Where misfits fit : counterculture and influence in the Ozarks /
In Where Misfits Fit: Counterculture and Influence in the Ozarks, Thomas Michael Kersen explores the people who made a home in the Ozarks and the ways they contributed to American popular culture. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, Kersen argues the area attracts and even nurtures people and grou...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Jackson :
University Press of Mississippi,
[2021]
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| Summary: | In Where Misfits Fit: Counterculture and Influence in the Ozarks, Thomas Michael Kersen explores the people who made a home in the Ozarks and the ways they contributed to American popular culture. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, Kersen argues the area attracts and even nurtures people and groups on the margins of the mainstream. These include UFO enthusiasts, cults, musical troupes and back-to-the-land groups. Kersen examines how the Ozarks became a haven for creative, innovative, even nutty people to express themselves, a place where community could be reimagined in a variety of ways. It is in these communities that communitas, or a deep social connection, emerges. Each of the nine chapters focuses on a facet of the Ozarks, and Kersen often compares two or more cases to generate new insights and questions. Chapters examine real and imagined identity and highlight how the area has contributed to popular culture through analysis of the Eureka Springs energy vortex, fictional characters like Li'l Abner, cultic activity, environmentally minded communes and the development of rockabilly music and near-communal rock bands such as Black Oak Arkansas. |
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| Physical Description: | x, 255 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781496835420 1496835425 9781496835437 1496835433 9781496835451 149683545X 9781496835444 1496835441 9781496835468 1496835468 9781496835475 1496835476 |