Freeper Reading Club Discussion: Shane

Self | August 12, 2002 | PJ-Comix

[PJ-Comix]

Okay, today is the due date for the first book discussion of the Freeper Reading Club: Shane. I picked this book as the leadoff book for several reasons. One is that it is a great short novel. I also picked it because it was a quick easy read and would be an easy way for folks out there to get used to reading book assignments for the reading club.

The next book is longer at 400 pages, The Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test by Tom Wolfe, although it is a VERY ENTERTAINING read. Remember, The Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test discussion is due September 9.

If you want to become a member of the Freeper Reading Club, just Freepmail me or post your request here and I'll put you on the Freeper Reading Club Ping List.

[WHATNEXT?]

Did you notice on page 6 Shane's description has him with "long dark hair." Not in the illustration and not in the movie. Interesting.

[WHATNEXT?]

This was something I have never heard of, "It was black, almost DUE black..." Talking of Shane's gun .. what is DUE black? Looked it up and didn't find anything appropriate.

[WHATNEXT?]

Do you really think God=Shane? A bit more than intended I think.

[PJ-Comix]

Did you notice on page 6 Shane's description has him with "long dark hair." Not in the illustration and not in the movie. Interesting.

I didn't find that as problematic as the fact that Alan Ladd was only about five feet tall. And what was with using a golden Palomino in the movie instead of a dark horse?

[parsifal]

I was taken with the sexual undertones of the novel. I suspect a menage a trois was going on between the Starretts and Shane. Note all the latent showing out between Joe and Shane "pulling the stump." ( I am serious, here!)

Or this tidbit from page 80 of my book: "Did ever a
woman have have two such men?" The two men stared at her and then at each other in that adult knowledge beyond my understanding.Shane rose and stepped over by my mother. He put a hand gently on her head and I felt his fingers in my hair and the affection flooding through me. He walked quietly out the door and into the night.

skip skip skip.

"Do you think I don't know, Marian?" [Joe Starrett]

"Don't fret yourself Marian. I'm man enough to know a better when his trail meets mine. Whatever happens will be all right."[Joe Starrett]

Another possibility is that Shane is Bobby's father. This would mean that Marian and Shane knew each other in the past. This would explain the time and attention that Shane lavished with Bobby.

All in all, a darn good read. parsy.

[PJ-Comix]

Do you really think God=Shane?

Well, that quote in the book about Shane always being in us sure sounded that way.

[Travis McGee]

Please add me to your ping list.

[PJ-Comix]

I was taken with the sexual undertones of the novel. I suspect a menage a trois was going on between the Starretts and Shane. Note all the latent showing out between Joe and Shane "pulling the stump."

I think you are reading too much into that stump allusion. As Freud once said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

[parsifal]

Another interesting thing: I was trying to search the 'net and see if anybody else thought there was a lot more sex than met the eye to Shane. I found this link between Shane and AYN RAND:

BIOGRAPHY

Novelist Erika Holzer hails from a long line of lawyers in upstate New York. She received a B.S. degree from Cornell University and a Juris Doctor degree from the New York University School of Law. After practicing labor law with the Madison Avenue firm of Battle, Fowler, Stokes & Kheel and teaching Labor Relations at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, for a number of years she practiced constitutional, administrative and appellate law with her husband, Henry Mark Holzer.

She and her husband devoted part of their law practice to human rights cases, such as: their pro bono representation in 1980 of Walter Polovchak, the 12-year-old "littlest defector" whose 6-year battle against being forced to leave Chicago and return to the Soviet Union ended in his attaining American citizenship; their pro bono representation in l991 of Desert Storm Army reservist Jacqueline Ortiz, whose sexual assault by her First Sergeant led to his discharge from the Army.

In the 60s, Ms. Holzer and her husband also represented novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand and, on Ms. Rand's behalf, recovered her lost film classic, the 1941 Italian-made "Noi Vivi," based on Ms. Rand's first novel WE THE LIVING. Together with Duncan Scott Productions, the Holzers restored "Noi Vivi" and in l988 co-produced a widely acclaimed art film version, with a subtitled script by Erika Holzer and Duncan Scott.

Leaving law for full time fiction and non-fiction writing, Ms. Holzer authored numerous articles, syndicated columns, book and movie reviews, educational film scripts, and several short stories. Her anaylsis of the classic Western SHANE by Jack Schaefer was reprinted as a study guide in the HEATH GUIDE TO COLLEGE WRITING. She is currently co-author with her husband "Aid and Comfort: Jane Fonda in North Vietnam" (McFarlandpub.com). (see website www.hanoijane.net).

Erika Holzer's first novel DOUBLE CROSSING (Putnam, hard; Tor/St. Martin's, soft) was a Literary Guild alternate with numerous foreign editions and a host of prominent endorsers, among them: Mary Higgins Clark, Robert Littell, Arthur Hailey, Harry Crews, Allen Drury, Phyllis A. Whitney and Barry Goldwater.

Ms. Holzer's subsequent novel EYE FOR AN EYE (Tor/St. Martin's/Forge, hard & soft) was a Brilliance uncondensed audio with foreign editions and such prominent endorsers as: Nelson DeMille, Ed McBain, Sandra Scoppettone, Barbara D'Amato, and Dorothy Salisbury Davis. Film rights were purchased by Paramount's Sherry Lansing, and the feature film "Eye For An Eye," directed by John Schlesinger and starring Sally Field and Kiefer Sutherland, was released in 1996 and is often replayed on television.

