ATDTDA (1): Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (part 1)

[Monte Davis]

 Tim Strzechowski quoting Larson:
 
> Visitors entered through a gate that featured Columbus on one side,  
> under the banner "Pilot of the Ocean, the First Pioneer," and Buffalo  
> Bill on the other, identified as "Pilot of the Prairie, the Last Pioneer."

 
Making it clear that Frederick Jackson Turner's model 
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontier_Thesis ) 
was not a cutting-edge revelation, but a clear statement of a
well-established meme.
 
Pp. 52-53:
 
"It may not be quite the West you're expecting," Professor Vanderjuice put 
in. "Back in July my colleague Freddie Turner came out here from Harvard 
and gave a speech before a bunch of anthro people who were all in town for 
their convention and of course the Fair. To the effect that the Western
fron-
tier we all thought we knew from song and story was no longer on the map 
but gone, absorbed-a dead duck.... 
 
"No matter how virtuous [the American Cowboy has]  kept his name, how many
evildoers he's managed to get by 
undamaged, how he's done by his horses, what girls he has chastely kissed, 
serenaded by guitar, or gone out and raised hallelujah with, it's all back
there 
in the traildust now and none of it matters, for down there [in the
stockyards] you'll find the wet 
convergence and finale of his drought-struck tale and thankless calling,
Buf-
falo Bill's Wild West Show stood on its head..."
 
 
Another inverted reflection in AtD's hall of birefringent mirrors.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20070125/50d75209/attachment.html>