My heroes have always been cowboys

     The Western genre has always contained peculiar elements. Whether it be in film, literature, or art, images of horses, guns, and broad brimmed hats are often what identifies the western as such. There are other elements though, which are more fundamental than the set dressing, which make a story great no matter the genre.
     The hero is a recurring element in stories which have charged our imagination since time immemorial. One might argue that every story has a hero, but when I use the word I don't simply mean the protagonist of a particular tale, but an actual hero. They don't always look alike, or act alike, but the hero has been turning up in stories since man first put pen to paper. That they don't often look the same is probably why Joseph Campbell called his book 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces'.
     When I think of a hero, I think of characters like Conan, James Bond, Josey Wales, and Jack Reacher. While I recognize that there are real heroes in our world, (support our troops) I am a book lover and I have the tendency to gravitate to those heroes which only exits within the pages of the novels I read.
     What makes me (us) love our heroes so much? In my case I think it might be that I never let go of the child I once was. The adolescent male world of muscles guns and machinery has never completely lost it's glitter, though the dullness of the adult world has done its best to tarnish the gleam.
     It seems that the concept of an ultimate hero is one that I forget at my peril. As I write my latest novel, I might delve too deep into the historical aspect of the project. In my quest to deliver realism in my work, I am in danger of making the hero just a little too believable, and thus quenching the fires of romance. So, as I try to stay rooted in the historical accuracy of my time period, I will remind myself to cut loose once in awhile and have my hero open up a fresh can of whoop ass.

ad
Aug 10, 2015