nobody here that locks their shit down like that (not locking up could even be argued as a part of my local culture, a reflection of our deep sense of community and trust in our neighbors).

and then the comments was all like "i don't know how you guys live there" and it actually broke my heart and pissed me off because even if--especially if--you're one of us, why the fuck are you harming us for likes? why are you turning people against us in a brand new way?

and to the transplants that do this--why?

you're not even from here, you moved here to this place you hate and made it worse just so your front porch would have a nice view, and are now benefiting socially from perpetuating bullshit about us?

you buy up all the land, land we often had no choice but to sell in the first place to survive instead of passing it on to our families, land we originally took from the indigenous peoples your content comes from.

you overdevelop it and turn it unrecognizable to make it more like the comfortable cities you come from. you gut a mountain town of its local businesses and cultures, you price people out of their homes...

...and then once you settle in all cozy like, you go tell everyone else how scary it is? how you can't trust the hills? like it's a cool paranormal bravery badge to wear? fuck off entirely.

so idk, in short my personal thoughts are: i personally enjoy a little myth as a treat, because the folklore is a part of the gothic, a part of our culture and a part of my childhood. i don't (intentionally) wield it as a weapon or use it as a pedestal to get the weird brand of attention that people like them are after.

and those who do this can get got by them haints for all i care.

[marsinthecorner]

@oldgodspod featured an old story I remembered from my childhood: Tailypo. A ghost story that had me paranoid as a child, especially when I heard scratching outside the house. Mom and dad always had to reassure me it was raccoons.

[delineate-creates]

Y’all. Tyler Childers, an Appalachian bluegrass artist from Kentucky, just released a song with a music video featuring a queer love story between two coal miners called In Your Love. At this point I have no idea if he’ll get backlash for it, but I would really appreciate if you would watch the mv below and maybe give some positive engagement. I have a feeling he’ll need it.

He has a beautiful discography with really thoughtful, poignant lyrics, and imo he does a fantastic job tackling complicated topics. I highly recommend him! With all the Jason Aldean stuff going around, it feels more important than ever that we have empathetic and authentic voices in country music.

(…and unlike Jason, Tyler’s 2020 song Long Violent History actually SUPPORTS the fight against racial inequality. You can listen to it here if you’d like.)

TLDR: Stan Tyler Childers 🖤

[coldlaugh]

𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚂𝚑𝚎 𝚄𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚃𝚘 𝚂𝚗𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝙾𝚞𝚝 𝙰𝚝 𝙽𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝

𝙳𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟾, 𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟺

[pawpawholler]

I adore fanbinding and I adore this fanbinding in particular both because it's gorgeous, and because it's of one of my all time favorite fics!!

Hey another book. As noted, the lovely @hermit-writes offered a typesetting auction via @marveltrumpshate and I slew many foes to be the victor because I needed to make myself make a book.

I am very grateful they were willing to take the time to turn my longest book, Backhoe, into a beautiful file for me to print into a whole, actual book.

BEHOLD! BOOK! I made a few copies. For reasons.

It is not perfect, you all, but you can read it. I think thicker books are easier than thinner books, as far as making them look tidy? I was intimidated, but, with the major caveat that I have a lot of experience sewing by hand, it wasn't that bad sewing all the pages together.

I love this fabric. It's a woven cotton from Japan. And I made myself a little logo to put on the spine.

Y'all, I want to put that fabric in my mouth. But I didn't lick the fabric even once during production. Aren't you proud??

Please enjoy lovely typesetting by @hermit-writes

Geez, so many swear words. My kids can't read this one either. This fic is SO LONG, and also I didn't really know what I was doing as far as binding it myself and I kept asking for changes like a different font size, etc, and thanks so much for your patience!

Just, really, every page has a swear word. The little leaves dividing sections are sassafras leaves, which are one of my favorite plants, because 1. they have three kinds of leaves and all the leaf shapes are cute 2. the sticks taste kind of like root beer.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I managed to stab myself with the thing you use to make holes in the pages and got a bunch of blood on one of these copies. Who wants the copy with my blood? You are not allowed to use it to put any bad spells on me. It's not special blood, or anything. My blood does not contain any futuristic serums that can be extracted to create mutants or otherwise super powered being. It's just the regular creepy type of blood.

[mikesfag]

gravity falls AU where everything is the same except it's set in Appalachian mountains and instead of cryptids from the show there are cryptids from local Appalachian folklore. imagine the horror

[willowwormwood]

You Like Tales about Cryptids?

And short stories you can read in like 5 min?

