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Emma Bull is the author of Territory, a Western from Tor due in July. She's an award-winning fantasy and SF author. Here's what she has to say about the Western as a genre.
Well, if you feel like browsing through some fresh, exciting Western fiction; you know where to look, don't you?I have to confess that the westerns I've read -- lots of Zane Gray, some Louis L'Amour, Shane, probably others I've forgotten -- remind me an awful lot of Arthurian literature.
That's because, to a degree, they are. The Western is really the American version of that sort of literature (not necessarily in quality, but in meaning and content). The Arthurian stuff was intended to capture chivalry as it was imagined to be, not necessarily as it really was. The Western is very similar in that sense (at least the traditional Western).I have to confess that the westerns I've read -- lots of Zane Gray, some Louis L'Amour, Shane, probably others I've forgotten -- remind me an awful lot of Arthurian literature.
Romance readers love cowboys. Get the right book (mine, please God, mine) that will get them AND get the folks who read "real" Westerns, or even novels set in the Old West, and you have the potential to bring it all back again, just like Mac said.
Right. I'm just saying that I think the Western -- its setting, themes, even stereotypes -- are still being used, but their used either in cross-genre, or they're reset into another genre (cop shows, science fiction) where they "look" or "sound" different in a way.Nothing like being roped in by a cowboy. Herd 'em up, move 'em on. Rawhide!
Horror westerns seem to have done well. Or is that horrors stories set in the west? Dusk to Dawn, Highway 666, Deadwood, Deadlands, and what's that one about vampires in the desert. It was on that fake scary movie show. Great stuff.