Finding Faith in Salvation on Sand Mountain
The Big Issue
Salvation on Sand Mountain by Dennis Covington is a work of non-fiction that sets out initially to objectively describe a time and place—the rural South in the early 1990s, specifically the part of the rural South in which snake-handling is practiced by Christian sects. What begins as an objective exercise in describing this peculiar region and its religions practices quickly becomes a personal exercise in reflection and faith. The author becomes so immersed in the world of snake-handling that he himself becomes one. The book thus follows in the genre of the documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee, who pioneered the aesthetic/experiential form of non-fiction filmmaking by setting out to document a time and place but ultimately turning the camera on himself and his own experience of it. Covington does the same in his book, and the end result is that the entire work becomes like a phenomenological study—a journalistic exercise into a fringe religion that takes an unexpectedly personal turn and tone as the author begins to connect more and more with his subject and identify his heritage with its. Covington’s narrative thus does not really have one objective point or purpose: it starts off intending to do one thing—to write in a journalistic fashion on the Church of Jesus with Signs Following, where its preacher had been sentenced to 99 years in prison for forcing his wife to place her arm in a box of rattlesnakes, which promptly bit her. He was convicted of attempted murder. Covington went done to cover the tale. He ended up becoming part of the tale. Instead of staying a disinterested observer, he became interested—and then he became a participant. Ultimately, the point of the book is faith, and Covington’s narrative acts as slow-burn meditation on faith—and doubt—for the two grow simultaneously in Covington, side by side one another, as he voyages into his own background, his own heart, and his own mind.
How Covington Addresses the Main Issue
One could easily chalk the book up as a more staid version of Gonzo journalism—but...
References
Covington, D. (2010). Salvation on Sand Mountain. NY: Da Capo Press.
Anthropology -- Salvation on Sand Mountain: snake handling and redemption in southern Appalachia by Dennis Covington Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake handling and redemption in southern Appalachia by Dennis Covington tells the story of religious snake handling and strychnine-drinking in Appalachia. Though the author was a journalist covering the 1992 attempted murder trial of a snake handling preacher, the author's Southern background and religious search drew him to these dangerous religious
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