Re: Natty Bumppo, calling Natty Bumppo!

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: : : : : : : : NightSky writes:
: : : : : : : : : I'm convinced the biggest difference between this site and DDL sites is the obsession with the character rather than the actor.  We live in a world where courage is rarely rewarded, and conformity is encouraged.  Hawkeye represents a freedom and independence long lost and sorely missed.  He's also a symbol of the truely romantic:  that one man who can save us and fall forever in love with us at the same time!  I've learned to be truely thankful my husband can't read my mind.
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: : : : : : : : Ain't it the truth, NightSky, ain't it the truth. :)  If you think Hawkeye is romantic, try reading 'Deerslayer' sometime...
: : : : : : : : Dana S.

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: : : : : : : Hey Dana, you said it: TRY to read "Deerslayer" ANYTIME....
: : : : : : : I've known some taciturn gentlemen friends in my day; and some motor mouths (get that watermelon!); but if any had pontificated like Hawkeye....what can I say??? 
: : : : : : : (Maybe Judith was lucky not to get him, as I understand?)
: : : : : : : Up to Chapter 17 at this point and sitting in the backyard to keep away from any walls....

: : : : : : : Jo

: : : : : : : (Gayle, did reach the page, actually several repeats of trying to get scalps for money; must have thought I had a really stupid question as they've mentioned it at least 18 times now; and the two H's still want to go back and do it again!)

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: : : : : : Jo:  I read it when I was around 12 (for pleasure !?!) and then again in a graduate course in American Lit in college.  I can pass on ever reading Cooper again.....if I want a sermon, I'll go to church.  I'm just grateful that along the way, so many people have felt the material was worthy of putting on film.  As a book I have a hard time even remembering what it's about, but as a movie, even the bad versions are memorable.  Wait till you get to LOTM!  No romance for Hawkeye there.  

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: : : : : Nightsky,
: : : : : Well, that's the joke; I read LOTM up to the last few pages, and in frustration, threw it against the wall and let it "stay as they (it) lay"....(still never read the last 5 pages...)
: : : : : However, as Gaylee is so into Cooper, I am going to finish this book. I guess it is a sort of a view as to the ideas of the times, or at least Cooper's, and it is a different type of writing style; but I will get through it no matter how long it takes me, .....Gaylee is a great resource on Cooper input...
: : : : : Gee, I thought I read a lot as a young age, I think "Little Women" was as far as I got. Good on you!

: : : : : Jo

: : : : To all you diehards who are still hanging in there with the Cooper books - - I wonder if some of the frustration isn't that Cooper does not seem to have any concept of a happy ending.  The best and bravest characters all end up either dead or destitute, while the most insipid and least loveable characters always get the rewards and are classed as the heros and heroines.  This is my main problem with all of his novels - I keep BELIEVING that somehow, at the end of the story, his most wonderful characters will come out the winners, and it never happens.  Of course, a lot of writers went that route - Dickens being one of the most morbid in terms of killing off his best characters - but at least Dickens managed to come up with some pretty appropriate and satisfying denouements for his villains ( the end of Daniel Quilp in "The Old Curiosity Shop" being my favorite example of lip-licking, purely satisfying justice).  Maybe we get frustrated because we are unable to control the turns of fate in Cooper's books.

: : : : Gayle

: : : Postscript to my ruminations above:  The link below is a great analysis of Cooper's work, and the part on "Characterization" gives some interesting insight into the handling of his characters in "The Deerslayer", as well as some of the other Leatherstocking Tales.

: : : Gayle

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: : Gayle,
: : Thanks for that link on the Cooper's Literary Defenses...I actually read it for the better part of an hour; and never even finished it (slow readers club here...)I am totally amazed that one could take apart Coopers work like that; but then I realized that's what we've done with this movie; so hey; each to his own. Would like to finish my book and one or two more(dare I admit it) to really understand all of the comments on that site.
: : Meanwhile, back to the "Deerslayer".......
: : Jo

: Jo,

: I'm glad you enjoyed the Literary Defenses, and yes, there certainly is a lot to chew over there!  You would not believe the volume of Cooper analysis there is on the Net.  Cooper seems to be the subject of an incredible number of doctoral theses of late, too.  The Leatherstocking Tales have so many layers of thought that the subject never seems to run dry for scholars and literary researchers.  His other 35 books and many, many political writings generate a lot of continued analysis, but it is concentrated mostly in "academia", since few people nowadays get into Cooper's works beyond the Tales, and even then seldom beyond "Last of the Mohicans".  Some of the most interesting writing I've enjoyed has been the James Fenimore Cooper Society "Occasional Papers", which you can obtain by forking out $10 to join the JFC Society. Some of them are really fun to read.  HOWSEVER (as Natty would say), you need to have read all five of the LTs to get the most out of them. 

: Gayle


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