Half Skinned Steer, The by Annie Proulx~ Short Stories

[JoanP]

The Book Club Online is  the oldest  book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone.  We offer cordial discussions of one book a month,  24/7 and  enjoy the company of readers from all over the world.  Everyone is welcome.

Short Stories - Some SeniorLearn Favorites - JUNE 1 til mid JULY

It is said that a good short story should include: * a strong theme, * a fascinating plot, * a fitting structure, * unforgettable characters, * a well-chosen setting, * an appealing style.  Let's consider these elements as we discuss the following stories.  Is it necessary to include them all in a successful story?  
  

Notice that the titles are all links to the stories.

Discussion Schedule:
June 1 -June 9: *The Book of The Funny Smells--and Everything (1872) by Eleanor H Abbott *The Necklace or The Diamond Necklace (1880) -  by Guy de Maupassant
  *A Pair of Silk Stockings (1896) by Kate Chopin
June 10- 14: *Babylon Revisited (1931) by F.Scott Fitzgerald
June 15- 17: *First Confession (1939) by Frank O'Connor
June 18-20: *A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1953) by Flannery O'Connor  
June 21-24: *The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (1973) by Ursula LeGuin
June 25-28: *The Half-skinned Steer (1997) by Annie Proulx
 June 29-July 2:*The Bear Came Over the Mountain by Alice Munro

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The Half-Skinned Steer by Annie Proulx

- Annie Proulx has twice won the O. Henry Prize for the year's best short story. In 1998, she won for "Brokeback Mountain" which had appeared in The New Yorker in 1997. Proulx won again the following year for "The Mud Below," which appeared in The New Yorker in 1999. Annie Proulx’s   The Half-Skinned Steer was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in November 1997.  This story also inspired her to write Close Range: Wyoming Stories (1999), in which "The Half-Skinned Steer"  was included as the lead story and was  selected by author Garrison Keillor for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories in 1998.  By the time it was published, Proulx was already famous for another collection of short stories and three novels, including The Shipping News (1993), which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.  Proulx has noted that   The Half-Skinned Steer is "based on an old Icelandic folktale, 'Porgeir's Bull,'  with themes of revenge which demonstrate how 'old' thinking can slow progress and resurrect long-forgotten grievances." She  adapts this idea in "The Half-Skinned Steer" to show how behaviours, grievances, and lack of persistence in our ancestors can also be inherited and "dragged around."

Topics for Consideration

June 25 - June 28

 

1.  The author tells us that she has adapted this story from an Icelandic folktale, which demonstrates how ancestors' behaviours and lack of persistance can be inherited and dragged around."  Do you understand why Mero must drag the guilt for Tin Head's behaviour so many years before?  Do you remember Tin Head's relationship to Mero and his brother, Rollo? 2. Why is Mero returning now that his brother has died?  Were they close?  What is he expecting to find?  Does he seem to want to settle unfinished business? 3. If the steer is a symbol, what does he symbolize?  Roaming around like this - not seen again...until Mero returns.   Do you see a parallel between Mero and the Steer? 4.  Do we need to consider Tin Head's part in the story?  He never finishes a job, only skins the steer halfway.  Is the fact that he removed the steer's tongue significant?  Is the half-completed job the reason for the steer's outrage and determination for revenge? 5.   Have you decided whether Mero ever did back it back to funeral...or is his situation too overwhelming to overcome?    DL Contact: JoanP

[JoanP]

Welcome  to the discussion of another challenging short story - they seem to become more so as the years go by, don't they?  Annie Proulx was 53 when her first short story collection was published.  She says she started writing after her kids were raised and out of the house, because that’s just how you did it back then.  

Her stories have a harsh and rough edge to them -  her descriptions of the men on the Wyoming range...Have you read her Shipping News?  You've probably heard of her "Brokeback Mountain" ?  This story was nominated for discussion here, but because of its length and also because of some of the graphic description which might offend some, we've decided to discuss her The Half-Skinned Steer .  If you've read Brokeback and want to discuss it here, please feel free to do so.  If you have the time to read it to the end, it is really quite moving.

The author tells us that she has adapted "The Half-Skinned Steer" from an Icelandic folktale, which deomonstrates how ancestors' behaviours and lack of persistance can be inherited and dragged around."  Do you understand how Mero has inherited the guilt for Tin Head's behaviour so many years before?  What was Tin Head's relationship to Mero and his brother, Rollo?  (I had to go back and reread the beginning to get that straight.)
 

