Westerns - Dead or Alive?

I liked Quentin Tarantino's new movie, "Hateful Eight". I don't think it was his best work, but I got my money's worth.

And I also loved The Revenant. Not sure if that's a western.

I know we're probably supposed to be talking about literature specifically, but I don't read western books. I don't find it interesting enough. As others mentioned, incorporating western themes into new things (Cowboys versus Aliens, Fallout New Vegas) is what interests me.

I think the genre has evolved. Maybe the western of the sci-fi future where humans are walking around with bionic limbs, will be stories of gang shoot-outs in Compton, people walking around without government microchips in their head, and people *driving* their horse-less carriages instead of using auto-pilot.

 

The Old West carries a rich vein of recent history that impacts strongly on our lives today. The bad stuff, the shameful stuff, the good stuff, and, overwhelmingly the ordinary day-to-day stuff. I think we need to truly understand that period of history—what motivated it, and what it resulted in—for us to truly understand how the USA regards itself.

Generic, predictible Westerns are just mythology. As long as people understand this, that the stories are far from 'real' ones, I suppose it's okay to read them. But it bothers me that so many people think these stories reflect the reality of those times. And I think modern writers can give a better account of those times, if they choose to do so.

If you want a taste of the reality, go to an archive and read newspapers produced in those places at those times. The tone will surprise you, as well as the content. It's also an idea to read diaries and autobiographies of people who lived these times. Some of these are famous people, some are not. But all reflect a much richer life experience than good guy-bad guy shoot-em-ups.

 

I think the idea of a Western has shifted; The original location has been left behind but the mythology is still there. Exploration, culture, frontier life, a freedom from lawful conventions is what I most associate with a Western.

It can still be found in a lot of modern works - Firefly, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Mass Effect Andromeda, Red Country.

That being said, there's still an appetite for the more classical western settings - Hateful Eight and Django Unchained were both successful movies and the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 will certainly be one of next years biggest game releases.

 

I like to think that the Western has evolved into a broader category. This of course depends on how you define a Western, if you feel that only stories about the 1800s west of the Mississippi are truly Westerns then my thought doesn't count. However I prefer to think that the reason the Western exists is because of the landscape of the area, a new frontier at the time, but still the area is vast compared to European standards and the environment ranges from very harsh to fairly comfortable, which for the rest of us seems fascinating.

So for me the Tony Hillerman series involving Navajo police work in their reservations feels like a western. I have not read much of the Walt Longmire series but hope to as time permits and it has a similar feel for me with what I have read, there are bound to be many other similar works.

Kemosahbe

 

Barely breathing. Try future-dystopia/western ala Stephen King Dark Tower. best luck!

 

Welcome to the forum.

I see the Dark Tower series as pure fantasy, whereas I like to think of Westerns based on a reality of the geographic area. If you travel out to the western states by car or train you start to get an idea of the setting that books and movies really can't quite capture, to me that gives a story a "western" feel.

Also I did enjoy the Dark Tower series in general, would never read it again but if they made a TV series I would want to watch it for sure.

 

What is different to you than spy, war, thriller, etc? Almost none reflect much real life to me. Most are fanciful notions that spark our imagination and let us escape.
Tom Clancy and most political/spy/espionage/military novels are way further out there than an episode Law & Order, and that has been a top show forever and is horribly inaccurate. That is the stuff I am opposed to; people actually apply the stuff they learn there to their lives.
I love history, but people think history is what they want it to be. Most never think anything through; if most actually paid attention to the visual, history would be easier to understand.

 

As somebody who has written a novel laid in the old west (heavily researched) that is NOT a western, I've been surprised at how many people think books set in this era should follow a certain pattern. When the story doesn't, they are taken aback.

One of the common misconceptions is that there was rampant lawlessness on the western frontier, even into the 1890s. Of course there was some lawlessness, but the vast majority of settlers were ordinary people eager to better themselves on new land—usually by farming or ranching. By the mid 1880s, when the trail drives from Texas ended, being a 'cowboy' was a different occupation from what it had been in the previous 20-plus years. These are the people who interest me, and whom I enjoy writing about.

The coastal 'west' was settled long before the interior—starting with Oregon and California in the late 1840s. The last places to be 'settled' were the northern plains. The plains defeated many people. who saw grassland as opportunity (for cattle, then for farming) but failed to understand the impact of climate and weather on their enterprises.

Towns wanted civilisation, not lawlessness, and encouraged all sorts of cultural pursuits and couldn't wait to make things as much like 'back home' as they possibly could.

Not everybody packed a sidearm. Settlers battled the elements far more often and more diligently than they battled each other, or the displaced native tribes.

Again, I have no problem with people liking 'westerns.' But assuming the black hat/white hat/law versus outlaw/ cowboy-and-Indian story was real life is as short-sighted as assuming that being a spy is always a glamorous occupation.