While hardcover editions of both novels are out of print, they are currently available in trade paperback as part of the New York Authors Guild back-in-print program. Both DOUBLE CROSSING, an espionage thriller with a human rights theme, and EYE FOR AN EYE, a suspense thriller with a criminal justice theme, may be purchased at Ms. Holzer's website www.erikaholzer.com, from www.iUniverse.com, or from the online "bookstores" of Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

[parsifal]

I am not so sure. Page 36: "Shane carried no gun."

A gun is a well known phallic symbol. Shane had a gun and was better with his gun than Joe Starrett. Was Shane metaphorically neutering himself? parsy.

[PJ-Comix]

So where is the link between Shane and Ayn Rand? Better yet, what was her analysis of Shane? That would be interesting to read.

[PJ-Comix]

Shane carried no gun because he well, er, carried no gun.

[Antoninus]

"Listen, Bob. A gun is just a tool. No better and no worse than any other tool, a shovel--or an axe or a saddle or a stove or anything. Think of it always that way. A gun is as good--and as bad--as the man who carries it. Remember that."

Hmmmm. I already returned the book to the library unfortunately. I just remember the line striking me a lot harder in the movie and I didn't recall it from the book at all. Must've missed it!

[parsifal]

She was Ayn Rand's lawyer and wrote the book on Shane. I am going to look for some Cliff notes on Shane. I suspect I am on to something about the sexual undercurrent. It came screaming thru the movie and I was just a kid then. parsy.

[parsifal]

Also found this Shane thingon Joe Bob Briggs site:

Dear Joe Bob:

Back in January I was sitting at my desk trying to pick an appropriate branch of the logarithm, and the idea of branches got me to thinking about family branches, and I got to wondering whether the folks back in Texas remember me. As if in answer, I got something in the mail from them in July. It was an invitation to the family reunion in August. The THIRD family reunion, to be exact. The problem is, this is the FIRST invitation I have gotten to any of these reunions. Kinda shows where I stand in the scheme of things. The blow to my self-esteem was so great that I had to give some deep thought to what I could possibly do to recover. I thought that maybe I would picket the Miami Herald for supporting the "holocaust" hoax. Another thought that came to me was that I could go on the college lecture circuit telling people about Esperanto. And then another thought was that I could re-read Shane.

After careful consideration, I chose item #3, to re-read Shane, because it was the one that I could do without taking my feet off my desk. The timing was a happy coincidence too, because this is the centenary of when the action in Jack Schaefer's "magnificent and enduring" story took place.

Well, I feel a hole lot better, now that I've reread the book. I've got my self eh steam back. That's the happy ending to this episode, except that I couldn't help writing a pome about it, so here it is:

SHANE

It was '89, and the days were hot.

Pa had staked and built our plot.

One day, a man in black

Came riding down the valley track.

The track diverged, and he stopped to view

Where each road was leading to,

And took the lesser-travelled lane,

And stayed with us. His name was Shane.



Pa was pressed, in a game not new,

By a wild rancher and his dangerous crew.

Fletcher, the rancher, picked a straight fight:

Winner take all, and loser take flight.

First with fists, then with lead,

The fight progressed, and left its dead.

In all these scenes, no less the last,

Shane was best, and Shane was fast.



Two-gunned Wilson was Fletcher's ace,

And men spoke low when he showed his face.

But Shane was deadly, and Shane was faster:

He killed the ace, and the ace's master.

Badly hurt, he went to leave,

But bent to help a boy believe,

Then rode away, in silent pain,

And looked not back. His name was Shane

Mike Jones

Coral Gables, Fla.



Dear Mike:

The kid was still obnoxious.

[RightWhale]

Doc had TB and had to close his dentist practice, whereupon he moved out West where the air might be better. He was given two years to live, but lived 4 years anyway. He actually died of TB in spite of his best efforts to go out explosively. A Southern Gentleman.

[Antoninus]

Oh come on. One can find sexual metaphors in just about any piece of writing if you look hard enough and describe anything that's longer than it is wide as a phallic symbol. I personally am SICK TO DEATH of finding sex themes, hidden or otherwise, in works of literature. They are so ubiquitous as to be the epitome of triteness.

While there clearly was some sexual tension in the Starret household, to suggest a "menage a trois" based on what was written is ridiculous. How would that fit in with the rest of the story? Shane, if nothing else, was the perfect mannered house guest and farm hand. For him to be having sexual relations with Joe Starret's wife behind his back would have made him a completely different character, totally out of keeping with the story.

This kind of silly speculation is exactly why I felt the author would have been better off leaving the whole sexual tension aspect out of the story altoghether.

[parsifal]

"While there clearly was some sexual tension in the Starret household, to suggest a "menage a trois" based on what was written is ridiculous. "

But you agree with me that there is some kind of underlying sexual tension. Perhaps my other supposition, that Shane is either Bobby's father,or was once a lover of Marian's ismore acceptable. Plus,how many households in the Old West, on a farm, only had one child like the Starretts? I submit,not many. Isthat becauseJoe and Marian did not engage in conjugal relations? I still think Shane spent way too much time with the kid. Did Marian contact Shane and ask him to come and save the family?

"Shane" is like an iceberg. 90% is beneath the surface. Literary critics have to examine this kind of stuff. parsy the explicator.

[PJ-Comix]

Perhaps my other supposition, that Shane is either Bobby's father,or was once a lover of Marian's ismore acceptable.

This is a stretch just like the notion that while Joe was off doing his chores, Shane snuck back to the house, dropped his pants, and shtooped Marian. Sorry, I just don't buy that.

[Leper Messiah]

Please add me as well to the list. Is there a list of future books on the list ??