[BarbStAubrey]

I guess a modern story taking place in the US she had to omit the trolls  

There are many folktales in the northern clime's of Europe about brothers off looking for a magic cows, birds, horses. The only cow fairytale that I know off is Búkolla about a magic cow that does have trolls in the story.

What I see as common to Iceland is the isolation so that a story would hold for generations, where even today those working cattle do not carry around with them an Ipod or if they do have some modern communication object they are not texting while working cattle or the land. Just looking at one of those maps that show in light centers where most communication originates and it drops off to more black that light west of a line about 500 miles from the Mississippi River. Therefore, the concept of local happenings holding on and given mythical interpretation I could accept.

Reading this story brought into the twentieth century sure helps to see how magical thinking is easy to use to figure out the many anomalies in life. We have various religious groups doing the same today when something unusual happens there has to be a cause and so either a magical story or a religious rule broken is the explanation. Back to why did the tornado take down this house and not that house or spare this person in a ditch while taking the person who crawled into a Culvert.

And so this brother stayed and had nothing but bad luck and when the other brother returns he hits the wall of bad luck. Hmm nothing about his being driven, obstinate and self-indulgent. ah so...

Well time to see the allegories -

[JoanK]

 have to admit, I haven't a clue as to the relationship of Tin head and the brothers. Looking back, I couldn't find it.

This may be an Icelandic tale, but it has the inevitability of a Greek tragedy.

[PatH]

I had to read the story again too.  The relationship isn't actually stated, but there are clues.  Tin Head's story is told by the girlfriend of Rollo and Mero's father, and is described as taking place "down around Dubois when my Dad was a kid".  The girl friend's father might have been one of Tin Head's children, and she has brought the bad luck with her, passed it on to the family she joined.  This would be why Mero left so suddenly--to escape the bad luck, whether he realized it consciously or not.

[jane]

I just finished reading it, and frankly, I don't have a clue what any of it is about.  It seemed, on this first reading, (and I probably skipped a lot trying to figure out where it was going), like the meandering memories of an old man.  It seemed to be all flashbacks as he drives the miles from MA to WY about what happened all those years ago when he and Rollo and the Old Man (I assume he's talking about their father) were on the ranch.  

He seems to have had no contact with his family, whose surname I gather is Corn, so I don't quite understand why he'd drive back for his brother's funeral, unless he had nothing else to do.  Why go to a funeral for someone you haven't seen or been in contact with, apparently, for 60 years?

 jane

[JoanP]

Jane, do you think something might have happened between the brothers all those years ago...that kept Mero away until his brother died? Does that fit?  Was there an altercation with the boys' father?  Everything seemed to be focused on that horsey girlfriend,  What effect did she have on Mero?

The inevitability aspect is interesting, JoanK - maybe the reason Mero has stayed away all these years - didn't want to face the consequences of whatever drove him away.  How old was Mero when he left?

Barbara - observed that the brother who stayed on the land had nothing but bad luck and when the other brother returns he also  hits the wall of bad luck.  Should he have stayed away and skipped the funeral?  I'm wondering why he's returning.  Did you get the impression that he returned when their father died?

That's an interesting observation, PatH.  The father's girlfriend tells the story - you see a relationship between the girlfriend's father  and Tinhead.  Did the girlfriend stick around?  Was she there when Mero left home for good? Was she the reason Mero left Wyoming?  

The Steer has walked off, only half-skinned...  Would he have done the same, had Tin Head completed the job?  Is the half job the reason for the steer's outrage and determination for revenge?  

[BarbStAubrey]

I got the impression that Mero left because either the girls friend was coming on to him or he saw the glories of a girl and did not want as he said his father's left-overs - and sure, I can understand, having a family spread out all over we always go back for a funeral - the wake is like a family reunion as we get caught up with each other and whose child is doing what and who got married and who had a baby plus we share stories about the one who had died. Sometimes for the older ones it is 3o or 40 years since we have seen each other, since the last family member we shared as kin died.  Although we carry on a very active correspondence (easy now with email) I have not seen the sister who is close in age to me since 1992 and before that when our mother died in 1984 - my younger sister I have seen 6 or 8 times, and we each have children so for our children sake we would show up for a funeral.

In the story I think Mero had a successful life and one last time wanted to see his brother and connect with his roots even if his brother was dead and make contact with the family that stayed - on the way and once there, he learns how much has changed and even learned from the phone call the property was sold several times so he is no longer half owner as he suspected.

the story is not focused on Mero's life - only a portion of his youth but once he left I bet a story could be told that would be much like the Percival Myth or Gawain or better yet, the Teutonic legends of the Eternal Hunter.

