Reading: The Rustlers of the West Fork by Louis L'Amour
Music: Doc Watson's "Songs From Home"
TV/Movie: Benson - TV Land's 48-hour marathon
Link o' the Day: The John Hartford website

Lately, as in the past number of months, I've been expanding my reading habits a bit. I'm exploring some genres that I've previously not given much time to. One genre that's been making me think (ouch!) is the Western. I've not read very widely yet--just a few Johnstone and L'Amour novels, but I'm already seeing that it's a genre of literature that deserves more credit than it gets.

Like most people, I tended to view the Western novel as a shallow and one-dimensional--a sort of pro-wrestling of literature (which I know is probably an unfair statement, and maybe I'll amend that someday, but for now--tough). And for the most part, surface readings of the Western tend to play these opinions out. It's straight good vs. evil. The bad guys are _really_ bad. They need killin'. The good guys are too good for the world they live in--and they do a good share of killin'.

The morality seems awfully black and white at first, and not something which would translate well into the real world where black and white also includes many shades of grey. Mayhaps this is the ardent liberal in me.

But at the same time, I'm seeing a very "live and let live" attitude in many of these Westerns. Fairly non-judgement, and so far pretty non-racist. Sure, a Mexican, Indian, black of Chinese might stand out as being different from the Anglo-Saxon world of the Western, but they're rarely judged on their color or race, but more on the content of their character. That's a bit heartening. And yes, the Western is rife with cliches, but they're, for the most part, used merely as a narrative device. Cliches as applied to characters often have more depth and dimension once we see them in action.

As for the violence and the gunslinger version of justice--well, it's fiction, after all. You don't see many innocents shot down. Those that are killed have usually broken a rule or code of behavior that results in the attitude of "well, they's was askin' fer a bullet." I don't think that's good enough in real life. Not by a long shot, but in a way I can see it as a kind of narrative device. It's similar to how the only people to survive slasher pics (of the 70s and 80s at least) were the virgins.

I'm still exploring this, and feeling out my attitudes regarding the Western, but I think I'll be reading a number of more over the coming months, and may revise and amend my thoughts. I'll let y'all know.

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Today's link takes you to The John Hartford website. For those who don't know, John Hartford was talented performer and bluegrass virtuoso. He's credited with pioneering the "New Grass" movement with the groundbreaking album "Steam-Powered Aeroplane" (which I cannot recommend highly enough) and provided much of the music for the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" It was a friend many years ago who turned my on to Hartford, and from there, to bluegrass, folk, and Irish music.