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Book Club: Discuss/find out about a Classic Tale Set in Wyoming: The Virginian
Shakesthecoffecan:
I know I am coming into this late, but I am a slow reader and am only about at Chapter 8 now, it is a very interesting read, and I look forward to returning to this thread with questions and observations,
I do really get that sense of wonderful isolation and lonliness Wyoming has come to embody for me.
Front-Ranger:
Thanks for letting me know, shakes. I'm glad I tried to leave out some spoilers from the latter chapters. People are all over the place in reading this book, but most people I've heard from are still in the first half.
The point of view is interesting in Chapter Eight because it switches from the narrator to Molly. The author, IMO, is successful in making this switch without it being jarring. I also think the author is fairly successful in creating the personality of Molly, much more so than Zane Grey, all of whose women characters were quite stereotyped.
Front-Ranger:
I'm making a pilgrimage to Wyoming soon, and I'm hoping to stop in at The Virginian Restaurant at the Occidental Hotel in Buffalo. Here's what it looks like:
http://www.occidentalwyoming.com/the%20virginian%20restaurant.html
Front-Ranger:
The Occidental Hotel
(Where The Virginian Got His Man)
Come on Boys, an' ride with me
For a Trip back to the Past.
We'll stop at The Occidental,
And step through the Looking Glass.
Here everything's just like it was
In a far, far different Age
When the Occidental wrote the Rules
On hist'rys unwrote Page.
Her very name means "Western"
This fine ol' Grand Hotel.
Where workin' hands, who ride for Brands
Rub elbows with the Swells.
She sits at the foot of the Big Horns
In regal splendor there,
She's the aging Queen o' the Prairies
With Roses in her Hair.
Now priceless Orientals
Still grace the well-worn floors
And Crystal Chandeliers
Still hang above the doors.
There's china in the Dining Room,
And everything's First Class
Where the Present is overshadowed
By reflections of the Past.
The floor still creaks and History reeks
'Til you can hear the Coyotes call,
And the Ghosts of Cattle Barons
Still roam these Hallowed Halls.
Here deals were made as cattle herds
And ranches all changed Hands,
And famous Cowboy Singers
Have played their one-night Stands.
She was lost one night, in a Poker Game
By a man with a Second-best Hand
And her walls are lined with Pictures
Of Men who, they say, had Sand.
Now the little Gal who owns the place
Is a genuine Western Buff,
And to make your stay more Pleasant
She simply can't do Enough.
Many a Trail-worn Drifter
Has Stopped here feelin' Rough,
And when a Cowboy's broke n' Hungry
She'll write it on the Cuff.
Mister Wister holed up here
And dreamed a Master Piece
In an upstairs room by a Fireplace
Where mem'ry still has Lease.
Butch and Sundance slept here, too
Tom Horn got drunk, they say,
An' bragged he'd kill every Cow-thief
That did not ride Away.
It's faraway and Mystical,
In a Place called Cowboy Land -
It's the Occidental Hotel,
Where The Virginian Got His Man.
- Dan Hess ('05)
Front-Ranger:
Chapter Thirteen: The Game and the Nation—Act First
This multichapter section delves into the main issue of the day: equality, discussing it both from a micro-perspective and a macro-perspective. Wister in his book The Virginian grapples with basic disconnects about the legal equality of man vs. the inequality that exists in the character and physical capabilities of individuals. He also acknowledges the complementary aspects of women and men and, indeed, the superiority of women in the arena of human emotions.
The narrator and The Virginian are off on an adventure: Rancher Judge Henry has made TV deputy foreman and put him in charge of taking cattle to market back East. More importantly, TV is charged with getting the ranch hands back to Sunk Creek in one piece after the trip is done. The chapter begins with Tenderfoot and TV meeting up at a famous "eating palace" in Omaha, Nebraska. TV orders fried eggs (aiggs) but there is much talk about a celebrated menu item--Frogs' Legs a la Delmonico.
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