To the half skinned cow or steer - The book on Pagan European symbols: - "In Teutonic cultures, blood is a symbol of truth and loyalty, as well as life. Blood oaths were sacred, representing the key role of the bond between men. Also, during times of famine, royal and sacred blood had to flow to appease the gods. Like Christian holy water, blood was shed in sacrifices; it was sprinkled on temple walls and on people; and hunters often even drank warm blood--all to avert bad luck and to ensure the fruitfulness of the coming year"

[JudeS]

The book's opening quote is: "Reality's never been of much use out here."
Retired Wyoming Rancher

Thus our author plays with us mixing reality and facts.
However she tells us that Mer left in 1936 and hasn't been back for 60 years. He is now rich and a vegetarian living on the East coast. (Vegetarian is a nice touch of humor I would say). He is wealthy but has no family. He wants to show off his Cadillac and his money. However life intervenes.
Mer left at the age of twenty three since this story was published in 1996 . He has had many passing relationships but  something pulls him back for his brother's funeral. Some curiosity of his brothers descendants, some desire to show off his Cadillac and wealth and something deeper. The need to connect with our roots. To bury the dead that were once close to us .The story states that" he never rolled back to see the old man". So he didn't bury his father but wants to bury hid older brother.


I think the story of the skinless steer is symbolic because no real animal , half skinned and tongueless, could walk that far away. Let alone look back. A sick cow drags her feet and looks down at the ground. I've lived with cows and that's a fact.
So this part is symbolic.
I'd venture a guess that Mer felt pain for what he was doing to the beast. He wasn't made for that life. He succeeded in many other businesses and even became a vegetarian.

In reading this book I found the author to be very reality based with a bit of whimsy here and there.
See the movie "Brokeback Mountain" if you wish to see and hear an author confront reality.
Brilliant writing.

[JoanP]

The book's opening quote is: "Reality's never been of much use out here."
Retired Wyoming Rancher"

That's said by a Wyoming Rancher, Jude!  Not by Annie Proulx, but by a rancher who has spent his life dealing with the harsh reality of life!
Does that mean that one comes to expect the unspeakable, unbelievable when living such a life?
 
Last week when talking to Ginny about Half-Skinned Steer, she expressed concern the animal lovers on SL could make it thru this story.  Maybe it isn't so surprising to learn what inspired Annie Proulx to write Half-Skinned Steer.
It was originally written at the invitation of the Nature Conservancy of Wyoming, which asked Proulx to visit one of its preserves and then contribute a story, inspired by her visit, to Off the Beaten Path (1998), an anthology of short fiction. This assignment also inspired Proulx to write Close Range: Wyoming Stories (1999), in which the story was included.
The Nature Conservancy's motto - "Protecting nature  Preserving Life"  Annie Proulx is a strong advocate for the prevention of cruelty to animals.

Jude thinks the story of the skinless steer is symbolic.  I'll  agree, Jude.  The skin-less, tongueless steer would have been roaming the property for all those years.  Not to be taken literally of course.  The question - if the steer is a symbol, what does he symbolize?  Roaming around like this - not seen again...until Mero returns.   Do you see a parallel between Mero and the Steer?

Proulx tells us  she has based the story on an old Icelandic folktale, 'Porgeir's Bull,'  with themes of revenge . Do you see her  story as  a tale of revenge?  Is this the reason Mero has returned...for revenge?  There are several stories going on here at the same time...and not only that, but they are not chronological.  And yet, they all seem to coincide into one story at the end.

[JoanP]

Barbara...Mero hadn't returned for his own father's wake and burial.   I wonder why he's returning now for his brother's funeral...surely not a reunion with this extended family that he's never met.  What is pulling him back? 

From your posts, I see that Mero was quite a bit older than I thought when he left.  And his father's girlfriend, quite a bit younger than his father.  And yes, I remember his dream, involving the woman.  Did he leave because of her, or because he wanted to get away from the life on the ranch?

[jane]

 I felt he wanted to get away from the ranch, from that life, and perhaps the people there, for whatever reasons he had.
I wonder if the vegetarian choice was because of his dislike for the "ranch life" and all it entails.  

 The only "revenge" I can see in going back now for a funeral of a brother he's been estranged from for over 60 yrs is to somehow be able to "say"...though to whom I haven't a clue..."See, I made it away from here and away from all of you."  But, again, he doesn't know these people, seems to have no connection with them.  He didn't even know the place had been sold several times, so he obviously hadn't inherited 1/2 of it as he apparently just assumed happened.

