The New Reality

So last week I shared a link on FB about the percentage of people below the poverty line being the highest since 1993, and in hard numbers this puts the US at the highest number of poor people ever. This led to a great debate among a couple of my FB friends—very civil and with lots of back-up sources—it was pretty cool, actually, to have civilized dialog from very different views, but then, I DO have fabulous friends.

Family living in car in Atlanta - source

One of the things brought up in this debate was the 'new oil boom'. Now I'd heard a little something on this, as one of my long-time friends has been unemployed (he's a civil engineer and cash-strapped states have badly tightened their belts, so a lot of the work that kept him going for 15 years has dried up), and HE mentioned the oil fields... at the time, I was 'say what?'--I just hadn't paid attention to that level of news.

Anyway, this oil boom has led to a housing shortage... in Eastern Montana, of all places. But then just that night I learn a 2nd degree relative (technically once removed... erm...) is MOVING to one of these fields in North Dakota. (in a 5th wheel trailer with a daughter—so yes, housing shortage... I can tell you, I'm not sure I'd want to winter in North Dakota in a trailer)


And it got me thinking...

Construction Grand Coulee Dam, Grand Coulee, WA

Digression: My Stepdad, the Dam Kid

My stepdad grew up in the 50s with his father, an electrician who specialized in the set-up of dams... you heard me, hydro-electric power—those giant things that block rivers in exchange for electricity... there was a TIME there weren't all that many, but post-WW2, America wanted MORE POWER... Anyway, he and his family moved all over the US as his dad worked on one dam and then another. He went to 3 high schools... for a while he and his dad moved on to the next place while his mom and sisters stayed (his older sister wanting to finish high school in a place she wasn't a stranger). I think it was hard on their family in some ways, but really developed character in others. And I think several families moved together—the same type of crew needed for each new location—almost like the military that way.

Back to My Story

So is this happening again? Or might it? I can see a reasonable application of this model in wind. Windmills can be built pretty much anywhere with open land... and there surely is some specialized skill in the building. Now oil is limited to where there are oil reserves, so the set up there isn't going to jump place to place to place. But it just seemed there may, in this economy, be a new, necessary mobilization.


I wonder how long this stuff will take to come to books. What comes to mind is Steinbeck's Dustbowl stuff, but maybe that is the pessimist in me. Still, can you imagine living in a normal city, leading a normal life, and being uprooted to move to a trailer in North Dakota. (don't get me wrong, North Dakota has some charm—I actually think Bismark is a charming little city, even if I only spent a lunch there on my drive moving here from Oregon). But MAN, those winters! And the emotional upheaval of moving to pretty much the middle of nowhere... what stories might there be?

You have any first or second degree experiences with the new realities?  You think any of them might make your books?

For Richer For Poorer

So on Sunday I was doing my computer thing... a little blogging, a little reading, a little typing... and on the side I decided to run a movie. I opened Netflix, looked at recommendations, and under Indie movies found one called Winter's Bone.


It was about a teenage girl, dirt poor. Her father had left them to cook meth. Her mom went fairly nuts.. not wild insane nuts, but crawl inside and get unresponsive nuts... she has a younger brother and a younger sister who desperately need caring for. Right at the beginning she takes her horse to the neighbors' to ask if they can keep it—they don't have money for hay.

She's teaching her siblings to hunt so they can survive

And then the police show up. Her dad has jumped bail. He signed over the house she and her family live in to get out (even though the worthless lout left it years earlier), and if he doesn't show up in court the next week, they lose it. She decides she will find him.  And it is quite a morass of secretive (mostly related, mostly also meth connected) lowlifes...

Now this movie sometimes moved a little slow—it was subtle. Not high action for the most part. But MAN, it tugged at me. The situation was so dire. What this poor girl had to take on was so heavy It was just a really great story of the power of will and the determination to take care of those who depended on her.


And it got me thinking...

See, last week, I got into a conversation about classics we didn't like... and of course there Falkner is my biggie, but that's beside the point... what it reminded me of was not liking The Great Gatsby. It isn't the same 'oh Digression, I can't read this crap' that I feel for Falkner. It was more an 'oh my Digression, how can I give a crap about these spoiled pampered people?'


I think you see where I'm going here.


Now there are exceptions... I have rich people stories I can get along with... say... Bonfire of the Vanities... *cough*

Actually, my favorite book has nobility—War and Peace is royalty... But think about the heart strings pulled in Les Miserables... How a stolen loaf of bread FOR NEED, leads to all that...

As for me, this is more compelling...

Now I know some people read to escape and pretend they ARE the characters... they like stories about beautiful people with lots of money. But I just CAN'T CARE for the most part. I think I need sympathy and I don't have a lot for people who get most of their life handed to them. I also can't get behind stories of rags to riches, really, as I don't see riches ALONE as a worthy goal, though I DO see causing justice and ending up with riches as often enjoyable. Mostly though, I can't value stories that value money, unless it is from the perspective of having none (because that's realistic—you need a certain amount to survive)

(and I definitely recommend the movie, by the way)


So what about you? Do you have a strong preference for one kind of story or another?