ERB wrote four Western novels (for one of these, see here);
James Blish wrote pulp Westerns during his writing apprenticeship (see Some Early Blish);
despite his prolificity, Poul Anderson did not write any Westerns although he and Gordon R. Dickson parodied this genre in one Hoka story;
both Anderson and SM Stirling present action-adventure fiction with well-described fight scenes but fortunately that is not all that they have written;
on this blog, I have summarized accounts of fights and battles but we have also discussed every major issue including what people fight about;
these remarks are occasioned by the climactic fight between Lisbeth Salander and her half-brother near the end of Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest.
7 comments:
Paul:
One of the funniest TV scenes involving a fight I recall was when the main characters, detectives, were talking with a possible witness in a bar while a fight raged more-or-less in the background. The funny part was that this took place in a Francophone part of Canada, and one of the combatants, as he was literally hurled across the table between the detectives and their witness, politely said, "Excusez-moi."
One thing people get wrong about fights is that they misjudge the vulnerabilities of the human body.
They portray fights with serious actions (hitting someone on the head with a hard object, for instance) as if it were "a brawl", but that's much more serious stuff.
A lot of actual fighting or brawling in social contexts really isn't intended to inflict deadly injury; it's restricted to things that hurt but don't cripple, though accidents happen.
When small children scuffle, usually with pushing and shoving, you can see this; it's a dominance ritual aimed at subduing and usually ends with one child crying and running away, or just sitting down and crying.
If you know what you're doing and fighting to kill or cripple, it doesn't last long and there -will- be serious injury.
Doubly so if even the most improvised weapons are used -- rocks and sticks and the equivalent.
That's where intent is so crucial. The outcome of a serious fight can depend overwhelmingly on the willingness of one party or the other to go in to destroy without hesitation, and without threats or posturing or hesitating partway through an attack.
Traditional face-punching results in pain and blood and may break teeth, but it's about as likely to break the attacker's hand.
But punching someone in the -throat-, or the back of the neck, can kill or cripple immediately, and there are innumerable other examples.
In the picture above, for example, I can see at least four actions which, if carried through, will kill or cripple or take months to heal even with doctor's care.
An account of an actual Western fight goes like this: in the Wyoming Territory in 1884, at a place called "The Bucket of Blood", run by a lady who went by the name of "Madame Bulldog", a cowboy and a sheepherder started having an altercation.
Madame Bulldog pulled her persuader -- a sawn-down double shotgun loaded with buck -- racked the hammers, and told them:
"This is a friendly place, boys, so keep it friendly or take it outside."
They took it outside. Shortly thereafter the cowboy came back, with his dripping bowie knife in one hand and the sheepherder's severed head (also dripping) held by the hair in the other.
A profound silence fell, and he walked up to the bar, laid down the head and the knife, pointed to the head and said:
"I'd like to buy a drink for my friend here."
Whereupon the whole establishment dissolved in gales of laughter.
Rough time and place.
In the films, a character was "knocked out," wounded or killed. Someone "knocked out" was hit on the head, lost consciousness, then regained it later with no ill effects. Wounding or killing usually required a weapon.
Concussion is serious business and usually has aftereffects, which can last from days to permanently. I've been knocked out, and it wasn't pleasant at all -- headaches for months.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
And the cowboy should have been arrested and tried for murder--and if convicted hanged!
Sean
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