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Book Club: Discuss/find out about a Classic Tale Set in Wyoming: The Virginian

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Front-Ranger:
Chapter Three, Steve Treats, is a kind of tall tale about the shenanigans that go on around the Virginian. It tells how TV gets a bed of his own, winning a bet with another cowpoke Steve, and how Steve subsequently buys drinks all around, leading to a party that ends suddenly with the news that the engineer's wife is sick and is suffering because of all the caterwalling going on. The next morning, TV manages to assuage and charm both the engineer's wife and the eating house proprietress. As Chapter Four, Deep Into Cattle Country, begins, TV is leading the narrator out of town on the 263-mile trek to Judge Henry's ranch, due west of Medicine Bow. (This country is EDelMar's favorite part of Wyoming, he tells me.) The narrator has come from the East at the invitation of Judge Henry and his wife. As they ride away from Medicine Bow, the narrator keeps looking back and noticing that, by a curious foreshortening effect, he can still see the town clearly, although it keeps getting smaller. TV tells him this effect is noticeable all over the West, particularly in Arizona, where shooting stars can be mistaken for train lights and vice versa. Then they have an enlightening discussion on the effect when looking at a whiskey bottle. As always, TV's droll wit carries the dialogue along smartly.

Front-Ranger:
I heard a chilling story on radio today...it made me think that what I am doing is right. If even just one person reads this, and comes to discover the difference between literature and pornography, then none of my posts will have been in vain.

A woman in rural Missouri was surfing the Internet, and she started to read about cults, and she realized that she had been involved in a cult for several years. As a result, she and her husband left the rural town and moved away.... she did not realize that she had been manipulated. She thought the sex-laced activities she had been involved in were part of Christianity.

Daniel:
Oh my, Lee... We share such a common thread, you and I... The other day, I was writing to my publisher.

If this work can touch just one life. If it can make even one person consider their life or the universe in a different way that brings them closer to themselves and their personal truth, I will have considered it a success.

It reminds me of that beautiful poem by Emily Dickinson.

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life
the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

Lynne:
Nice poem by Dickinson, one of my favorites...I'm still behind, but I am loving the Virginian's sardonic wit and self-confidence, arising from within.  I also love the language of the early 20th century  - reminds me of Dickinson's 'formal feelings.'

Ellemeno:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on December 15, 2006, 10:24:42 pm ---
 If even just one person reads this, and comes to discover the difference between literature and pornography, then none of my posts will have been in vain.


--- End quote ---


Lee, that reminds me of the excellent little paragraph in Chapter 2:

"Talking of conductors," began the drummer. And we listened to his anecdote. It was successful with his audience; but when he launched fluently upon a second I strolled out. There was not enough wit in this narrator to relieve his indecency, and I felt shame at having been surprised into laughing with him.


Thanks for pointing out Toast's post with the online links.  I somehow missed that.  I'm now on Chapter 3, and enjoying the book's descriptions and humor very much.

Has anyone figured out what a drummer is yet?

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