The Western is a fascinating and perplexing genre of fiction. Though typically marketed towards older men, there are also children's books set in the genre and raunchy Harlequin paperbacks marketed towards women. Modern crime series Justified set in the deep south also explores many themes typical to Western novels. The HBO adaption of Westworld also explores many western themes albeit in the context of Science Fiction.
At it's core, you would think the Western is mere historical fiction and that without trappings of setting the themes of the Western are as baseless as air. This is an understandable assumption, but it is also wrong. The Western at it's core is about the frontier, it's not always a physical frontier and it's not always not one. It's about going out into the wilderness and maybe perhaps even coming back. But that's not as important as going out to begin with.
It's about being tested sometimes morally and sometimes physically, mostly both. It's about actions and consequences, crime and punishment, revenge in all it's forms, idealized and reviled. At the end of the day, the Western is about people being tested by their environment.
Whether that environment is made up of the trials of nature or the trials of the nature of man
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Monday, August 19, 2019
Blood Bond by William W. Johnstone
Blood Bond by William W. Johnstone
Series: Blood Bond series, 1
Publisher: New York: Kesington Pub. 1989.; 283 pages
Matt Bodine saved Sam Two Wolves life, when both of them were younger and the two men have been Blood brothers ever since. But their bond is tested when the growing racial tensions between White Settlers and Native Americans reaches their home and it seems as if the two will be forced to pick sides.
Series: Blood Bond series, 1
Matt Bodine saved Sam Two Wolves life, when both of them were younger and the two men have been Blood brothers ever since. But their bond is tested when the growing racial tensions between White Settlers and Native Americans reaches their home and it seems as if the two will be forced to pick sides.
Some kind of courage by Dan Gemeinhart
Some kind of courage by Dan Gemeinhart
Publisher: New York: Scholastic Press 2016.; 240 p.
A children's story set in 1890, all that orphan Joseph Johnson has left is Sarah, a "half-wild Indian pony". She's been sold off without his say so and Joseph means to get her back. Along the way he encounters another child Ah-Kee. Though neither of them can understand the other, the two boys form a wordless bond as they both seek out the respective goals that have brought them so far from home.
Some kind of courage, is aimed at a younger audience than most westerns,
it contains two child protagonists and the supporting child protagonist Ah-Kee is Asian. Both child protagonists and ethnic protagonists can be classified as appeal terms.
A children's story set in 1890, all that orphan Joseph Johnson has left is Sarah, a "half-wild Indian pony". She's been sold off without his say so and Joseph means to get her back. Along the way he encounters another child Ah-Kee. Though neither of them can understand the other, the two boys form a wordless bond as they both seek out the respective goals that have brought them so far from home.
Some kind of courage, is aimed at a younger audience than most westerns,
it contains two child protagonists and the supporting child protagonist Ah-Kee is Asian. Both child protagonists and ethnic protagonists can be classified as appeal terms.
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Series: Lonesome Dove saga, 1
Publisher: New York: Simon and Schuster 1985.; 843 p.
Two former Texas Rangers and present day cattle drivers, break camp and set out in
search of rumours of new land and opportunity. Many colourful characters join them along the way. But the journey might
just take more from all of them than it gives back.
Sunday, August 11, 2019
A million ways to die in the West by Seth MacFarlane
A million ways to die in the West by Seth MacFarlane
Publisher: New York: Random House Inc. 2014.; 208 p.
A humourous tale about a cowardly young farmer named Albert Stark, who is dumped due to his cowardice but finds himself smitten on the rebound with the wife of a ruthless gunslinger who he must soon face in combat.
A humourous tale about a cowardly young farmer named Albert Stark, who is dumped due to his cowardice but finds himself smitten on the rebound with the wife of a ruthless gunslinger who he must soon face in combat.
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
True Grit by Charles Portis
True Grit by Charles Portis
Publisher: New York: Simon and Schuster 1968.; 215 p.
When fourteen year old Mattie Ross loses her father to a
drunkard, she sets out accompanied by a skilled if belligerent U.S. Marshal, to
settle the score with the murderer.
Has two movie adaptions, one is an older movie with a very
romanticized view of revenge, the other more modern film has a darker and
bleaker take on the subject.
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