itsallovernow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
itsallovernow) wrote2003-10-29 02:54 pm
itsallovernow) wrote2003-10-29 02:54 pm
Fires are raging, and we should all huddle in corners and read books
Because someone's subject line reminded me.
I talk about Wallace Stegner, because he was a big, bold, brassy symbol of Western writing. He is not, in any way shape or form a brassy writer, lyrical and practical and sometimes even a little wistful, but not flamboyant, and also not dull, not endless. He's the end all be all of Western writers, and while there are new ones who shimmer and shine, he's the pinnacle.
But, and I say this with emphasis, let's not forget Norman MacLean in the deifing of Stegner. Because A River Runs Through It is a purely beautiful book, and Young Men and Fire is also, fighting nature and growing up, and how those things do seem to interweave and intertwine.
And fire, I guess is the theme, because I think of the scene in Always, which I know is a merely adequate Spielberg movie that I nevertheless loved passionately as a teenager because it's about death and loss and bravery and Audrey Hepburn was an angel without wings, but I giggle even now thinking about John Goodman sitting under his unbrella, watching the planes try and put out a little fire on the runway, getting pelted with the chemical dump because Richard Dreyfuss is a ghost with a sense of humor.
ETA: LJ seems to be having some peculiar issues today. My posts that had comments, no longer have comments. Not all of them, but some, and it's odd. And yesterday it deleted, or tried to delete a post that hadn't posted yet.
I talk about Wallace Stegner, because he was a big, bold, brassy symbol of Western writing. He is not, in any way shape or form a brassy writer, lyrical and practical and sometimes even a little wistful, but not flamboyant, and also not dull, not endless. He's the end all be all of Western writers, and while there are new ones who shimmer and shine, he's the pinnacle.
But, and I say this with emphasis, let's not forget Norman MacLean in the deifing of Stegner. Because A River Runs Through It is a purely beautiful book, and Young Men and Fire is also, fighting nature and growing up, and how those things do seem to interweave and intertwine.
And fire, I guess is the theme, because I think of the scene in Always, which I know is a merely adequate Spielberg movie that I nevertheless loved passionately as a teenager because it's about death and loss and bravery and Audrey Hepburn was an angel without wings, but I giggle even now thinking about John Goodman sitting under his unbrella, watching the planes try and put out a little fire on the runway, getting pelted with the chemical dump because Richard Dreyfuss is a ghost with a sense of humor.
ETA: LJ seems to be having some peculiar issues today. My posts that had comments, no longer have comments. Not all of them, but some, and it's odd. And yesterday it deleted, or tried to delete a post that hadn't posted yet.
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Tangentially, this relates to our discussion of feminism, because the REASON I taught MacLean in this course was that I found it REALLY tough to find interesting modern coming-of-age novels about men. There were lots of classics, of course, but I wanted something 20thC, and accessible. I could find any number of Bildungsroman about girls, but not as many about boys. I have always wondered about that. Is it that we feel the need to articulate women's experience because it is so subjugated? Is it that men simply don't discuss/write about/explore these experiences. I dunno. I am just awfully glad MacLean did.
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