海角大神

People have chuckled at the accents, expressions, and get-ups of their country cousins since the first hunter-gatherers settled in the town of Bedrock 鈥� and, a little later, moved on up to the East Side. (I say, Muffy, did you hear those rubes hootin鈥� and hollerin鈥�?)

And for just as long, city slickers have been brought up short by the virtue, wit, and honesty of rural folk. Nowhere was hayseed dialect better used to deliver trenchant truths than in 鈥淭he Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.鈥� Through the voice of an uneducated river-town boy, Mark Twain skewered pretense, pride, and the shameful inhumanity of slavery and racism. Huck鈥檚 surface simplicity and the adventure he and Jim had on the Mississippi is the sugarcoating that generations of readers have enjoyed while being urged to think more deeply about the society the two were fleeing.

Not every homespun tale is as powerfully subversive as Huck鈥檚, but even in broad comedies like 鈥淭he Beverly Hillbillies鈥� or gentle ones like 鈥淭he Andy Griffith Show鈥� bumpkins usually prove to be wiser, or at least more genuine, than their urbane counterparts, whose snobbery is its own kind of stereotype. Of course, there鈥檚 a little acting involved as well. I once ran into Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon 鈥� aka Minnie Pearl 鈥� at a conference in Nashville, Tenn. She didn鈥檛 greet me with a big ol鈥� 鈥渉owDEE!鈥� but a polite 鈥渉ello.鈥� Impeccably dressed and coiffed, with nary a price tag in sight, she could have chaired a Federal Reserve meeting.

And as you鈥檒l see in Patrik Jonsson鈥檚 cover story (click here to read it), behind country comedy and 鈥淪wamp People鈥� shenanigans is an enduring culture that celebrates work, self-sufficiency, and life close to the land (or water).听

One cultural analyst tells Patrik: 鈥淭his is deep in American mythology.鈥� Or as Jeff Foxworthy, who has made a living off 鈥測ou might be a redneck鈥� jokes, once said: 鈥淵ou can call us rednecks if you want. We鈥檙e not offended, 鈥檆ause we know what we鈥檙e all about. We get up and go to work, we get up and go to church, and we get up and go to war when necessary.鈥�

That is not to praise everything a bubba does. There鈥檚 bad behavior in rural America. Which makes it like the rest of America and the world. But there鈥檚 definitely local color there, which is why Hollywood returns to it time and again (currently with a slew of 鈥渞edneck TV鈥� reality shows) and why country music tops the charts and launches crossover artists such as Taylor Swift.

There鈥檚 a little country in everybody. For me, Texas, where I grew up, is a feeling that floods in when I hear the strains of country fiddle or meet someone with a comfortable drawl. My heroes haven鈥檛 always been cowboys, but I like their music and free spirit.

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Those traits travel well, too. You can find them in my corner of New England and everywhere in the world that can use some hootin鈥� and hollerin鈥� from time to time.

John Yemma is editor-at-large of the Monitor. He can be reached at yemma@csmonitor.com.