New Orleans endured a tragedy of a different sort with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Happening over a week with implications that have lasted years, the results of the fury of wind and water caused death and destruction for miles and miles in a very flat and urbanized area. We could see the suffering and experience the loss on national television. Unfortunately, in West Virginia, the loss happens gradually over time as the mountains are reduced in size and the whole topography of the land begins to look more like Kansas than West Virginia. The catastrophes are smaller when the Mining Company holding ponds break causing massive flooding of a small narrow mountain valley. Only 20 to 200 usually working class or poor people are affected, and the mining brings jobs and a livelihood to many, so it becomes part of the cost to support the economy, unless, of course, it is your ancestral home that is destroyed or your son who is swept away and drowned by the torrent of toxic pond water.
This blog will be a conversation about the novel Strange As This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake. This is a contemporary novel about a family, a place, and something which threatens to destroy everything that they have ever had. It is a novel about nature, about environmental ethics, but mostly, a novel about people trying to learn what their life is about and what values that they hold the dearest and what things matter most to them. It is about love and choices and amazing discoveries. It is about the conflicts in families, the differences in siblings and often tenuous relationship between nature and human beings. The quality of our understanding of this book and what it holds for us, the reader, will depend on our ability to help each other see it from the varied perspectives that our wide experiences provide. We will be scattered all over the world, yet this discussion will unite us and bring us back together about ideas and human longings and what makes life, in the end, worth living.
Your first post should address the following concerns: What are your impressions of this family- who stands out in the story so far (which character really gets your attention)- who is likeable and who isn't and what role does the location/situation play in the development of the story. Share a particular memorable passage or situation that stands out to you explain why. Due by class time on March 27th.
