Vanishing Village

Preserving a sense of community

Mark Smith

Pahrump Valley Times

How do you maintain a village so it remains a village?

Had a good talk Saturday morning with Evan Blythin, who recently published Vanishing Village: The Struggle for Community in the New West  C ityLife Books, Las Vegas.

He was in town at the community library Saturday morning, chatting with interested residents and signing and selling his book.

Evan is a sculptor and musician who holds a doctorate from University of Colorado and retired after 30 years as a communications studies professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

His book considers the plight of the small town that faces growing stress due to the anonymous urban life that looms over the horizon. In brief, where people in a small rural community know each other’s names and recognize the faces of their neighbors, the same cannot be said for those who live in, say, Summerlin or Centennial or Sunrise Manor.

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Retired UNLV professor’s book about Blue Diamond laments vanishing way of life.
By Jack Bulavsky, Special to VIEW

Photo credit: Jerry Henkel

Evan Blythin has lived in Blue Diamond for 32 years. For a number of those years, he knew he would one day write a book about his rural home. That ambition was realized when Vanishing Village: The Struggle for Community in the New West hit bookstores this month.

Bythin, 67, a retired UNLV professor of communications studies, said the book is a universal story.

“The whole world has moved from rural sensitivities to more of an urban-industrial kind of sensitivity, and what I write about can be discussed in any community,” he said. “Blue Diamond has changed dramatically, but so has the rest of the world. I don’t long for the old days, but we need to keep an eye on what we’re losing.”

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By Geoff Schumacher

Vanishing Village, by Evan Blythin, the third title from CityLife Books, is set to be released June 1.

Blythin, a retired communications professor from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has written an insightful and entertaining book about the community in which he has lived for several decades, Blue Diamond, Nevada. Here is a summary:

“Just a few miles beyond the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip and the surrounding suburbs, a quiet village vigorously resists the insistent pull of the metropolis. The villagers believe the modern way, the urban way is not necessarily the best way. They want to make their own rules and set their own standards, insisting that one size does not fit all. In Vanishing Village, Evan Blythin explores the history and folkways of his longtime home, illuminating the enduring values and pastimes of small-town living. But this lifestyle, Blythin reveals, is at risk of extinction, as the villager fends off relentless demands to conform and moderrnize.”

Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada had this to say about Vanishing Village:

“Simultaneously entertaining and informative, Vanishing Village is a hard book to put down. Blythin reminds us of the value of connecting with our fellow man if we hope to maintain our sanity, our humanity even, in the disappearing village.”

After publishing two works of fiction, Restless City and Blue Vegas, CityLife Books is releasing its first nonfiction title. A mash-up of memoir, journalism and sociology, Vanishing Village offers an enlightening vision of an alternative to the urban/suburban angst that nags at so many Las Vegans.