Author Topic: BBM and Lonesome Dove  (Read 60197 times)

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: BBM and Lonesome Dove
« Reply #10 on: January 13, 2009, 04:33:20 pm »
I've never been in a book club before, so I don't know how they work.  (Other than buying the book and having snacks and drinks every few weeks.  :laugh:)

But I've never read "Lonesome Dove" and this sounds like a great excuse!

 :D  In our BBM/ LD (LD= Lonesome Dove... not to be confused with Jack's father-in-law  :laugh: ) book club, we will be drinking any of the following 3 options... whiskey, Budweiser out of longneck brown bottles, or coffee.  Snacks will consist of beans, elk, round steak and cherry cake... and bacon (we'll throw that in there as a nod to Lonesome Dove).  And, we will be posting our observations to this thread! Hopefully!

I really think it would be super fun if a group of us read this together.  And, the most fun for us will probably be trying to relate it to BBM.  The 300+ pages I've read so far really do feel strangely familiar and kind of comforting in an odd way.  Really so much is reminiscent of BBM, but at the same time completely different in terms of story.



the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: BBM and Lonesome Dove
« Reply #11 on: January 13, 2009, 04:45:43 pm »
You might find this post over in The Culture Tent to be interesting

Books by Larry McMurtry, A Memoir
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline mariez

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Re: BBM and Lonesome Dove
« Reply #12 on: January 13, 2009, 04:48:59 pm »
What a great idea, Amanda! 

Lonesome Dove is one of my favorite books.  I've read it several times (and I've seen the mini-series more than once, also), but it's been a few years and I'd love to do another re-read, with an eye toward BBM connections.  I'm sure there are all kinds of details I've forgotten.  As you point out, it's a large book. 

I've read all of the books in the Lonesome Dove series, but I think the first one remains my favorite.  I believe Streets of Laredo is the final installment. 

By way of warning, there was a sequel to the mini-series made (Return to Lonesome Dove), but it was done without McMurty's blessing and he was not pleased to put it mildly.  I read something once where he referred to it as "spurious."  I never had any interest in watching it.

Marie
The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis         ~~~~~~~~~Thurgood Marshall

The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.    ~~~~~~~~~ Mark Twain

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: BBM and Lonesome Dove
« Reply #13 on: January 13, 2009, 04:59:16 pm »
What a great idea, Amanda! 

Lonesome Dove is one of my favorite books.  I've read it several times (and I've seen the mini-series more than once, also), but it's been a few years and I'd love to do another re-read, with an eye toward BBM connections.  I'm sure there are all kinds of details I've forgotten.  As you point out, it's a large book. 

I've read all of the books in the Lonesome Dove series, but I think the first one remains my favorite.  I believe Streets of Laredo is the final installment. 

By way of warning, there was a sequel to the mini-series made (Return to Lonesome Dove), but it was done without McMurty's blessing and he was not pleased to put it mildly.  I read something once where he referred to it as "spurious."  I never had any interest in watching it.

Marie


This is great Marie!!  I'd love to hear your opinions about the BBM/LD connections as someone who has a great deal of knowledge about LD (the book and mini-series) as well as his other books and, of course, BBM too.

For me, so far, some of the similarities (or points of comparison) are really specific... like the lines ("talks a blue streak" or "not the marrying kind") that appear verbatum in both LD and BBM.   And, then there are broader symbolic things that are very familiar from our BBM talks... the moon, bears, drowning...

And, then the sweeping things like the relationships between men.

Of course, there are lots of differences too.  And, again, the shift in cowboy culture that occured in only about 100 years is really fascinating to me.  It's interesting to see McMurtry applying some of the same concepts to such different time periods, which of course, alters the meaning of some of those concepts.


But, as I mentioned before, I'm only about 300 pages into it and haven't seen the mini series.  So, my reactions are still formulating.


the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

Offline twtplanner

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Re: BBM and Lonesome Dove
« Reply #14 on: January 13, 2009, 05:53:19 pm »
This is a great book and great mini-series.  There's even the ol' mysterious line "I swear" said by Newt Dobbs (Rick Schroder) towards the end of the story, when the cattle drive is complete, and one of the drovers who is Newt's best friend, decides to leave.  When he rides off, Newt is watching him go and says the line to himself.

