Blog #1

Heat-Moon is able to assume authority by showing the readers what he has experienced in a straightforward manner. His account of the events that took place are direct and to the point, without a lot of unnecessary reflections upon finding deeper meaning in ordinary actions. Had he spent a bigger portion of the book telling the readers his opinions on everything, it would read more like a fiction novel and less like a real-life account of his journey. Further adding to Heat-Moon’s credibility is the fact that he included photographs of some of the people mentioned in his stories. According to Thompson’s book, writers “may even utilise some of the more objectivist literary devices… incorporating into their accounts any number of tables, lists, and graphs, so as to suggest that they are giving us plain facts rather than a more subjective viewpoint” (87). Rather than just having to take his word that he met Bill and Rosemary Hammond in Brooklyn Bridge, Kentucky, he included their photograph, featuring the very boat he had just spent so many pages describing. He continued to use objectivist techniques and provide evidence throughout his book, always listing specific road names and directions, mapping out his journey for the readers. In the case of Nameless, Tennessee, he includes a picture of the whole Watts family in front of their general store, confirming that he not only met them, but he did in fact spend an afternoon at their family store. The places he mentioned are so out of the way that it is easy to think they might just not exist, but Heat-Moon provides physical evidence of his time there, bringing credibility to his novel as a whole.