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Professor/Author Ron Rash – Cullowhee, N.C.
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Interviewed on Nov. 14, 2017
I interviewed Professor Rash in his office at Western Carolina University for about one hour. We discussed the presence of the supernatural, including conjuring, in his novels. He is a popular Appalachian writer of novels, poems and short stories, and one of the most critically acclaimed authors working in the United States right now. With multiple works on the New York Times Best Sellers List, he has also won numerous prestigious awards for authors. His books are translated into 16 languages, and he travels nationally and internationally speaking about his books and about Appalachia. I wanted his perspective because of references to conjuring, superstition, folk remedies, granny women, pagan influences, and Christian faith in his writing.
I asked him why he chooses to include so much of these aspects of Appalachian culture in his writing because my research had only included first and second hand personal interviews, no information about conjuring’s presence in fiction or other art forms. He said that he believes that this aspect of the Appalachian culture is very important because it demonstrates the great depth and richness of the culture. He said that these beliefs and practices reflect a people who are capable of deep intuition and power, much like their rich language uses metaphors and colloquialisms to reflect great intellect and creative capacity. He also said he definitely believes in conjuring and has seen it work himself. Growing up in North Carolina, he had stories of people buying warts. One story he recounted talked about a man who could conjure warts talking to another man who had warts on both hands, but didn’t believe in conjuring. The conjurer said, “which hand do you want me to take them off of?” and they chose one hand. The conjurer removed them from that hand, and they went away, but stayed on the other hand. Rash told the story as plain fact and had no reservations about his belief in this and other Appalachian traditions. In one of his novels, he describes someone curing Thrush in a person’s mouth, one of the types of healing in my research.
When I asked him how he thought it worked and what the origin of such powers could be, he said, “It’s just in the world. I believe there are many things in the world that we cannot see.” He said that cultures that are especially in tune with nature have abilities and knowledge that others might not have. He compared it to a native tribe of South Americans he had read about who have developed the ability to see a particular star that no one else can see. Several of his works include Granny Women, which are old women in a rural community that people go to for help. Help with an ailment or sickness, help with relationship problems, help birthing a baby, and help with crops, among other things. This introduces the idea of witches, which some would equate a Granny Woman to. Pagan superstitions like killing a black snake and draping it over a fence to bring rain and using “the signs” (astrology) to plant crops and explain human and animal behavior are also essential parts of Rash’s fiction. Once when interviewed by the Poetry Foundation about this practice, Rash responded that “one of his favorite themes, Rash said, is the meeting of paganism and Christianity, such as when an Appalachian Christian farmer kills ‘black snakes…to make it rain.”
Certainly, Rash’s use of supernatural aspects of Appalachian culture captures the art of conjuring in a different genre, but provides additional proof of its existence and importance.
