Before going to school here I did no more than drive through once and stopped only because I got pulled over for speeding. That's sort of what I project as the general attitude and level of interest of the rest of the country in this state. So, as characterizations go, the details on Missouri are sketchy at best--there's not even a stereotype to resist.
A prototypical culture might explain why it is so difficult to project an identity onto the Show Me State.
Missouri is technically part of the region known as the Midwest, it is true. But the Midwest is undefined anyway, really just meaning somewhere between the East Coast and the American West, and somewhere not quite either of those things. Most simply conclude that means the state is unremarkable, but, more precisely, it means a universe (less two typologies) of up for grabs.
It could be that currents collide here. As evidenced by its geographic centrality. By the exact center of the U.S. population. By the frontier. And by the history of conflict.
Or it could be that Missouri is America's silent womb. Viz. Twain. And Eliot. The Oregon Trail. Walter Cronkite. And Lindbergh's transatlantic flight.
Or maybe the Show Me State is destined to name all that America would rather not. A shadow made flesh. Over and over. Like how William Munny avenged his friend Ned. Or how it gave out Truman, U.S. Grant, and the Dred Scott decision.
Most can't locate Missouri on a map. But it flares at turns. As with gun-toting lawyers or the Ferguson protests. Or lesser-noted defense industry conventions within view of the Arch. Or pandering politicians far too smart to believe what they are saying.
But with all the grade-school history rolling through Missouri like creaking trains bound for the four coasts, it's easy to overlook the newness. Oppenheimer stored the waste of the Manhattan Project on Missouri soil. It produces no mere imitation but mutation. From Rush Limbaugh to Chuck Berry, non-sequiturs emerge from Missouri and interweave into the tapestry of Americana so thoroughly it's hard to imagine their absence. Whence else would issue bastard seeds of American farming and laissez-faire capitalism but Creve Couer(--here's looking at you Monsanto!)? So, too, Sam Altman, once and future king of AI. Historic settlement, flyover country, and Southern sterotypes all fall short of describing the place. Missouri lays claim to a legacy so variegated it defies sure labeling.
tl;dr: Missouri's clutural efflux can seem like unaccountable flashes in an historic pan; yet, on examination, each proves qualitatively distinct, not derivative.
A prototypical culture might explain why it is so difficult to project an identity onto the Show Me State.
Missouri is technically part of the region known as the Midwest, it is true. But the Midwest is undefined anyway, really just meaning somewhere between the East Coast and the American West, and somewhere not quite either of those things. Most simply conclude that means the state is unremarkable, but, more precisely, it means a universe (less two typologies) of up for grabs.
It could be that currents collide here. As evidenced by its geographic centrality. By the exact center of the U.S. population. By the frontier. And by the history of conflict.
Or it could be that Missouri is America's silent womb. Viz. Twain. And Eliot. The Oregon Trail. Walter Cronkite. And Lindbergh's transatlantic flight.
Or maybe the Show Me State is destined to name all that America would rather not. A shadow made flesh. Over and over. Like how William Munny avenged his friend Ned. Or how it gave out Truman, U.S. Grant, and the Dred Scott decision.
Most can't locate Missouri on a map. But it flares at turns. As with gun-toting lawyers or the Ferguson protests. Or lesser-noted defense industry conventions within view of the Arch. Or pandering politicians far too smart to believe what they are saying.
But with all the grade-school history rolling through Missouri like creaking trains bound for the four coasts, it's easy to overlook the newness. Oppenheimer stored the waste of the Manhattan Project on Missouri soil. It produces no mere imitation but mutation. From Rush Limbaugh to Chuck Berry, non-sequiturs emerge from Missouri and interweave into the tapestry of Americana so thoroughly it's hard to imagine their absence. Whence else would issue bastard seeds of American farming and laissez-faire capitalism but Creve Couer(--here's looking at you Monsanto!)? So, too, Sam Altman, once and future king of AI. Historic settlement, flyover country, and Southern sterotypes all fall short of describing the place. Missouri lays claim to a legacy so variegated it defies sure labeling.
tl;dr: Missouri's clutural efflux can seem like unaccountable flashes in an historic pan; yet, on examination, each proves qualitatively distinct, not derivative.