Dear Mr. Bissell,
... as I got halfway through the article, I was delighted by this rich
new tour of a territory I had traveled often before... It was thus quite
a shock to see my own name. (I even stopped reading to think which other
“John Clayton” you could be quoting. Couldn’t be the ESPN reporter, nor
the 19th century botanist, nor the jazz musician… don’t tell me there’s
another one!) It was a further shock to see how much real estate I took
up. Having just concluded that you had enough voice to carry this piece
yourself, I was surprised to see you quoting from anywhere else.
And then, I must admit, I sighed in frustration at some of the ways
you interpreted my book. For example:
I don’t believe the urban lifestyle is “toxic,” and
if memory serves I never used that word. The lifestyle doesn’t work for
some people (it didn’t for me). Those people share some frustrations that
may (or may not) be met by moving to a small town.
I find rural protocol far less draconian than that
of the suburbs. It depends on the town, of course. But I personally feel
fewer societal impositions here than I did even in Boston.
I hope my discussion of expectations was not merely
implied. This was a central principle of the book, because so much frustration
for individuals and small towns results from a mismatch of expectations.
But it’s not that you shouldn’t expect very much -- it’s that you shouldn’t
expect what you get in the city. Small towns are different places; to
expect them to be mini-cities is to deny yourself (and, potentially, your
new neighbors) precisely the qualities you sought in them.
The fact that the small town is never “now” or “you”
is indeed the reason I wrote the book, the gap I tried to bridge. Perhaps
I failed at that, perhaps I have not fully bridged it myself. But to use
the gap’s existence against me is like telling the Wright Brothers that
they intend to fly.
I am not Norman Crampton and I eschewed his “Top 10”
approach for exactly the reasons you cite. Despite their ridiculous foundation,
such books do a tremendous amount of damage, and after you had so vividly
targeted him, I was especially frustrated to find the trigger pulled on
me.
Though I have regrets about writing, “The good small
towns are booming. The bad ones are dying,” hypocrisy is not among them.
This was a rueful observation, not a decree. You seem to be observing
the same thing. My regrets center around vocabulary: this text seems especially
pedestrian when juxtaposed with your high-octane prose. I could have gone
back and polished those words. In particular, I could have better defined
“good” and “bad.” (Remember, I’m not Crampton. Indeed, for what it’s worth,
friends tell me I would really like Escanaba.) Furthermore, I could have
expanded on the notion that “booming” is not a positive concept. Boomtowns
are equally bereft of the unique qualities that people pursue in small
towns, in ways that your citations of Provincetown and Beaufort barely
hint at.
One aspect of your article that gave me pause was that
the conclusion seemed disingenuous: a book editor suddenly discovering
the notion of “audience.” Yet [my audience is]... a targeted audience,
people who feel vaguely dissatisfied with urban lifestyles and wonder
if they might prefer a small town. It’s a decent-sized audience, but by
no means universal. In fact, the “anti-audience” for Small Town Bound
is most substantially people who grew up in and fled the small town. Your
perspectives are nearly opposite those of me and my main audience. (For
example, I suspect you equated “boom” with “succeed,” and did so because
it’s so ingrained in the rural psyche.) Neither is wrong, they’re just
different. I’ve had many rich discussions on the issue, and hope to have
many more...
Though I felt the need to explain, I must also tell you that I felt
a real thrill in having my favorite magazine trash my only published book.
I have long dreamed of having my name in Harper’s (though I didn’t
quite expect it this way…). You took my book seriously. You chose it over
others that attempted similar aims. You engaged it, responding thoughtfully.
You allowed me to play a far larger role in the cultural discussion than
I had expected when I sent a tiny book proposal out into the world. My
thanks go out to you.
Sincerely,
John Clayton
