National Geographic goes to North Dakota for an article about all the people who aren't there anymore.
Basically, 100 some years ago, folks were overly optimistic about the number of people who would show up and how many would be able to make a living there.
Talk about negative press hey. That article portrays us N. Dakodans(sic)as a very depressed lot. Apparently, we live in broken down shacks just barely making a survival. It's a wonder we don't just stare out a window at the frozen expanse all day. What a load of bolongna. I love this state and its rural nature. My wife and I moved here many years ago on purpose. The extremes of the weather are there to make you feel tough. The sparse population is so you don't step on eachother's toes. The economy is going just fine. Everyone I know who wants to work, has a job. The gloom and doom is fictional. Just like the Nat. Geographic article.
I've found myself defending the article. It is heavy on the desolation part, but I think it depicts one of the main economic stories in the state, that the small-town farm economy can't support rural living like it used to.
Compare ND to the Rust Belt. Detroit probably has more abandoned homes than ND, and people there are probably just as irked at all the bad press they get, but the decline of the car industry in Michigan is a simple economic fact the same as the evolution of the ag industry on the Plains.
Granted, NG only made passing mention of the growth of the state's cities. But you're not going to see them print an article on Bismarck's new chain stores (though they did write about Fargo's increasing hip-ness a few years ago.)
I thought the article was interesting as a documentation of the decline of a way of life, and I don't think it was meant to say that the whole state is uniformly empty and bleak.
If they ran an article on how pretty the Badlands are, would you be upset that it ignored the flat farmland of the Red River Valley?
It didn't capture at all what it was like for me growing up. That, however, is irrelevant, since the article didn't claim to be about the personal experiences of happy and/or embittered North Dakotans. Instead, it was supposed to be a blanket article on the state of the state, in as much as title selection and broad general useage of "North Dakota" was used.
As documentation on the decline of a way of life -- fine. However, the gist of the article, as inidcated by its title, wasn't one of documenting a "decline of a way of life" but the death of an entire state.
If it was meant to show something specific -- i.e. the decline of population in the western part of the state, for example, then the title should have reflected as such. It in no way encompasses the state in either geography or interview subjects, yet purported to speak for the entire state while focusing only on a small segment and aspect of it.
Lousy article. If you grew up and disliked your North Dakota experience, I'm sorry for you. But that does not make a good article out of what Bowdon scantily wrote.
There's no denying many rural areas of North Dakota have largely cleared out. I was just at my parent's house and there are homes for sale all over.
As a kid, I used to take a four wheeler to all the abandoned neighbor farms and explore. They were quite beautiful. That is what the article reminded me of. Many of the homes had furniture and other personal items left behind. I always wondered what happened.
Perhaps I am a bit nostalgic. When I talk to older North Dakotans, much like the gentleman that was quoted in the article, I find myself in complete agreement about many economic issues. What happened to the collective spirit of the farmer? Now we have a state government dominated by pimps ready to whore the state out to any suit and tie with a fat bank account.
It isn't just ND though, that is a good point. It is happening all over.
My grandparents were born in the Russian Empire. In their lifetimes, nearly the whole German-Russian population they came from disappeared. So did Imperial Russia. So did the type of farming they practiced in Western North Dakota. Historical forces sweep away communities and traditions, and that's what's happening in rural North Dakota.
I don't think the article was meant to be A Guide to North Dakota: The Whole Damn State. In the author's bio it says he "writes frequently about human migration." I think that was what he was trying to portray, not that North Dakota is nasty and awful.
But if readers didn't see that, I guess it's his failure as a writer. But then again, North Dakotans are touchy about this sort of thing.
6 comments:
Talk about negative press hey.
That article portrays us N. Dakodans(sic)as a very depressed lot. Apparently, we live in broken down shacks just barely making a survival. It's a wonder we don't just stare out a window at the frozen expanse all day. What a load of bolongna. I love this state and its rural nature. My wife and I moved here many years ago on purpose. The extremes of the weather are there to make you feel tough. The sparse population is so you don't step on eachother's toes. The economy is going just fine. Everyone I know who wants to work, has a job. The gloom and doom is fictional. Just like the Nat. Geographic article.
-dave
I've found myself defending the article. It is heavy on the desolation part, but I think it depicts one of the main economic stories in the state, that the small-town farm economy can't support rural living like it used to.
Compare ND to the Rust Belt. Detroit probably has more abandoned homes than ND, and people there are probably just as irked at all the bad press they get, but the decline of the car industry in Michigan is a simple economic fact the same as the evolution of the ag industry on the Plains.
Granted, NG only made passing mention of the growth of the state's cities. But you're not going to see them print an article on Bismarck's new chain stores (though they did write about Fargo's increasing hip-ness a few years ago.)
I thought the article was interesting as a documentation of the decline of a way of life, and I don't think it was meant to say that the whole state is uniformly empty and bleak.
If they ran an article on how pretty the Badlands are, would you be upset that it ignored the flat farmland of the Red River Valley?
I thought it was a great article. It captured pretty much exactly how I grew up.
I thought the article sucked, and said as much.
It didn't capture at all what it was like for me growing up. That, however, is irrelevant, since the article didn't claim to be about the personal experiences of happy and/or embittered North Dakotans. Instead, it was supposed to be a blanket article on the state of the state, in as much as title selection and broad general useage of "North Dakota" was used.
As documentation on the decline of a way of life -- fine. However, the gist of the article, as inidcated by its title, wasn't one of documenting a "decline of a way of life" but the death of an entire state.
If it was meant to show something specific -- i.e. the decline of population in the western part of the state, for example, then the title should have reflected as such. It in no way encompasses the state in either geography or interview subjects, yet purported to speak for the entire state while focusing only on a small segment and aspect of it.
Lousy article. If you grew up and disliked your North Dakota experience, I'm sorry for you. But that does not make a good article out of what Bowdon scantily wrote.
There's no denying many rural areas of North Dakota have largely cleared out. I was just at my parent's house and there are homes for sale all over.
As a kid, I used to take a four wheeler to all the abandoned neighbor farms and explore. They were quite beautiful. That is what the article reminded me of. Many of the homes had furniture and other personal items left behind. I always wondered what happened.
Perhaps I am a bit nostalgic. When I talk to older North Dakotans, much like the gentleman that was quoted in the article, I find myself in complete agreement about many economic issues. What happened to the collective spirit of the farmer? Now we have a state government dominated by pimps ready to whore the state out to any suit and tie with a fat bank account.
It isn't just ND though, that is a good point. It is happening all over.
My grandparents were born in the Russian Empire. In their lifetimes, nearly the whole German-Russian population they came from disappeared. So did Imperial Russia. So did the type of farming they practiced in Western North Dakota. Historical forces sweep away communities and traditions, and that's what's happening in rural North Dakota.
I don't think the article was meant to be A Guide to North Dakota: The Whole Damn State. In the author's bio it says he "writes frequently about human migration." I think that was what he was trying to portray, not that North Dakota is nasty and awful.
But if readers didn't see that, I guess it's his failure as a writer. But then again, North Dakotans are touchy about this sort of thing.
Post a Comment