Lonesome Dove
by
Larry McMurtrey

This book, and the TV mini series made from it, have enjoyed enormous popularity in recent years, to the point that one begins to suspect some qualities underlying the narrative that are particularly timely with respect to the state of the culture.

The story is set at about the turn of the last century and follows a cattle drive from a relatively settled Texas to virgin territory in northern Montana. The major characters are Augustus McCrae, an ex Texas Ranger of about fifty or so years of age and his long time associate, also an ex Texas Ranger, Captain Woodrow Call: the leaders of the expedition, a prostitute who accompanies them on the drive: Laurie, Gus's ex romantic interest of some years in the past: Claire, and a large group of Indians, cowhands, and assorted white, black, and Hispanic settlers of various flavors.

The part of the culture of interest to the author and being portrayed here is decidedly lower class, with modest or no educational achievements of any significance apparent except in rare cases, perhaps one college graduate in the entire assemblage. Gus has some pretensions to learning, but he is mostly a natural philosopher with some admiration for learning. He does read the Bible, and admires Latin phrases, even though he is unable to interpret them. Likes them for the form.

The herd is acquired by stealing it from a Mexican rancher. This doubtful method, amongst a very moral, given their class, group of men, is justified by recalling that the Mexican, Flores, acquired them in the same way, by stealing them from Texas ranchers, and anyway the procedure was of long standing tradition (they meet Flores going south with rustled horses on their way north with his herd).

A secondary character, Jake Spoon, soon appears, on the run from an Arkansan sheriff for accidentally shooting a dentist in Fort Smith. He is also a former ranger, but of a generally lesser moral character than Gus and Call.

On the way north, the most famous renegade outlaw Indian steals Laurie, causing Gus to pursue and recapture her and allowing him to encounter the pursuing sheriff, July Johnson. July has married a prostitute, who has deserted him in a pregnant state, and this has caused him to give up his pursuit of Jake and instead to pursue her, which leads him to Ogallala, the home of Claire.

The arrival of the herd and the main players in Ogallala provides the opportunity to explore the main issue in this book, which I would call the varieties of sexual roles people adopt and the problems that result. A significant feature of the story, in this regard is the fact that Captain Call, who never pursues relationships with women, none the less had a relationship with a prostitute some years in the past, the result of which was an unacknowledged son who is one of the drovers. This is a point of some consequence to the philosopher Gus, who is at pains to develop relationships with women in his life and considers them of greater importance than any other feature of his life.

After the abduction of Laurie by the renegade, Blue Duck, Gus takes it upon himself to nurse her back to health and develops a love relationship, more on her part than his, in the process.

Claire, Gus's old flame, has in the intervening years married a duty bound and uncommunicative man capable of domination by her, but he is in a coma on the arrival of the herd, as a result of a horse kick, which resulted from his inability to relate effectively to horses, even though they were his business. When Claire and Gus meet, it is apparent that they still regard each other with the special intensity of love, but while Gus obviously hopes for some chance of revival of their courting days, she recognizes the impossibility of it and instead concentrates on communicating her intense hatred for Call, who she considers to be reprehensible for his failure to acknowledge his son. The author leads us to believe that she will eventually marry July Johnson, who is disappointed to find his wife only to discover she has no interest in him. She is eventually killed by Indians in a pointless attempt to evade July, even though her hope in life has just been hung for child murder.

In fact, the book as a whole, portrays a culture in which life is profoundly cheap, and, as Blue Duck observes, likely to get cheaper. Prostitutes are creeping about everywhere and vary from the predominant coarse to the relatively refined Laurie, with many intermediate examples, such as Big Heifer. There are horse thieves of a particularly insensitive nature, inclined to indulge in the grossest sort of exploitation of the harmless, a gruesome white slaver who sexually exploits a child, public carnality, to the extent that one begins to doubt the reality of it. The relations between the Indians and whites is particularly lacking in any sort of civility and no noble Indian is included, though many ignoble ones are. Drunkenness is endemic.

