Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>I think, btw, that there is something about the American collective psyche
>that feels an undying attraction to this kind of "wild west" stuff - which
>foreign observers, like myself, view with a mixture of bemusement and
>disbelief. I mean, most folks who populate this country have their ancestry
>roots in the factories of New York, Baltimore and Chicago and coal mines of
>Pennsylvania. Only a small handful of them were cowboys. So if they are
>yearning for their roots, they should identify with workers and union
>organizers, not cowboys. This whole pioneer/wild west thing is 100% made in
>Hollywood. I find it hard to understand why it has such a strong
>attraction.
>
Perhaps Henry Miller explained it best in "The Misfits" -- in which
Clark Gable and ass dragging entourage eke out an existence taming wild
horses because it beats wage slavery...and shows that they are stil on
some functional level, men.
But basically, the wild west is the foundational myth of american consciousness: the individual triumphing over the wild in nature and the dark-wild in himself....a kind of Robinson Crusoe on steroids. But it's alwasy single males. When women and children are introduced, it always gets a lot murkier...like "Shane."
Joanna
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