Ever since Ian Tyson died, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Romance of the West. Ol’ Eon was a romantic to the core. Oh, he was intimately familiar with the harsh realities of the West — “dumb stuff like chores when it’s 20 below,” and the like — but he was deeply and permanently besotted with the landscape and a passing way of life.
Sample this in his wonderful dream of Smugglers Cove:
I assume it’s clear that I’m not talking about Romance in the candle-light-and-chocolate sense — I’m talking about what the dictionary calls out as “of, characterized by, or suggestive of an idealized view of reality.” Well, heightened, anyway. We who have a romantic view of frontier history don’t gloss the reality of life that was often gritty, grubby and gruesome — we simply embrace those elements. That’s why Larry McMurtry’s attempt to debunk the mythology of the great cattle drives in Lonesome Dove just ended up enhancing to the legend. It’s why all the gut-wrenching tragedy and the thousand ways to die in 1883 still resonate in the romantic soul.
And it’s the fuel that sends a certain Frontier Partisans yarn-spinner out to sling lead and iron while firing up the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack — or the achingly melancholy OST of 1883. It can’t just be getting some exercise — it has to be a test, and a endeavor to connect to some idealized past that somehow remains present. I can’t adequately explain it, but I crave it and thrive on it.
And, it turns out, certain acorns did not drop too far from the tree…
Such romanticism has its dark side, of course. Whole generations have romanticized (and imitated) the self-destructive musician — what Waylon Jennings called The Hank Williams Syndrome. For gun-toting writers, there was a Hemingway Syndrome. Not too healthy. But, like Cormac McCarthy’s John Grady Cole, we love what we love:
“All his reverence and all his fondness and all the leaning of his life were for the ardent hearted and they would always be so and never be otherwise.”
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Diana Gabaldon and the executive producers of the TV series that came from her work will tell you that Outlander isn’t a romance. And, in terms of genre classification, that’s true. Gabaldon’s work is sui generis. But Outlander is romantic. Word came out yesterday that the series has been renewed for an eighth and final season, and that a “prequel” series relating the tale of the forbidden love of Jamie Fraser’s parents has been green-lit. That’s right, Lady Marilyn will get a whole new “dangerous love story.”
“Outlander” has been renewed for Season 8 at Starz, which will also be the show’s last. But that’s not the end of the road for Jamie Fraser’s story.
Starz has officially placed a greenlight order for “Outlander: Blood of My Blood,” a prequel series to the popular drama which has been on the premium cabler since 2014.
The eighth season of “Outlander” will consist of ten episodes, following an extended 16-episode Season 7, which is currently in production.
…The prequel comes from Diana Gabaldon — who also penned the novel series on which “Outlander” is based – and will focus on the Jamie’s origins through his parents’ perspectives as viewers follow Ellen MacKenzie and Brian Fraser’s love story. Gabaldon will also serve as a consulting producer.
Matthew B. Roberts will write and executive produce the prequel along with Ronald D. Moore and Maril Davis through their Tall Ship Productions banner, with Roberts also serving as showrunner. Story Mining & Supply Company will also executive produce. Sony Pictures Television will back the production. Roberts remains under an overall deal with Sony. Starz’s executive vice president of original programming, Karen Bailey, will oversee the prequel on behalf of the network.
“‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood’ is, at its heart, a love story,” Roberts said. “It will explore what lengths a person will go to find love in a time when love is considered a luxury, and when marriages are made strategically, often for political or financial gain. The title is a nod to Jamie Fraser’s marriage vow to Claire and there will be several names and faces that ‘Outlander’ fans will know and recognize. Jamie and Claire’s TV story may be coming to an end with season eight, but Diana is continuing on with their literary journey in her wonderful book series and is working diligently on book ten. With Jamie and Claire, and now Brian and Ellen, there is still so much more to come in the ‘Outlander’ universe, and we cannot wait to continue sharing these stories with our dedicated fans.”
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While we’re in Scotland…
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Got yanked down a sidetrail by yet another excellent episode of The Most Notorious podcast — Episode 257: Texas Ranger Company F Vs. The Conner Family w/ Joe Pappalardo.
The Texas Rangers in the late 1880s were a tough and colorful lot, especially the members of Company F. And while they made their livings hunting down outlaws, none proved more cunning than Willis Conner and his sons, a fugitive family accused of murdering two neighbors in a business dispute over pigs.
