BBM and Lonesome Dove

[belbbmfan]

I just ordered my copy of Lonesome Dove. It was a bargain, only 8 $!

I'm looking forward to reading.

[Brown Eyes]

I just ordered my copy of Lonesome Dove. It was a bargain, only 8 $!

I'm looking forward to reading.

Yeehaw!  Let us know when it arrives. 

I'm still reading away!  I'm really fascinated by the treatment of the female characters.  I can't even imagine life in that kind of environment and society as a woman... it's really quite depressing to think about on many levels.  But, McMurtry treats this subject, at least so far, with a good sense of complexity and subtlty.  In interviews, he talked about feeling an affinity for the female characters in BBM, and in the case of LD he seems to have an interesting sensitivity to the plight of the female characters too.

[Front-Ranger]

One of McMurtry's later works, Telegraph Days, has a young woman as the main character and can be a refreshing experience after reading about the many tragic female roles. It's kind of a comedy as well.

Yes, LM's female characters are legendary as we saw with Terms of Endearment. His females are sometimes just as complex and well developed as Annie Proulx's male characters. Think of what they could produce if they collaborated!! Oh, yes, they already did...on Brokeback Mountain!!!!!

[mariez]

I just ordered my copy of Lonesome Dove. It was a bargain, only 8 $!

I'm looking forward to reading.

And I look forward to hearing your thoughts, Fabienne!  I had an extra busy weekend and didn't do as much re-reading of LD as I wanted, but hopefully I'll get some time tonight.

..In interviews, he talked about feeling an affinity for the female characters in BBM, and in the case of LD he seems to have an interesting sensitivity to the plight of the female characters too.

Yes, strong female characters are a hallmark of McMurtry's writing. 

One of McMurtry's later works, Telegraph Days, has a young woman as the main character and can be a refreshing experience after reading about the many tragic female roles. It's kind of a comedy as well.

I enjoyed Telegraph Days -  refreshing is a good word.  McMurtry did a great job getting into the mind of his main character. 

Marie

[Brown Eyes]

Holy moly!  I was up to almost 2:30 am last night totally hooked on LD.  I'm at about page 500 and am at quite the page-turning moment.  I just finished reading about Gus, Lorena and the whole horrible episode with Blue Duck and his gang.  Yikes!  Talk about drama.

 
Leading up to the climax of that episode, I came across a specific passage that seemed very, very evocative of BBM to me.   In this case, it's evocative of something that's only in the short story, not the film of BBM.

The sentences I came across in LD (no need for spoiler warning in this case I don't think) are about the eradication of so many buffaloes on the plains due to wasteful over-hunting. 

"The thought gave the very emptiness of the plains a different feel. With those millions of animals gone, and the Indians mostly gone in their wake, the great plains were truly empty, unpeopled and ungrazed."

There's other language surrounding this observation, that has a ring to it that reminds me of Proulx's line, "The huge sadness of the northern plains rolled down on him."

The language is obviously not exactly equivalent and the contexts, etc. are hugely different, but still interestingly evocative to me.

[mariez]

Hey Amanda,

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying LD so much - it really is hard to put down once you start.  I think your observations about those passages are really astute.   It seems to me that both McMurtry and Proulx have a real respect and a real "feel" for the land.  So much so that they treat it not simply as background, but as another character.  I noticed some more passages (again around the time Gus is tracking Blue Duck) in LD that had the same tone to them:

"It struck him that he had forgotten emptiness such as existed in the country that stretched around him." ......

"But here there was no sound, not any.  The coyotes were silent, the crickets, the locusts, the owls.  There was only the sound of his own horse grazing.  From him to the stars, in all directions, there was only silence and emptiness."

Yes, very evocative. 

Marie

[Front-Ranger]

This reminds me of the time when a friend and I were lying on some rocks just enjoying the sunshine in the desert of New Mexico. A bird flew by above us and I could clearly hear the rush of the wind under its wings. Now, that's quiet!!

I've been reading about 1/2 page a day and enjoying the banter between Call, Gus, Pea Eye, Newt, et al, but I'm nowhere near others. At this rate, I will finish the book sometime in 2010!!

[Brown Eyes]

This reminds me of the time when a friend and I were lying on some rocks just enjoying the sunshine in the desert of New Mexico. A bird flew by above us and I could clearly hear the rush of the wind under its wings. Now, that's quiet!!

I remember a similar kind of sort-of shocking quiet at certain moments when we would get out of the car on our drive through Wyoming last summer.

The thing that's interesting about both Proulx and McMurtry in their evocation of the largeness and the emptiness of plain-type landscape is that these observations go along with different forms of sadness and melancholy.  There's a sense of peace, but also a sense of loss (Jack in the case of BBM, and the buffalo herds and Indian population in LD).

I've been reading about 1/2 page a day and enjoying the banter between Call, Gus, Pea Eye, Newt, et al, but I'm nowhere near others. At this rate, I will finish the book sometime in 2010!!

LOL!  Stick with it Bud!  There are moments that become real page-turning moments as you go along, so I suspect your daily page-count will increase the more you get into it.

[Brown Eyes]

Whenever I read about the character Jake Spoon, I can't help but think of Jake G. and Reese... or "Gyllenspoon".     

It's not the greatest association to draw with Jake and Reese since, at least IMO, Jake Spoon is a very annoying character.  But, the name Jake Spoon always kind of cracks me up when I read it.  Lately I've been reading a section that focuses a lot on Spoon.  Sometimes I want to reach into the pages of the book and just shake Jake Spoon.

LOL, but the more I think about it... if I was casting a new film version of LD, I could imagine Jake Gyllenhaal playing the role of Jake Spoon very well.  He has the right look to me... or at least I imagine Jake Spoon to be very good looking, with big eyes that attract a lot of women, etc.  And, of course, now I could easily imagine Jake Gyllenhaal playing a cowboy.  Obviously.

[Brown Eyes]

Reading more tonight... It occurs to me that Jake G. could probably also play July Johnson pretty well.  I think the other thread here in OF about who we would cast in a sequel/remake of BBM has gone to my head regarding LD too.