Another Abbey Review
Nice to see the old buzzard gettin’ some attention again, this time for The Brave Cowboy in Ben Gore’s review “Fiction: The Lone Ranger and Don Quixote Joust,” appearing in The Brooklyn Rail. Interesting and happy to see this after just doing a podcast on the subject.
There are a few inaccuracies. Ed didn’t have a PhD. And I believe the Burns character only appeared in three additional works after his initial appearance in the The Brave Cowboy, not four. Five appearances would have placed in him in either Fools Progress or Black Sun, and I don’t recall him in either.
But that’s not really important.
Gore seems to have a good understanding of Abbey, and I’m grateful for the article. In a short piece, I believe he’s accurately communicated the major points of what Abbey’s writing was all about, especially the fact that Abbey was not a nature writer. That point cannot be emphasized enough. He wrote about the environment, of course, and very specifically about the flora and fauna found within the western landscape; however, the primary message almost always concerned how that landscape is threatened by the actions of man.
The essay does seem to cut off prematurely. Not sure why I couldn’t find the rest or why it ended as it did.
I’m going to also copy, paste and save the article here, since the original links tend to get broken over time.
Enjoy
After reading that review I really want to read the book. I wonder what Abbey would say if he was around today. The current state of things, no more poignant than today I suppose. I feel I’m heading down your road with this blog. That is not to say I’m restricting myself to writing about one subject, but the more and more I open up to the world falling apart and the unbelievable amount of crap that goes on, it seems almost impossible to feel only despair and loss. I wish I had my cabin in the woods away from everything. A nice woodstove for cooking and staying warm, a few good books and the company of a few local deer and bear. That’s the life, not this. However, I suppose it’s a responsbility to give it a voice, so until it’s not I gotta keep pushing on through the maze of suburbs and strip malls.
Some people seem to adapt well to city life, but to me, it’s like sitting in an office all day. It’s not living. Dirty air, constant noise, higher rates of crime. Just not my cup of tea.
Unfortunately, there’s not room for all the folks that want to live the simple life in a rural setting. I suppose there could be, but too many rich folks have gobbled up the land and built their McMansions. This of course drives out the people on the lower end of the financial spectrum. In places like Ouray, Colorado, for example, people that grew up there on ranches or even in just small houses can hardly afford to live there any longer.
But yeah, the city is depressing as hell. At least to me. If I don’t get outside and get my hiking and backpacking fix every once in a while, I’m not a pleasant person.
The other side of the coin, however, is the land that I wander around on was once inhabited by people that depended on that land for their survival. In northern New Mexico, for example, there’s a very bitter divide between the former land holders, who claim ownership through old Spanish land grands, and the current owners (me and you) that see it as our gortex playground. It used to be grazing country for stupid, non-native Asian beasts and sheep. Not any more. Thanks to the Forest Service and Aldo Leopold.
And not to say those Spanish speaking New Mexicans were always great stewards of the land. They weren’t. Just can’t say we’re doing so much better.
Everyone sees the world through a different lens, I guess, but you keep looking for a quiet place with good water and soil. It’s the best way to raise your kids, too.
Hi–
Don’t know if you’re still running this blog, but re: “And I believe the Burns character only appeared in three additional works after his initial appearance in the The Brave Cowboy, not four. Five appearances would have placed in him in either Fools Progress or Black Sun, and I don’t recall him in either.”
What were the other two novels Burns appears in besides MWG & Hayduke? (And he just might be in Fool’s Progress, too.) Thanks.
The Brave Cowboy, MWG, Hayduke Lives and Good News.
Burns is supposedly once again killed in Good News by a solider armed with a lance, but when the burial detail returns to find the body, it’s gone. His horse, Rosie, is also gone, leaving the possibility that Burns once again escaped death. The character also appears in Hayduke Lives! In “GOLIATH the Super-G.E.M.”: “One hundred feet above the buried turtle, the near-dead juniper, the flattened-out canyon floor, the man on the horse sat quietly in the saddle and watched, listened, waited…The man seated on the sagging middle of the horse’s back wore wrinkled dark riding pants smeared with bacon grease on thigh and hip, high boots with rusty spurs, a dirty baggy once-whites shirt of weird design (no collar, double row of buttons up the front), the dusty black scarf (anarchism?) tied about the neck, dirty white gloves with high gauntlets, and a dirty white ten-gallon comical hat with four-inch brim. He also packed a brace of siler-plated, ivory handled, .44 magnum Ruger revolvers…his eyes, dimly visible behind the sunglasses, did not match. There was something false and alarming about one of his eyes.”