2min chapter

Lonesome Dove and Life's Journey Through Uncertainty

The Art of Manliness

CHAPTER

The Prootypical Western Hero

There is a certain kind of darkness humor and absurdity to the novel as written that the miny series doesn't quite capture. The prototypical western hero is the sort of john chisholm figure, the guy who actually carves out the ranch and creates a successful cattle empire. So their virtues are not defined because they build something, but because they endure a lot of things and stand up against a naturalistic world much larger than them. And also, we need to understand too that gus and mc cray are irremediably violent. They tend toward violence in a way that is less justifiable than maybe some prootypical western heroes do.

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