 I still don't understand his thinking about going back.  Why travel all that way to a funeral for someone you hadn't bothered about in 60 yrs?

[PatH]

I don't think the revenge is Mero's against someone; it's the steer's revenge.  It had been "watching for him all the time".  But revenge for what?  Abandoning the ranch?  Raising cattle for meat?  Random malevolence directed against the whole family?

JoanP points out the story was written at the request of the Nature Conservancy, so the message is perhaps environmental.

[jane]

Good thought, Pat...environmental or even anti animals for food...hence, Mero is vegetarian?

[JoanP]

No, I agree...the animal would not hold Mero responsible for what happened to him - not even Mero's own famly - maybe it is the way animals are treated by the rancher, not just Tin Head -  how about all men, and the treatment of animals?  (Does anyone know who skinned the Icelandic 'Porgeir's Bull?) Even anti-animals for food, as Jane says.  Animals are people too...

So happy you are all here to unravel this puzzle.  Coming from the last story, Ursula LeGuin's, it became clear that she intended to be vague and left us in the air trying to figure it out.  But Annie Proulx has provided so many details.   I have a feeling we can figure out what she's saying if we stick to it long enough.
I found myself reading quickly through the story, to find out if Mero would make it to his brother's funeral - and what would happen with his brother's family.  Had to go back and read it again, more slowly to see what I missed until the car went into the ditch - and why that skinned steer showed up again.  It was then that I appreciated Proulx's writing...and her humor, though what you'd call black humor, I guess.  She sounds like a tough lady, doesn't she?  I read that she didn't start writing until she was 53, when her kids were all grown and out of the house...

[BarbStAubrey]

Seems to me the steer is a symbol - a ghost - we know there is no animal that could live half skinned with its tongue cut out - we are told this is a story that harkens to the myths and folktales of Iceland - these myths and folktales are not rooted in the mindset of a God, Christian or otherwise - and so like many a Native American story of animals taking on a human persona that to me is the way to look at the steer.

For whatever reason there was a pull that Mero felt to go back - that pull could have been explained as the power of the half-skinned steer just as in many religions we say, there is a natural pull to God while some suggest for some, there is a pull to Evil. When I read the story, Mero seeing the half-skinned steer was like the stories that talk about seeing a figure of death - not having died yet,   I do not know if we see an angle or dark figure of death carrying a sickle.

Here we have a strong and active belief in La Llorona - In the myth, a beautiful young woman named Maria falls in love and marries a handsome, rich boy, and their union is blessed with two sons and a daughter. Soon after, the boy loses his affection for his wife. Maria, knowing that her husband no longer loves her, drowns their three children in the river and then herself. Upon reaching heaven, Maria is told that she cannot enter until she has found her children. She is sent back to Earth, where she wails sorrowfully for her children. According to legend, any child that happens upon her ghost is pulled into the river and drowned. Sometimes the legend it told with Maria drowning and searching for only one child

We had a school closed in Lockhart, south of Austin,  because the girls were hysterical and would not attend classes believing the La Llorona was in the Girls Bathroom.

Reading the story with a belief in a legend the pull to return just as the mistakes on the highway that Mero reacts to in his obstinate way can be explained as the pull of the half-skinned steer just as the impressionable girls see a pull to their early death from La Llorona, who is present in water. That somehow there are invisible forces that pull us towards our death and for some folks the cycle of life is outer controlled so who better than a death spirit to set us up for death.

[JudeS]

Looking for answers to some of the points brought out in the discussion I again went to Google with its never ending articles.
Of course this is not an exhaustive study but these are the points I found interesting.

Proulx was born in Conn. She married and divorced three times and has four children. She lived in Vermont for thirty years and now resides in Wyoming.

She has critics and many admirers. One of the latter says her work contains  "consoling riddles". I agree. Sometimes a riddle is not meant to be solved but to be thought about over time and remembered.
According to many wise men understanding comes slowly.

The best article was from the Encyclopedia Britannica and they say this:
"Proulx, writer of darkly comic yet sad fiction is peopled with quirky, memorable individuals and unconventional families."

Since I have her book in which our story is the opening for, I feel that this is a good story but not a great one. Others in the book are more memorable. It is hard to judge her on the merits of this one piece which was written early on, when she was just becoming acquainted with Wyoming.

