Posted on 03/24/2023 5:57:16 PM PDT by algore
Why it matters: "Lonesome Dove," the Pulitzer-winning novel by the late author Larry McMurtry, might be the most beloved book in Texas history.
The big picture: The book about two retired Texas Rangers on an epic cattle drive during the last days of the West includes scenes of sexual assault and characters who are prostitutes.
Driving the news: Patterson's READER Act would require vendors to rate books with sexual content before selling them to school districts. Patterson has argued the legislation is an attempt to rid school libraries of books inappropriate for children.
Texas already bans more books than any other state, according to a 2022 PEN America report.
Yes, but: "Lonesome Dove" — which Patterson said he hadn't read — is one of the great unifiers among rugged, individualistic-minded conservatives and literature-loving liberals. Even conservatives in McMurtry's hometown of Archer City who despise some of his other work appreciate "Lonesome Dove."
Patterson's allies and enemies both think that suggesting "Lonesome Dove" should be banned was a mistake, per Texas Monthly. What happened next: Christin Bentley, a Republican from Smith County, tweeted that she downloaded the book and searched the text for words including "vagina" and "sex." Finding nothing, she determined the book is "not sexually explicit."
Patterson didn't reply to requests for comment. The intrigue: Though the book contains quite a bit of sexually explicit content, there was no discussion about whether the proposed legislation would also ban the Bible, which has already been challenged in one district.
What we're watching: The bill was left pending in committee.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Patterson needs a poke to loosen him up.
LOL.......I see what you mean
A great Western novel. Pulitzer Prize winning for what that’s worth. The author was Larry McMurtry who wrote many novels, almost all set in Texas. I highly recommend it. It was also a very good miniseries. Robert Duval and Tommy Lee Jones were great in it.
My Gawd! There were prostitutes in the Old West?1 And sexual assault occurred?
There are many more.
LOL!
Blue Duck and his gang.
Yes. It’s a great book. The TV show wasn’t bad either.
Yes, Comanche Moon, The Streets of Laredo, Dead Man’s Walk... all by McMurtry and all featuring Augustus McRae and Woodrow Call.
Is it cold living underneath a rock?
SMDH
I think Steets of Laredo was after Lonesome Dove, so Gus was not there.
A fan of Lonesome Dove …….
….but not of his award winning screenplay, Brokeback Mountain
True...
Streets of Laredo.
“The four Lonesome Dove books, in order of events, were Dead Man’s Walk, Comanche Moon, Lonesome Dove, and Streets of Laredo. I think I’ll reread them before long; it’s been a few years.”
Wow! Thanks so much for refreshing my (admittedly old) memory. I think I read all of those books years ago. “Streets of Laredo” may have been my favorite after Lonesome Dove. For if I recall correctly that was the one with the train-controlling and robbing bad guy who finally got his just desserts, but only after killing a good guy that I really had emotionally become invested in admiring and assuming would be the hero. (Or, I may be mixing up my western novels and inserting some old John Wayne movies in my memories).
These books were western classics way before anyone even knew what was happening on the other side of the nation. During the books time-frame, newspapers were not delivered daily to your front door and it would take weeks if not months for reports of conflicts in the west even reached the eastern part of the U.S.
That’s one thing that ticks me off about new-sites reporting of issues that happened 40 or more years ago, and especially the events of or 50 years ago or longer. They write articles about long ago issues as if people had instant access to information and were faulty for not expressing immediate outrage for events most people didn’t learn about until weeks or even months later.
The media will publish articles on an historical event and ad a sentence to the effect that “no one in the white communities responded, rescued, or even mentioned [whoever] thus exhibiting their white supremacy”. When reading such diatribes, I’m thinking to myself “You dumba^^, no one on the other side of the country learned of that event until months later!”
That’s cool. My bud Ely and and I were discussing Comanche Moon one evening while camping at a deer lease outside of Brownwood a few years back.
A Comanche Moon is a full moon. That’s when they raided.
Ely has a quite famous great grandfather. I bet you can figure who.
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