So, a long story is presented with many interesting characters, but the essence of the thing, and that which, I would say gives it its main appeal is the short play that takes place in Ogallala. This episode begins by describing the arrival of July's wife, who has her baby there and leaves the child with Claire, who adopts it to replace her own lost sons, all of whom died in childhood. Then July happens along and is hired by Claire. Then Gus and Call arrive, a picnic ensues, and Gus and Claire discuss the state of their romance over the bed of her comatose husband. They conclude that it has no potential to both of their great disappointment. Claire communicates her hatred for Call to anybody that will listen, and the herd moves on to Montana.

But, this is not the end. Gus, on a scouting expedition in Montana is ambushed by Indians and eventually dies as a result of gangrene which arises from arrow wounds in his leg. Before dying, however, he extracts the promise from Call that his body be transported to a favored location in Texas, that his half of the herd be given to Laurie, and that Call deliver two notes from Gus to Laurie and Claire.

This produces an opportunity for Claire to express the depths of her feelings for Call, which are bottomless disgust, even though Call is performing the requirements of loyalty to his friend. In fact Claire does everything she can to convince Call to give up the trip and bury Gus in Ogallala.

So, how to understand this drama? Let me begin by restating my contention that the story is about relationships, particularly the most important ones, those expressing human sexuality. Also, remember from elsewhere, that one of the supreme values of masculinity is adherence to rules of behavior, while a supreme value of femininity is the development and nurturance of relationships. The most profound relationships include the sexual function and therefore occur, in the main, between the sexes.

However, physical males can have feminine psyches and the reverse, and in fact this defines a spectrum that can and does include all imaginable mixtures. In this story, I would characterize Gus as having a psyche somewhat dominated by his femininity. This accounts for his preoccupation with relationships and generally soft quality, outside of his violence towards recalcitrant males. It also accounts for his humorous contempt for Call's commitment to work and avoidance of pleasure. Call, on the other hand, is totally masculine to the point of coldness and apparent insensitivity. He fails to acknowledge his son because to do so would make apparent to all his failure to observe the rules regarding intimate relations between the sexes. He fulfills every duty that befalls him with single minded intensity, though on Gus's death, he seems to lose that intensity to the point of doubting the worthiness of all his efforts to get the herd and crew to Montana and to establish the first cattle ranch there.

Claire is rather dominated, psychologically, by her masculinity. She requires to dominate her husband and is the manager of her ranch. She also performs the functions of wife and mother but with complaints and vaguely dreams of becoming a writer. Writing is masculine because the point of it is to firmly establish in consciousness important facts. Consciousness is itself masculine due to its order and relatively sparse contents, compared to unconsciousness, which is, of course, all the rest.

So, the central question of this drama is: Why does Claire hate Call so? And, the answer is, because she realizes that her only chance at happiness lies in Gus because he mirrors her personality, and Gus is married to Call. So, she is jealous. She rationalizes that her hatred results from Call's apparent callousness and disregard of his familial relationships, but this is a rationalization. She also disregards when convenient the obvious fact, even to her, that she couldn't have a permanent relationship with Gus anyway, since he doesn't allow himself to be dominated by anyone.

This final scene, makes clear the point of the drama, which is the vanity of the ideal of manhood. This is a profound and disturbing point to anyone old enough to remember the ideal in action. The fact that it is vain, however, is inescapable and demonstrated beyond any ability to debate by this drama. In fact I would say this is a particularly fine dramatization of the main point of the Book of Ecclesiastes from The Bible. I would go on to say that everything has a price and the price of Call's vanity is also dramatized, and it was a high price, indeed.

Having understood that, does Ecclesiastes warn us away from vanities, including the vanity of Call? This is a much harder question. I think not, since that would also be vain. I think Ecclesiastes gives us a means of understanding our lives from an unusual perspective, and the realization that our sufferings here on earth are inescapable.

This particular vanity, Call's, isn't gone. It isn't much on view in everyday life, anymore, but a sort of one dimensional version of it is apparent in much of American entertainment. Movies like "Die Hard", or "Rambo", where the superman is laying waste to all manner of failures and even anti supermen are examples. Also pro wrestling, I would say, presents a sort of comic book version of the manhood ideal.

Nietzsche introduced the notion of superman, in "Thus Spake Zarathustra", I believe, and then twentieth century American entertainment turned it into the famed "Man of Steel from Gotham". Zarathustra looks like extreme vanity, but, with cloning making its appearance, maybe it too will come to pass. For another view, look here.