Todd wrote:
>Sorry, Kevin--didn't mean to hit a sore point! When I
think of northerns, I
>tend to forget about the Dudley Do-Right stuff in
favor of the northerns
>written by folk who knew what they were talking about
and weren't afraid to
>write so, from Jack London onward.
Well, not really a sore point, more like a tender spot that
people keep stepping on...
You wrote:
>Of course, most westerns involving Canada or Alaska
have often been
>considered "northerns" in the pulps and their
successor media, and may, in
>Canadian libraries at least, be considered simply
Canadian literature,
>whether that is likely to be segregated or not I know
not.
London was the exception. And he didn't really write for the
pulps -- he died in 1916 -- before what most of us consider
pulps existed. And from what I've read and heard, most of
those guys who did subsequently write northerns for the pulps
(and certainly the ensuing
"successor media") got most of it wrong. Their entire
research seemed to consist of reading CALL OF THE WILD and
WHITE FANG and Robert Service's poems like THE CREMATION OF
SAM McGEE and THE SHOOTING OF DAN McGREW, and disregarding
the context. More likely, though, most of their research
consisted of reading each other. I mean, this was the pulps.
Who had time for anything else? It wasn't uncommon for
pulpsters to write in several genres simultaneously.
"Hmmm...Tuesday it's romance, Wednesday it's flying aces,
Thursday I have that Northwest Mounted story to
finish..."
But you claim the ones you read were accurate. Who were some
of the writers who knew what they were writing about? I'm not
being facetious -- I really want to know. I know Frederick
Nebel wrote a series about a Mountie named Tyson for
NORTHWEST STORIES, and that writers like Talmage Powell,
Lester Dent and Hugh B. Cave also wrote northerns, but
they're all pretty hard to find. Were they any good? Are
there any collections out there of this stuff, besides Don
Hutchinson's book, SCARLET RIDERS? I wouldn't mind reading a
few more of these. As fantasy some of those stories are
pretty good, even if, as historicals, they leave much to be
desired.
But what really got me a bit antsy was your assumption that
Canada and Alaska are somehow synonymous, and especially that
Canadian libraries would consider pulp (regardless of its
accuracy) written by foreigners, just because it was about
Mounties and Gold Rush desperadoes, to actually be Canadian
literature. It would be like having Carter Brown's P.I.
fantasies classified as American literature. Talk about
bamboozled....
Still, for those of you who like northerns, here's a great
little story I just heard a while ago, that was evidently all
over the Klondike a hundred years or so ago. To access
Canada's Klondike, most of the would-be
prospectors/speculators/con artists/whores and thieves had to
enter via Alaska, of course. Upon entering Canadian
territory, the wide-open lawlessness of the Alaskan frontier
ended. The Mounties were in charge, and wouldn't let anyone
enter who didn't have the required supplies, and to keep out
undesirables. When a member of the notorious Soapy Smith gang
found his way barred from entering Canada (due to his lack of
supplies), he asks the Mountie who had stopped him, "What
would happen if I just decided to shoot my way in?"
The Mountie thinks for a moment, and then hands the man a
pistol.
"Start shooting. That's the easiest way to find out."
Sounds sorta like a scene from one of Hammett's Op stories,
eh?
--
Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.thrillingdetective.com
New fiction from Lori Stone, Peter Parmantie, John Samony and Anthony Rain. Plus the second story arc of Tim Broderick's Odd Jobs. -- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
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