Seems like westerns have suffered through an identity crisis the past few years. Too many people still see everything written about the west as the old formula western. And they are still being written, some good and some not so good.
One of my favorite writers, Glendon Swarthout, who wrote. They Came to Cordura, The Shootist, and many other terrific books never thought of himself as a writer of westerns. I read a piece recently where Mr. Swarthout said in 1985, ''I never set out to write a western, I used western settings to tell stories that are universal.''
That seems to be the key to great westerns, tell the story first and if it happens to fall into the western genre, great.
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3 comments:
''I never set out to write a western, I used western settings to tell stories that are universal.''
What I'm basically trying to do with my slow moving effort at writing a novel.
And how I conceive of both of the novels you note that he wrote.
I saw the movie They came to Cordura as I remember, but haven't read any of the books. I better get busy.
He is not much read anymore, but his stuff is pretty timeless. Oscar, I remember seeing the movie also but don't remember it. Hope it comes around again. Pat, that is kind of my approach also.
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