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So I'm still pondering what to do about Virginian-related products. Season 7 went up again and now lowered again in price, and I still don't have enough in gift cards to get it. (I feel I need to save my cash to buy things at places other than Amazon.) There's other things I want on Amazon, but when I try to think of buying them instead, I seem to keep gravitating to The Virginian. So I keep saving that money for the set.
Then there's the original book. I fell in love with a Barnes and Noble edition and planned to get it despite the higher price compared to the cheapest one on Amazon. Then I watched that interview with James Drury and he talked a bit about the book. He mentioned that in addition to Trampas being the Big Bad (which I already knew about and figured I could deal with, despite feeling sad about it), Trampas tricks Steve into rustling cattle or some such thing. And Steve is caught and has to be hanged for it. The Virginian even has to do the hanging, even though Steve is his friend. GAH. The absolute heartbreak.
Honestly, I have always been bothered by that aspect of the Old West, that they would kill people just for stealing cows and horses. Kaze tried to explain why they probably felt that way about horses, how a horse was so necessary for life in the harsh country and that without one you were pretty much dead, so stealing a horse was such an atrocious crime. And I agree, that's probably about how they felt. But it didn't help me feel any better about it, and then throwing in doing the same thing for stealing cows (especially if it's not even all the cows a person has, for Pete's sake!) only rubbed salt in the wound.
I don't know; for me, they are not practicing "let the punishment fit the crime" to execute someone just for rustling cattle. And while I think it's important to have that in the book since it was part of the life back then, it bothers me so much that I don't know when I'm going to want to buy the book. Having it be someone who's The Virginian's friend (and a prominent character in some of the series), only makes it worse. I'm still interested, but I think I want the season 7 set a lot more, so for now the book is going on the back burner.
Then there's my continuing search for the kind of Western books I want to read. I think I may have found the approximate sub-category; I learned of some books called "Action Westerns", which seem to mostly be book series about particular characters' adventures. They're not as long as most Western books and are probably like dime-store novels: pure entertainment, with not a lot of depth. But I think I'm looking for high adventure and entertainment above all else. It seems like, from my research, that a lot of the current "heavy drama" Western books involve outlaws that are so outrageous and horrifying that your blood curdles. Like, even cannibalistic outlaws.
Seriously? Seriously?
While I know Westerns have always been hailed as a genre where good triumphs over evil, Westerns were also one of the earliest modern genres to explore shades of gray in people. No one is all good; no one is all bad. And this trend to have such sickening outlaws is kind of getting on my nerves. It really interferes with the shades of gray concept I love so much.
Anyway, so, Action Westerns. There's one series about a gambler that I was kind of interested in because it reminded me of my headcanon for Snakes where he was a riverboat gambler. (Seriously, his clothes just scream it.) But the cover pictures haven't been impressing me; there always seems to be a shot of the guy in a rather compromising position with a girl. So that made me go "... Okay." I'd like to look in one of the books if I see it, to see whether it's really as skanky as the pictures make it look, but I don't think I'll go out of my way to buy any of them unless I like what I see.
The local grocery store has some books for some of the other Action Western series (it's how I learned of the sub-category's existence), and I'm thinking I might pick up one of those the next time I have some decent spare money.
I'd like to find a series with kind of an antihero protagonist, someone like my image of Snakes, self-serving (and maybe fond of gambling) but who will come through for you when it really counts. Kind of a Western Han Solo type.
I'm even kind of wondering if someday I'd like to try the original version of Maverick and see if it's better than that awful, cheesy thing from the 1980s. There's one episode I'm desperately seeking, but haven't been able to find. I think Netflix has an earlier season, if I want to just try the series while I'm searching for the specific episode.
Then there's the original book. I fell in love with a Barnes and Noble edition and planned to get it despite the higher price compared to the cheapest one on Amazon. Then I watched that interview with James Drury and he talked a bit about the book. He mentioned that in addition to Trampas being the Big Bad (which I already knew about and figured I could deal with, despite feeling sad about it), Trampas tricks Steve into rustling cattle or some such thing. And Steve is caught and has to be hanged for it. The Virginian even has to do the hanging, even though Steve is his friend. GAH. The absolute heartbreak.
Honestly, I have always been bothered by that aspect of the Old West, that they would kill people just for stealing cows and horses. Kaze tried to explain why they probably felt that way about horses, how a horse was so necessary for life in the harsh country and that without one you were pretty much dead, so stealing a horse was such an atrocious crime. And I agree, that's probably about how they felt. But it didn't help me feel any better about it, and then throwing in doing the same thing for stealing cows (especially if it's not even all the cows a person has, for Pete's sake!) only rubbed salt in the wound.
I don't know; for me, they are not practicing "let the punishment fit the crime" to execute someone just for rustling cattle. And while I think it's important to have that in the book since it was part of the life back then, it bothers me so much that I don't know when I'm going to want to buy the book. Having it be someone who's The Virginian's friend (and a prominent character in some of the series), only makes it worse. I'm still interested, but I think I want the season 7 set a lot more, so for now the book is going on the back burner.
Then there's my continuing search for the kind of Western books I want to read. I think I may have found the approximate sub-category; I learned of some books called "Action Westerns", which seem to mostly be book series about particular characters' adventures. They're not as long as most Western books and are probably like dime-store novels: pure entertainment, with not a lot of depth. But I think I'm looking for high adventure and entertainment above all else. It seems like, from my research, that a lot of the current "heavy drama" Western books involve outlaws that are so outrageous and horrifying that your blood curdles. Like, even cannibalistic outlaws.
Seriously? Seriously?
While I know Westerns have always been hailed as a genre where good triumphs over evil, Westerns were also one of the earliest modern genres to explore shades of gray in people. No one is all good; no one is all bad. And this trend to have such sickening outlaws is kind of getting on my nerves. It really interferes with the shades of gray concept I love so much.
Anyway, so, Action Westerns. There's one series about a gambler that I was kind of interested in because it reminded me of my headcanon for Snakes where he was a riverboat gambler. (Seriously, his clothes just scream it.) But the cover pictures haven't been impressing me; there always seems to be a shot of the guy in a rather compromising position with a girl. So that made me go "... Okay." I'd like to look in one of the books if I see it, to see whether it's really as skanky as the pictures make it look, but I don't think I'll go out of my way to buy any of them unless I like what I see.
The local grocery store has some books for some of the other Action Western series (it's how I learned of the sub-category's existence), and I'm thinking I might pick up one of those the next time I have some decent spare money.
I'd like to find a series with kind of an antihero protagonist, someone like my image of Snakes, self-serving (and maybe fond of gambling) but who will come through for you when it really counts. Kind of a Western Han Solo type.
I'm even kind of wondering if someday I'd like to try the original version of Maverick and see if it's better than that awful, cheesy thing from the 1980s. There's one episode I'm desperately seeking, but haven't been able to find. I think Netflix has an earlier season, if I want to just try the series while I'm searching for the specific episode.
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