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: BBM and Lonesome Dove
« Reply #15 on: January 13, 2009, 05:57:59 pm »
This is a great book and great mini-series.  There's even the ol' mysterious line "I swear" said by Newt Dobbs (Rick Schroder) towards the end of the story, when the cattle drive is complete, and one of the drovers who is Newt's best friend, decides to leave.  When he rides off, Newt is watching him go and says the line to himself.

 :o  Wow!  I haven't gotten to that part yet!  But, it seems like a really interesting point for the BBM/ LD comparisons!

the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: BBM and Lonesome Dove
« Reply #16 on: January 13, 2009, 06:36:37 pm »


        I watched the mini series, and also read the book.  For those of you who have not done so.  Let me tell you.  The series is exactly like the book.
I had watched the series.  Then was compelled to read the book,(To get more detail)  but it had no more detail.  The conversations and everything
were the same.  I will say however, it has been a lot of years since I read it.  I have rewatched the series again however.  I loved it.
       The casting was perfect, and the whole feel of it was wonderful.  Maybe I should read the book again.?

        I never watched the second series either.



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Offline mariez

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Re: BBM and Lonesome Dove
« Reply #17 on: January 13, 2009, 08:31:38 pm »

        I watched the mini series, and also read the book.  For those of you who have not done so.  Let me tell you.  The series is exactly like the book.
I had watched the series.  Then was compelled to read the book,(To get more detail)  but it had no more detail.  The conversations and everything
were the same.  I will say however, it has been a lot of years since I read it.  I have rewatched the series again however.  I loved it.
       The casting was perfect, and the whole feel of it was wonderful.  Maybe I should read the book again.?

        I never watched the second series either.

Janice, I agree that the mini-series is one of the best, and most faithful, screen adaptations I've seen.   And I think the book is so rich in wonderful detatils that it can be read over and over.

You know, I just thought of a non-literary BBM/LD connection.  Linda Cardellini (Cassie in BBM) played Clara in the Comanche Moon mini-series.  Comanche Moon is part of the LD series, and is the direct pre-quel to Lonesome Dove and the sequel to Dean Man's Walk, the book where Call and Gus first meet. 

Marie
The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis         ~~~~~~~~~Thurgood Marshall

The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.    ~~~~~~~~~ Mark Twain

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Re: BBM and Lonesome Dove
« Reply #18 on: January 13, 2009, 08:39:42 pm »
I watched the series on DVD not too long after BBM came out. I remember L.M. talking about how he had wished he's written BBM and questioning himself as to why he didn't think of it 1st and he mentioned Gus and Woodrow. SO, I watched it, and like it too. One of the DVD extras was an interview with L.M. circa 1989 when the series was made. He talked about how in literature a story involving a pair of friends is almost invariably patterned after "Don Quixote". I posted on IMDB ages ago about this. His point was the pair exchange qualities or character traits by the end. Frequently one character is a "dreamer" and the other a "realist", but in the end the realist adopts the dream of his friend as his own. That interview really made me think of Jack and Ennis and what L.M and D.O. were thinking when writing the screenplay. Did Jack and Ennis exchange character traits? Did Jack become the realist at the lake scene and finally give up on his dream of the sweet life with Ennis? Did Ennis after the lake scene, after the scene with Cassie "girls don't fall in love with fun". become open to following that dream?

Offline serious crayons

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Re: BBM and Lonesome Dove
« Reply #19 on: January 13, 2009, 08:46:41 pm »
Hi A and everybody! I can't join the book club right now, unfortunately, because I have too much work-related Required Reading at the moment. But I wanted to tell A what a good idea this is. I saw the miniseries when it was on. I tried reading the book afterward, but experienced that unfortunate "saw it before I read it" syndrome and just wanted to skip ahead to the good parts, so I gave up (same thing happened to me with Sophie's Choice). Anyway, so I can't participate much, but I'd love to drop in now and then to see the discussion. Have fun!