Has Landpoke or anyone else read

[Solon]

The Legend of Colton H. Bryant, by Alexandra Fuller?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/bo...tml?ref=review

The Economist had a short review of it last week. I just ordered a copy and thought I'd like to hear what a Wyoming guy thinks. Or anyone who's read it or is familiar with the story.

[landpoke]

I vaguely remember an NPR interview with the author a while back, but I haven't read the book. I'm probably not the best person to ask as I tend to be a bit oversensitive and overprotective when it comes to Wyoming. I find that transplants writing about the essence of the place always rub me the wrong way as they never seem to get it right. They're either too gushing or too harsh, always disneyfying the place such that it's not real anymore. A book called "The Solace of Open Spaces" by Gretel Ehrlich comes to mind as a particularly annoying example of the gushing, Anne Proulx's Wyoming stories are an example of the other side of the spectrum.

That being said I'll order the damn thing and report, probably in a black drunken rage, my dissatisfaction with the book.

[Solon]

Originally Posted by landpoke

I vaguely remember an NPR interview with the author a while back, but I haven't read the book. I'm probably not the best person to ask as I tend to be a bit oversensitive and overprotective when it comes to Wyoming. I find that transplants writing about the essence of the place always rub me the wrong way as they never seem to get it right. They're either too gushing or too harsh, always disneyfying the place such that it's not real anymore. A book called "The Solace of Open Spaces" by Gretel Ehrlich comes to mind as a particularly annoying example of the gushing, Anne Proulx's Wyoming stories are an example of the other side of the spectrum.

That being said I'll order the damn thing and report, probably in a black drunken rage, my dissatisfaction with the book.

I guessed there might be an outsider's know-it-all-ness condescension. I hear the kid was a bad-ass, but I'm guessing the writer has an axe to grind against Wyoming oil. [reminds me of all the NYC folks here who, although they've never been west of Ohio, lecture westerners about the need to protect the environment as they throw their cigarette butts on the ground.]

[landpoke]

You are probably correct. She lives up in Jackson which is all I need to know.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by landpoke

You are probably correct. She lives up in Jackson which is all I need to know.

It sounds a bit like the Cowboy Poet's in Elko. When it first started, it was legitimate, with some guys really being cowboys who could turn a phrase. By now, it's a bunch of cityfolk, looking like John Travolta in Midnight Cowboy.

Outsiders don't know the frontier and should stop writing about it, because they are schlocky second rate poseurs.

[MikeWaters]

If I have relatives in Wyoming, and Wyoming blood in me, and I move to rural Wyoming, will I still be considered an interloper?

[creekster]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

If I have relatives in Wyoming, and Wyoming blood in me, and I move to rural Wyoming, will I still be considered an interloper?

Yes.

I grew up in a little town in Utajh but if I went back now I would be an interloper, too. Going there or going back is not the same as being there.

[landpoke]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

If I have relatives in Wyoming, and Wyoming blood in me, and I move to rural Wyoming, will I still be considered an interloper?

Depends. If you come in and tell us we're doing it all wrong and back in Texas/California/Africa we did it this way which is much better and you're all a bunch of know-nothing inbreds because you live in Wyoming and we'll tell you what's best for you, well that might not go over too well

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by landpoke

Depends. If you come in and tell us we're doing it all wrong and back in Texas/California/Africa we did it this way which is much better and you're all a bunch of know-nothing inbreds because you live in Wyoming and we'll tell you what's best for you, well that might not go over too well

your posts remind me that small staters fight amongst themselves as well as with outsiders.

i can hear your debates with ranchers and vice versa. In Nevada, we have miners arguing with ranchers, who argue with farmers, who argue with Sierra Nevada types, who then get arguments from those from out of state living in Vegas that have never set foot in the rest of the state.

[Solon]

Originally Posted by landpoke

Depends. If you come in and tell us we're doing it all wrong and back in Texas/California/Africa we did it this way which is much better and you're all a bunch of know-nothing inbreds because you live in Wyoming and we'll tell you what's best for you, well that might not go over too well

I think I'd like living in Wyoming.