“To think of the Midwest as a whole as anything other than beautiful is to ignore the extraordinary power of the land. The lushness of the grass and trees in August, the roll of the hills (far less of the Midwest is flat than outsiders seem to imagine), the rich smell of soil, the evening sunlight over a field of wheat, or the crickets chirping at dusk on a residential street: All of it, it has always made me feel at peace. There is room to breathe, there is a realness of place. The seasons are extreme, but they pass and return, pass and return, and the world seems far steadier than it does from the vantage point of a coastal city. Certainly picturesque towns can be found in New England or California or the Pacific Northwest, but I can't shake the sense that they're too picturesque. On the East Coast, especially, these places seem to me aggressively quaint, unbecomingly smug, and even xenophobic, downright paranoid in their wariness of those who might somehow infringe upon the local charm. I suspect this wariness is tied to the high cost of real estate, the fear that there might not be enough space or money and what there is of both must be clung to and defended. The West Coast, I think, has a similar self-regard...and a beauty that I can't help seeing as show-offy. But the Midwest: It is quietly lovely, not preening with the need to have its attributes remarked on. It is the place I am calmest and most myself.”

Curtis Sittenfeld, American Wife

***

Finally, someone gets it.

Midwest culture is a person you’ve never seen before in your life givin you a lil awkward smile and a ‘mornin as they walk by

My roommate @bannedbookreader got involved in a discussion over what exactly constitutes the Midwest, they informed me of this and I figured what the fuck I’m bored so without further ado: Here is what I consider the Midwest- a geographical essay by Joan Daniels:

Part 1: The US Bureau of Labour Statistics Defines the Midwest as…

States falling within the Midwestern Census District: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota (listed from east to west)

Or this! Seems pretty straightforward, right? But consider, if you will, that the borders of census regions are largely determined by partisan district in the United States rather than geographic or cultural regions which is a bit fucked in my humble opinion, hard to interact with people who share cultural ties with you if don’t know you share them. In the rest of the world New Yorkers and Hoosier would be considered neighbors because we both share the cultural heritage of being Great Lakes States. However, the Department of Labor Statistics doesn’t recognize this or discuss New York and Indiana as having similar concerns because the Republicans hold a stronghold in what they define as the Midwest but not what actually *is* the Midwest so

Part 2: What *Actually* Is The Midwest

The region we know as the Midwest formed during the early Pleistocene when rapid glaciation lead to creation of a massive expanse of flattened plain regions across North America extending from northern Mexico to the Canadian Shield which has developed over time into various geographic regions.

These can be defined as: The Great Lakes Region, The Great Plains Region, and Tornado Alley

Accounting for these regions the Midwest extends to include: Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Missouri, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, and North Carolina in the United States; as well as Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba in Canada.

Now before you say that my map is too big consider the cultural ties: the way our various states steel industries built up around the Great Lakes, the knowledge we have of the turbulence of our freshwater basin, the collective fear we all have of the tornados in the summer, as well as our shared cultural history represented through our food. We’re a lot bigger than we’re given credit for, we have a lot more in common than people, and we matter.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Sources:

Bureau of Labour Statistics (provided map)

Wiki on Indiana regions

Wiki on Tornado Alley

Wiki on Great Plains

USA and Canada Political Map (edited)

I know I'm from the Midwest bec I hear thunderstorms and get excited and wanna go seeee

Scoopy the Culvers mascot is Monokuma’s cousin

Midwest culture is seeing three cars on the road and thinking "oh wow there's a lot of traffic today".

Via oldschoolhat

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"A lot of the people of the Midwest came from the Northeast. We're of the same stock. Yet something must have happened when we crossed the Ohio River Valley because I have sensed that there's more of an openness and flexibility of spirit out West."

Jane Hamilton

me: yeah so anyways that’s one of the reasons Algonquin languages are so cool since they’re words of parting are always temporary and translate to a sort of definitive “whether or not in this plane, i’ll see you again”

my dad: so it’s like Kwik Trip!

midwestern tops be like "ope, just gonna squeeze right inside ya"

in my tremor it slipped from my hands, and fell heavily, and burst into pieces; and from it, with a rattling sound, there rolled out some instruments of dental surgery, intermingled with thirty-two small, white and ivory-looking substances that were scattered to and fro about the floor.

𝔅𝔩𝔲𝔢 𝔐𝔞𝔤𝔦𝔠 ✨