Noodling Research Goes Hollywood (Sort Of)
An MU Researcher Gets a (Small) Chance to Explain the Sociology of this Culture
There's nothing like having a part in a silver screen movie, even if the subject is noodling.
Mary Grigsby, associate professor of rural sociology, was included in a new documentary film called Okie Noodling II. The documentary, produced by Roadside Cinema, made its local debut July 1-5, 2008, at the RagTag Cinema in Columbia, Mo. The film was a follow-on project to Okie Noodling, released in 2001.
While 1930's movie star Lana Turner was said to have been discovered at Schwab's Drug Store in Hollywood, fame found Grisby in rural Missouri conducting field research on noodling. Grigsby notes that "noodling is often called hand fishing or rock fishing in Missouri and involves submerging into rivers or lakes and feeling under the banks for holes where catfish are spawning. Fingers are used as a lure to catch the catfish by hand."
How did a respected researcher with a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri come to the attention of a filmmaker on this subject?
"The director, Bradley Beasley, and his film crew showed up in the same location where I was conducting fieldwork on noodling last summer," Grigsby said. "He asked if he could interview me about my research. I told him about my research on noodling as a folk tradition practiced by some rural-identified Missourians."
Noodling has been illegal in Missouri since 1919 except for during trial legal seasons in 2005 and 2006 on sections of three rivers. "Beasley chose to emphasize the contemporary struggle over legalization of noodling in Missouri, which is not the focus of my research," Grigsby explained.
"Unfortunately, only two short quotes were used in the video. Nothing about my research was used in the film," Grisby said.
Beasley's first film, Okie Noodling, is considered the closest thing in popular culture to a serious examination of noodling and spawned the First Annual Okie Noodling Tournament. The documentary's subsequent airing on PBS affiliates has, if not made the sport more popular, raised its profile to more than just a local phenomenon.
Why is Grigsby studying this phenomena?
Grigsby said she became curious about why noodling has persisted as a folk tradition in Missouri despite its illegality, potential danger and physical challenge. This was the hook that got her interested in studying noodling.
"As a sociologist, my interest in noodling is in the social and cultural dimensions of the practice," she said. "My research explores the ways that men and women of different ages use noodling to define their group identity and how the practice functions as a tool for elders in teaching the younger generation the norms and values of the rural-identified community culture."
Respect is essential in order to have the group work well together as a team, Grigsby said. "As elders teach the young to noodle, embedded within the teaching of the practice is the teaching of norms of trust, respect and community solidarity. I'm not so much interested in the techniques of how to noodle as I am how the ways people make meaning of those techniques, reveal the culture of the group and why it is important to them."
Studying this tradition also helps the larger society understand why noodling has persisted as a cultural tradition, why it continues to be an important way of life and the way it links certain groups to their cultural roots.
Stay tuned, maybe Okie Noodling III will become the definitive scientific documentary.
Photo credit: Gary Grigsby
