The Appalachian Personality

The Appalachian Personality BEGINNING A SERIES OF FIVE INTERVIEWS WITH PROMINENT APPALACHIANS by RON LARSON 29 WILMA DYKEMAN Born and reared in Asheville, North Carolina, and a graduate of Northwestern Universal/, Wilma Dykeman is a columnist for the Knoxville News-Sentinel. She is the author of three novels and six works of non-fiction, three of which she co-authored with her husband, James Stokely. She has won numerous awards, including The Thomas Wolfe Memorial Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She was interviewed in her home January 13, 1982, at Newport, Tennessee. L- In your biography of Appalachian benefactor W. D. Weatherford, Prophet of Plenty, you quote Erich Fromm: "The shift from a psychology of scarcity to that of abundance is one of the most important steps in human development. A psychology of scarcity produces anxiety, envy, egotism (to be seen most dramatically in peasant cultures all over the world). A psychology of abundance produces initiative, faith in life, solidarity." Apparently , that quote influenced the title of the biography. D- It fit into the title of the book. The reason I wanted to call it Prophet ofPlenty was because Dr. Weatherford was very influential in awakening America and Appalachia to the fact of Appalachia's problems. He had approached the Ford Foundation about doing this big study, An Appalachian Survey, which he conducted and which was published by the University Press of Kentucky. There had not been any kind of a survey of this sort for over a quarter of a century. The fact that he did this indicated that he felt there was so much here. Also, there was so much lacking. So, you see, it was a kind of hole-or-thedonut story. One can see Appalachia as the stereotype—as many people persist in seeing it today—simply being a region of scarcity. Yes, a great deal is needed here; there's a great deal that must be done. Of course, this holds true anyplace in the world today, some more than others. But you can see Appalachia as a place of rich natural resources, and particularly rich resources in people. This was exactly what Dr. Weatherford understood perhaps better than anyone I have ever known. He had a real sense about awakening people—especially young people—to their potential. He said every person should do whatever he does best to the limit of his potential. L- Regarding the Fromm quote: is there a lot of envy, egotism, and anxiety in the Southern Appalachian region? D- I think you misread it if you see that stressed. Naturally if people do not have jobs, they are hungry, they are anxious. But I think what Fromm is referring to is that if one sees that there is abundance, if there is a potential to be developed, then one can overcome anxiety, egotism, and envy. This, of course, is one of the things we've needed to do in Appalachia. We need to look again at our resources so that we can use them to our benefit rather than to the benefit of somebody else. 30 L- Eric Wolfe's Peasants stresses that there is much egotism and envy in agrarian societies. A lot of writers have commented on the self-centered nature of the traditional Appalachian person. D- How are these people more self-centered than those in the culture of Newport, Rhode Island? Or those in the culture of Fifth Avenue, New York? If there is one thing that characterizes so much of our culture today, it's self-centeredness. Look at the work of John Updike. Look at the work of John Cheever. I think that, naturally, we have concern for ourselves. It's true that Appalachian people don't always respond in the community way that others would like for them to. Yet people do organize, as witness the strength of unions in West Virginia. People get themselves together in different ways, is what I'm saying. So I question the whole matter of being self-centered. We're all selfcentered . L- This is what Cratis Williams told me. He said it's a matter of honesty: Appalachian people don't disguise self-centeredness. Of course...