My friends and I made a 10 page comic called "Canaries in a Coal Mine" about some kids exploring an abandoned mine, go check it out if you'd be interested! You can read it at @lamplightstories

We'll be uploading a page a day till they're all out, so stay tuned for the rest!

[churcvh]

The Poss House

visited a lovely old house that belonged to a family named the “Poss” family a few weeks ago. this is the back of the house, i didn’t get any good pictures of the front sadly. i visited with my parents and my father, who has had many “paranormal” experiences, felt very uneasy and had a huge cold spot show up behind him despite the 100+ degree Georgia heat. i didn’t capture any ghosts on camera, but we left pretty fast after that!

[burins]

I'd say I was raised, by both my mother and my father, to make my own sense of the world. And I was raised to make meaning by telling stories and listening to stories. I was taught that meaning is complex and shifting and difficult to state, and the more stories one adds to one's thinking the harder it gets to make meaning, and that is good, and a good thing to keep in mind when one sees something new—that one won't be able to make any sense of a thing until one hears not one but many stories about it. And I was raised to know that one good thing about stories is that one person might make one meaning of a story and out another person might take a different meaning from it. And I was raised to believe this ability to make our own meaning out of the world is what freedom is, and what joy is, and meaning making is a right we all have. I was raised that we all are obliged to work to make sure everyone has the right and the opportunity to tell their own story and hear everyone else's—the easy story to hear and the difficult, the happy and the sad, the comic and the tragic. And we are all obliged to work to make sure each of us has the right to hear and tell all the stories and each make our own meaning out of them and the world, and if we don't work toward that end, we are cheating our neighbor, and we are cheating ourselves of the joy of living, and should be ashamed of ourselves and should be forced to take long car rides in cars with no radio for all of eternity with people who grew up in places where they didn't learn how to tell stories.

- Robert Gipe, "How Appalachian I Am," from Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy

[powerlineprincess]

The Neugents: Close to Home by David M. Spear. Madison, North Carolina, Tabacco Road.

[pawpawholler]

Once again, really fucking annoying when people treat Appalachia like Atlantis, a mystical, mysterious place that doesn’t actually exist and they can play with, like we’re fucking paper dolls.

Try thinking of a place with a population the size of Florida’s, spread across 1/4 of the contiguous US, bound by a common poverty borne of extractive unfettered capitalism, and you can see how outsiders extracting our fucking culture for their own fucking benefit is maybe not fucking OK.

[maybemockingbird]

Hey y’all! My upcoming cannibalism romance novella Lover, Thy Name Is Pestilence is now on GoodReads and can be added to your shelves! I’m starting the formatting process this week and am hopeful that I’ll have it done soon, which means I’m opening up applications for ARCs! This is my first time doing ARCs for a self pub book, so I’m going to be selective and only send out a handful of copies, but if you want to sink your teeth into this devilishly delicious story, head to the link above to sign up on the Google Form! Applications close on 10-30-24 so I can begin sending them out hopefully starting on Halloween (I'll probably send out some earlier)! And as a reminder, Lover is available now for preorder on my site for anyone who wants a physical copy come December!

I’m so excited for this book!

🪓

Synopsis: Dakota and Ed Hollander have lived quiet, isolated lives deep in the Smoky Mountains for nearly a decade without much trouble despite the pious locals who scrutinize their way of life. Everything changes overnight as a brutal civil war decimates the United States, leaving behind a wasteland of decay and ruin in its wake. The country is shaken to its core for nearly nine months before all falls silent…

Now, in a world recovering from famine and war, Dakota and Ed fight to prepare themselves for the harsh winter that will soon arrive on their doorstep. But Dakota’s sense of safety is rattled when lost travelers come knocking, and everything Ed told them about the world post-disaster is scrutinized when the secrets hidden in the cellar desperately claw their way to the surface.

The carnage of Ed’s devotion is strewn across the snow in blood red streaks, and Dakota finds themself making Drastic choices that threaten strip away their humanity like flesh off a carcass. At the end of the world, love is written with the blade of an axe, and the most haunting plague of all may just be man’s own hubris…

Apply to be an ARC reader here!

[c0unterclockwise]

In this place I'm a child forever; my hips have not widened; I may yet become anything. The fig tree is heavy, fragrant. Tonight I lay under it and watch the stars through the foliage.

[candlelitcorners]

I see its shadow circling through the window shades. It passes the bedroom, then the kitchen, and finally the front door.

Heavy footfalls clunk in time on my back porch, and nails scrape along the outer cabin wall.

It's gurgling as it paces around tiredlessly. There's a weak cough, or did I imagine?

Soon the sun will rise and force it back down the hill and into the pond.

I've almost made it through another night.