Now it's beginning to sound like a good novel.
D
On Thursday, 1 July 2021, 13:18:56 BST, Lawrence Helm
<lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Robert Stone, somewhere in his novel, Dog Soldiers, wrote that this was an
American Indian term (can't remember the tribe). The warriors declared to be
"dog soldiers" were urged to fight as though they were already dead. The
reader of Stone's novel is to assume, presumably, that the term can be applied
to American Vietnam warriors who had too many tours in-country. In their case,
they came back to the states as though they were already dead.
As to the chase, it had gone on for a long time in different settings and
vehicles. The drug dealers weren't going to give up, and Hicks, since it was
his dope, wasn't going to give it to them as long as he was alive. His friend
and his friend's wife, Marge saw the slow-moving tractor, looked down at the
dead Hicks, knew the bad guys were never going to give up. They checked to make
sure the dope was still in Hick's pack and Marge tied a white handkerchief to
the pack so the bad guys would find the dope and give up chasing them.
Think of the tractor like the Terminator: all beat up, parts of him gone, but
he was going to keep coming -- and it wasn't even their dope. It belonged to
Hicks, but it was their territory and they saw Hicks and his friends as
interlopers.
Lawrence
On 7/1/2021 4:47 AM, Donal McEvoy (Redacted sender donalmcevoyuk for DMARC)
wrote:
His inept friend and wife Marge came along on the road, found him, foundYeh, we all hate novels that end with a low-speed chase.
the dope but left it on his body because they could see the cloud of sand
being stirred up in the distance and knew the corrupt cops, though arriving
in a 20 mph tractor, wouldn't stop until they had the dope.>
Incidentally, Bob Dylan uses the phrase "dog soldiers" in his song "Changin'
of the Guard", though for years it sounded to me like he was singing "The
palace of mirrors where dark shoulders are reflected." And I feel sure one of
the reasons he got the Nobel was because, for all the deliberate clumsiness
of some of his writing, he never wrote a song featuring or titled "Marge".
Donal
Being the little help he can
On Saturday, 26 June 2021, 16:07:23 BST, Lawrence Helm
<lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dog Soldiers is an ugly depressing novel. There isn't anyone in it anyone
even slightly normal can identify with. At the end when Hicks, wounded, is
marching across the sand toward a road, I wasn't hoping he was going to make
it and live. As it happened he made it and died. I didn't care. His inept
friend and wife Marge came along on the road, found him, found the dope but
left it on his body because they could see the cloud of sand being stirred up
in the distance and knew the corrupt cops, though arriving in a 20 mph
tractor, wouldn't stop until they had the dope.
I started Damascus Gate a while back and it wasn't as ugly as this novel, at
least as far as I read. But that's enough Robert Stone for me for awhile.
Lawrence
On 6/25/2021 6:31 PM, Lawrence Helm wrote:
Stone is on my list. I'm hoping to read at least one of his novels, and have
made it to page 77 in this one. If I manage to keep reading, and if I
encounter anything else, I'll send it along.
Lawrence
On 6/25/2021 5:32 PM, david ritchie wrote:
Branwell "Brontë died at the age of 31, insisting on standing in his final
On Jun 25, 2021, at 6:20 AM, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
moments." [Wikipedia]
Thank you for these responses, Lawrence. I’m not encouraged to read Stone.
Will you?
I’ll be at this task for a while, so folks do please respond when you have
the time and inclination.
David
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