SH Comments
Reged: Feb 16 2004
Posts: 1056
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This thread is for comments about The Western Genre Fled Across the Desert, and Stephen King Followed, by David M. Higgins
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Anonymous
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Interesting read, but:
I dont see King's story as the death or undeath of westerns. He still manages to capture the heroic feel that is the center of almost all old west tales.
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Anonymous
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I enjoyed the review, but it employed too much of the standard liberal lexography to be taken seriously. All the usual liberal obsessions were checked and the boxes ticked. Misogyny, racism, anti west prejudice, anti white prejudice etc. If you view every piece of work through the same liberal prism you end up with much the same conclusions. Which can usually be summarised as “here are some more examples of how wicked the capitalist west was and is…”. The world is so much richer, varied and interesting than these standard issue liberal prejudices lead us to believe and it is so limiting to review pieces of work in this way. But it is, alas a very common approach amongst critics.
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SimonOwens
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I enjoyed the article, but since the series is finished, I would have liked to see a longer piece spanning over all the books, if only briefly.
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Mike Wever
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Reged: Jul 08 2005
Posts: 1
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I enjoyed the article. I especially got behind the idea that Roland's weakness in Tull was related to his flirtation with a more normal lifestyle. I'm curious whether this review is based on the new version of the book (which I haven't read) or the original one. I believe it is the new version, because I didn't recognize the reference to a burning day festival in Tull.
I agree with a previous post that the article suffered by not mentioning the rest of the series, although possibly for a different reason. The Gunslinger can (and possibly should) be considered separate from the rest of the series because of the great difference in style and themes between the the first book and the subsequent ones. I feel the pragmatic and stoic Roland of The Gunslinger is far more compelling than the character that evolves in the later books. One scene that is worth discussing from the later books, though, is the very end. I don't want to give it away to anyone who would be reading the book, but it ties very well with some of the things discussed in the article (and perhaps counters some of them), and deserved some discussion of its own.
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