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Housekeeping

• Thanks for the two of you who took the survey! From what I can tell, things are working well in class. If any of you need clarity about the class (assignments, objectives...), would you come and talk to me? I would be MORE than happy to talk to you all here or during office hours!  

Agenda:

Worlding in the Work of Breece DJ Pancake

Reading:

• "Trilobites":  https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1977/12/trilobites/376288/
• Teays River: https://geosurvey.ohiodnr.gov/portals/geosurvey/PDFs/GeoFacts/geof10.pdf  
• China's Gold Rush in the Hills of Appalachia: http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/07/the-thrill-of-the-hunt-ginseng-smuggling-poaching-boone-north-carolina-china/  
• Danny Marion "The Chinese Poet Awakens": https://muse.jhu.edu/article/435520/pdf  
• Rita Quillen: http://windpub.com/books/secretdream.htm  
• Interview with Dr. Edwina Pendarvis - Chinese/US connections.
• Coal Country Context: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/12/is_coal_mining_dying_in_appala.html 
• Chemical Valley: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140116-chemical-valley-west-virginia-chemical-spill-coal/ (

Today we're looking at what a conference presentation of a research paper looks like! At the end of the semester, you are going to give 10-minute conference-style presentations. I'm going to model that today with my own conference presentation on "Worlding" in Breece DJ Pancake's "Trilobites."

Worlding Trilobites 

The short story opens with a brief discussion of the Teays River and how it shaped local geography. The pre-glacial Teays River, named for the riverless Teays Valley. In West Virginia, the Teays River valley makes up a part of New River, so it's an ancient river that's still alive. However, the story is set in one of the dry river basins.  

The Teays River becomes a metaphor and guiding principal for Colly, the narrator. 

The Geological Axis: 

Colly's thoughts swing wildly up and down a geological axis that makes the Teays River Valley famous. Things of value in Colly's life, from the turtles and fossils he hunts to his father, all rotate along this vertical axis. Nothing and everything is buried in Colly's life and this flux immobilizes him until he is able to let his fear drop along that axis: "I feel my fear moving away in rings through time for a million years" (37). 

• Trilobites
• Gastropods
• Pterodactyls 
• Coal
• Pop
• Turtles

Hunting Fossils Adventure 

The Global Geographic Axis: 

Michigan Auto Industry

According to Michael Bradshaw's The Appalachian Regional Commission (1992), Michigan has traditionally been a site of Appalachian migration and a symbol of economic hope for people in this region. 

Pop's journey to Michigan models this migration as does Colly's ultimate decision to follow in his footsteps. However, the Teasy River gives this journey northwest another layer of significance of Colly, who is trying to come to terms with his need to leave his home. 

Pop's trip to Michigan ends with him joining the army and serving in World War II, where he fights along the Elbe River in Germany and buries treasure. His adventure is compounded by an injury that knocks him unconscious, during which he takes an imagined (or spiritual) journey around the world and visits China. 

China and Germany become a part of Colly's imagined world and future as he prepares to leave his Appalachian home at the end of the story. At first he fears that leaving with immolate him: "I see myself scattered, every cell miles from the other" (34). But by the end he realizes he can hold onto himself as he leaves his home behind and joins the imagined flow of the Teays River.