<p>
</p>
<p>Heaven forfend! :D</p>
<p>Ignatius, good point. How about of we call him a lovable rogue who didn’t know where to draw the line? Or who did know where to draw the line at last (with the Suggses) but lacked the courage to do it?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Blue Duck is the true villain. Pure evil. Too evil? Do you think he should have had more complexity, or is it just a sad fact that people like that exist in the world?</p>
<p>I think of Jake as the catalyst more than the bad guy. He’s the cause of many of the big turning points of the novel.</p>
<p>True … July started on his journey because of Jake with Joe in tow. Poor Roscoe tailed along afterwards.</p>
<p>I found an amusing blog post where the author says she believes that “every straight man in the world falls into a category/type represented by one of the main characters in Lonesome Dove.” I liked her description of Jake:
</p>
<p>Search for
Let Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall Teach You Everything You Need to Know About Life</p>
<p>Two other random things:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I thought of Po Campo when I heard this NPR story this morning on bug snacks. There’s a sidebar link to another story on grasshopper burgers:
<a href=“Will Americans Buy Bug Snacks? Maybe ... If They're Funny And Cute : The Salt : NPR”>Will Americans Buy Bug Snacks? Maybe ... If They're Funny And Cute : The Salt : NPR;
<li><p>When I was on Facebook today and saw the option to “poke” (which I never use) I wondered if the creators of Facebook ever read Lonesome Dove. Just one more example of why more women (preferably those who read Pulitzer-winners) are needed in tech companies.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I read this as a teenager in the 80’s. I remember loving it :)</p>
<p>^ It stands the test of time! </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>For most people, no matter the setting or the era, luck and conscious decision-making go hand-in-hand in determining an outcome. I think the characters in Lonesome Dove were more apt to use the luck “lingo” because, as NJTM pointed out, gambling was a key part of their lives.</p>
<p>Here’s one perspective: “The popularity of gambling in the West can be attributed mostly to the fact that all who left the relative safety and comfort of the East to seek fame and fortune on the frontier were, in a sense, natural-born gamblers.”<br>
<a href=“Gambling in the Old West”>http://www.historynet.com/gambling-in-the-old-west.htm</a></p>
<p>However, young men like Newt didn’t leave “the relative safety and comfort of the East.” They don’t gamble because it’s in their nature, they gamble because it’s what everybody else does. For the Hat Creek crew, gambling was a way to pass the time, and it got a little convoluted:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>But who can blame them? There wasn’t much else to do on a long trail drive. </p>
<p>I think good and bad luck play a part in the journey - weather, being an example - Sean and the snakes, being another. I agree that ‘luck’ is just part of cowboy lingo. Gus uses ‘accident’ not ‘luck’ though when he speaks over Sean’s grave: “There’s accidents in life and he met with a bad one.”</p>
<p>(For those who also discussed The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - Remember the short story “The Luck of Roaring Camp” - cowboys and ‘luck’ though Luck happens to be a little boy that they come to view as luck.) </p>
<p>^I read somewhere (sorry, I don’t remember where) that all the unlucky environmental events that occurred in *Lonesome Dove<a href=“dust%20storms,%20locusts,%20hailstorms,%20etc”>/i</a> could not possibly all have occurred in a single year. McMurtry piled it on.</p>
<p>@ignatius, “The Luck of Roaring Camp” was one of the stories I never did read, and I don’t remember it being discussed. Would you recommend it?</p>
<p>^ NJTM, here it is – it’s short: “The Luck of Roaring Camp” by Bret Harte: <a href=“The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales, by Bret Harte”>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales, by Bret Harte;
<p>Thanks, Mary!</p>
<p>^^^ Without looking back, I’m thinking it takes place in a mining camp rather than with cowboys … miners/gamblers rather than cowboys.</p>
<p>I didn’t love Luck of the Roaring Camp, but it doesn’t take long to read - and an interesting observation.</p>
<p>It’s funny about gambling, I’m generally very good at games, unless you add a gambling element. So I can play backgammon, but not with the doubling cube. I always lose at Poker. I have no feeling at all for when to hold them and when to fold them and when to bluff. None. </p>
<p>Does any one have any thoughts about Clara’s other hired hand? He’s depicted as being in love with her too.</p>
<p>I definitely need to reread some of the Clara sections. Isn’t her hired hand an old man?</p>
<p>mathmom: I think you may be right in your assessment of Deets’ age: “FWIW, I always imagined Deets as older than Gus or Call. I saw him as a sort of Morgan Freeman figure. Wise old guy, with the wrong skin color for his times.”</p>
<p>*Not a spoiler:</p>
<p>In Streets of Laredo Gus (obviously a flashback because, hey, this is the sequel) referred to Deets by the moniker ‘old Deets’. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Aw, c’mon ignatius, you know there’s no age limit for love. :x</p>
<p>I’d say Clara and Cholo are soul-mates.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>We’re told that and that Clara “knew he appreciated her as she appreciated him” (p. 599) and “Sometimes she talked to Cholo as if he were her husband, and not Bob” (p. 608). Plus, Cholo makes the coffee every morning while Clara lingers a little longer in bed. That’s real devotion.</p>
<p>And isn’t it interesting that the alternative life Clara envisioned was moving back to Richmond and writing books? I think those books would have been worthy of reading!</p>
<p>Mary13 " cholo makes coffee every morning while Clara lingers and little longer in bed. That’s REAL devotion. </p>
<p>Funny - love that, Mary13 </p>