As a longtime fan of High Country News, I have depended on HCN’s insightful and balanced journalism on Western U.S. issues for many years.
So I am surprised by “The Atomic Road Trip” (HCN, 5/13/19), in which everyone and every place is guilty of one awful thing or another. The authors’ judgmental over-simplifications neglect a multitude of historical and contemporary complexities.
The two Ph.D. candidates seem romanced by deconstruction and post-structuralist criticism, somewhat tired academic techniques at this point. As co-chair of a graduate art school department for 24 years, I and my grad students also delved into critical theory and employed its useful strategies for locating power dynamics. However, post-structuralism is just one method, and, when swallowed whole, leads to the myopic litany of guilt that fills this article.
I hope this article was an isolated instance, and HCN will continue its solid interpretive journalism.
Katherine McCoy
Buena Vista, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline HCN goes post-structuralist.
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