L’amour remains a perfectly good guide to character. His hero gets up every morning and does pushups, unless he has a hard job like mining he gets to instead. He’s self-driven, trying to build something of worth with his time. He reads the old books: Plutarch or the Greeks.
He’s a hard man, but never unkind to an animal or a child. He keeps his word and his honor even if it costs his life.
If you find a man like L’amour would have written one, it won’t matter what color hat he’s wearing. You can count on him.
On the other hand, the role of fiction is also an issue here. Is fiction supposed to be normative or descriptive?
Corb's song treats it as if he expects it to be descriptive -- that's the way the world is. And I think a lot of his own songs are descriptive.
But for a long time the accepted role of fiction was to be normative -- to teach us how to do things. In that sense, as you say, we can still very much rely on Louis L'Amour.
From the time period he was writing in, I assume that was the way L'Amour wrote, as well.
3 comments:
L’amour remains a perfectly good guide to character. His hero gets up every morning and does pushups, unless he has a hard job like mining he gets to instead. He’s self-driven, trying to build something of worth with his time. He reads the old books: Plutarch or the Greeks.
He’s a hard man, but never unkind to an animal or a child. He keeps his word and his honor even if it costs his life.
If you find a man like L’amour would have written one, it won’t matter what color hat he’s wearing. You can count on him.
Yeah, I'm not sure Louis L'Amour was the right man for this song ... maybe John Ford?
On the other hand, the role of fiction is also an issue here. Is fiction supposed to be normative or descriptive?
Corb's song treats it as if he expects it to be descriptive -- that's the way the world is. And I think a lot of his own songs are descriptive.
But for a long time the accepted role of fiction was to be normative -- to teach us how to do things. In that sense, as you say, we can still very much rely on Louis L'Amour.
From the time period he was writing in, I assume that was the way L'Amour wrote, as well.
Post a Comment