My guest is Joe Pappalardo, author of Red Sky Morning: The Epic True Story of Texas Ranger Company F. He not only shares details of the events leading to the showdown between the Rangers and the Conners, but talks about one of the most vaunted members of Company F, James Brooks, and a fatal gunfight that got him indicted for murder.
You can listen here or on your preferred podcasting platform.
It’s a thoroughly absorbing 1:15, and leaves me sorely tempted to dive into the book, which I don’t have time to do, since I have my own podcast to work on (the next episode of the King Philip’s War series on The Frontier Partisans Podcast will drop over the weekend or first of next week, depending on day job demands ).
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Pappalardo offers a depiction of Texas Rangers Co. F that has legitimate resonance with modern special operations forces. One of my favorite special ops dramas returned with its fourth season on Netflix today. If you haven’t delved into Fauda, do it. I think you’ll dig it.
lane batot says
But EVERYTHING can be “romantic” to a degree, depending on the individual’s interests and outlook, of course. Like with me. I’m romantic about most EVERYTHING, except, of course, romance(ahem!)…..And again, as I’ve posted this great quote that I first read at the beginning of the great if sad book about a Ute Indian living in modern times “When The Legends Die”. The quote is, “when the legends die, the dreams end. When the dreams end, there is no greatness”. This could be the mantra of this blog, in my opinion!
JimC says
As far as mantras go, I’ll absolutely ride with that one.
Nochum Elek says
You tipped me about Fauda in the past and I did binge on all four seasons (found on Telegram with Hebrew subtitles). Very good show that depicts the humaneness and ugliness on both sides of the fence. As for the romance of the west I grew up in Europe and was totally in love with the American west, and in many ways still am. The book virgin land” talks about it being the root of all American consciousness and mythology.
JimC says
Thank you. Great to hear from you. It’s very interesting to see how what the North American wilderness has represented to Europeans has evolved since the 17th century.
Rick+Schwertfeger says
Re: The Romance of the West:
Even some of us mid-20th century East Coast kids got a pretty full dose of it. There were all those western movies, and western tv shows in the ’50s. I watched “Sky King” religiously, including falling in love with his daughter Penny. Then a 1962 backpacking trip with my Dad for two weeks in northern New Mexico captured me quite completely. And readings such as “Give Your Heart to the Hawks” cemented it.
Some Jersey guy named Bruce – just a bit younger than me – got it, too:
“I want to sleep beneath peaceful skies
In my lover’s bed
With a wide-open country in my eyes
And these romantic dreams in my head.”
And I still want to, too.
JimC says
Lady Marilyn and I are off to Portland to see Springsteen at the end of February.
Matthew says
The West is a vital part of American mythology. Someone described Lonesome Dove as the Lord of the Rings for Texas. I heard another say that Larry McMurty should be consider the American Tolkien not George R. R. Martin or whoever. It seemed odd to me at first but after awhile it seem to make sense. Both works are cultural epics. Tolkien invented Lord of the Rings so England would have a mythology. Lonesome Dove, despite McMurty’s claims of it not being romanticize, serves a similar function. It is probably impossible not to romanticize the West.
John Maddox Roberts says
The prequel means that Murtagh will be back, though much younger. He was Brian’s rival for Ellen’s hand and he’s one of my favorite characters from the series.
JimC says
Mine too.
Quixotic Mainer says
Louis L’Amour would say the hero inhabits the same world as the cynic. The perspective is the difference, perhaps even more so in our peculiar modern age.
Rick+Schwertfeger says
Love this comment!
Matthew says
Art of Manliness has a podcast on Kit Carson
https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/knowledge-of-men/podcast-681-the-epic-exploits-of-kit-carson/
It’s based on Blood and Thunder which I’m sure a lot of you read.
David Wrolson says
On my end of the trapline, just watched a 1959 Japanese movie “Fires on the Plain” about Japanese soldiers cut off and starving on Leyte.
Brutally realistic-cannibalism etc.
I kept thinking that that was the war experience for so many Japanese soldiers-in New Guinea, Burma, the cut-off island garrisons etc etc.
I was laughing at myself a little because I paid special attention to the way the Japanese soldiers wrapped their legs tight below the knee. This habit got special attention in GMF’s “Quartered Safe Out Here” when he just about killed a comrade in a night battle who was wearing his pants that way.
By way of explanation, British soldiers and Gurkhas etc wore their pants looser below the knee so it was a way to tell the enemy at night.