She elicited a curiosity in me about the state and thus I watch an excellent mystery series really based in Wyoming: Longmire is its name. A mystery show that gives you a deep background regarding the setting of small town life in Wyoming.

[marcie]

I really like much of her writing in this story. I love the humor too. For example:

"Emus is bad for claws.

I know, he said. He watched the nature programs on television.

"She shouted, as though the telephone lines were down all across the country..."


Why did Mero go back? I think there is a key in the following image but I need help interpreting it:

"He would see his brother dropped in a red Wyoming hole. That event could jerk him back; the dazzled rope of lightning against the cloud is not the downward bolt but the compelled upstroke through the heated ether." WHAT DOES THIS MEAN AS A METAPHOR?

"He had pulled away at the sudden point when the old man's girlfriend -- now he couldn't remember her name -- seemed to have jumped the track, Rollo goggling at her bloody bitten fingers"

It looks like Mero left because his dad's girlfriend was flirting with Rollo and Mero too. Rollo seemed to be reciprocating. His dad either didn't notice or didn't care. Mero couldn't handle the tension. "he'd wanted a woman of his own, not the old man's leftovers." He also couldn't see an economic future on the "ranch."

[BarbStAubrey]

the whole operation seemed to be his father's leftovers - not just the woman - the father was not making the ranch a success - he left the job of making a success out of the ranch for a job with the mail service - so the ranch was nothing more than what was left after he decided not to give it his all, just as the woman was not something the father was willing to give his all so that she was a loose canon looking for a connection even with his sons - the father did not show a commitment to anything - instead of keeping up with the ranch he took a job anyone in town could do and in comparison much easier requiring no major decision-making as required to build a herd.

Was the curse on the land because of the father or did the father inherit a ranch that had little to no hope of ever succeeding. Rollo stays but, in time he had to sell. The land became a vacation dude operation that is far removed from a working ranch - more like a cross between Disneyland and a Wild West show with a Circus of wild animals and billboard advertisement. The failure-curse seems to be attached to trying to ranch this land rather than the land itself, or is it. Is the curse on the humans ranching this particular piece of land? How much of the curse is a failure of the land or failure of those ranching or a bit of both?

As to the metaphor - Mero is saying just seeing his brother buried at what is their epic center - their shared beginnings, Wyoming is part of him and his life's successes because he either adapting what he learned or what he ran from making sure he never repeated what he learned growing up, working in Wyoming's red dirt. So that symbolically the red dirt of Wyoming is his personal epic center that he will be jerked back to when the brother is dropped.  

"Jerk" is the word - like lassoing a cow - with all the riding and attempts throwing the lariat, when the rope hits its mark the horse pulls back so swiftly the rope snaps taut with a quiver - much like the quiver of a lightening strike seen in that split second when it starts low, cracking and shooting so fast you have to have eyes to see it bolting up high into the atmosphere against the dark rain cloud reaching to connect with the downward negatively charged bolt. An Ether Storm describes the energy of lightening so supercharged you can feel it. The Ether Storm lightening can be seen in the distance, up to a 100 miles away on flat land so, you do not hear the thunder or, the silent lightening happens when there is heavy snow during a winter storm or during a dust or sand storm.

I think Mero expects to be jerked back into his roots, connecting with himself in an instance like the shooting lightning that looks like a dazzled rope of light against the dark background of a cloud, seeing, not the downward charged bolt but the elusive upward bolt so supercharged it can be felt. She is painting a picture and describing the feeling Mero is looking to experience when his brother is dropped into their shared epic center, the red dirt of Wyoming.

It says to me he has been in his own storm all his life and wants to be snapped back to his roots and the visual of lightening often seen in western ranch-land describes best his feelings and the implication of his returning, connecting to who he is.

[salan]

Oh dear, another dark comedy.  I can appreciate the writing; but not the story!  I hope the next stories have some humor that appeals to me.  Maybe I just have a different sense of humor.
Sally

[JoanP]

"I hope the next stories have some humor that appeals to me."

Sally, we've been considering short stories through the years...and it seems that once we came to the 50's, the humor has become "dark" as you describe it - edgier. I'm wondering if this is true of most short stories, or simply those selected by our readers?  Is it the genre? I would really be interested to know that.   Or are there other stories being written today in the 21st century which you all would find more appealing, uplifting?  Shall we ALL try to find others that you might prefer to discuss in July?  The only requirement is that they are available to read online.  

[JoanP]

"her work contains  "consoling riddles". Sometimes a riddle is not meant to be solved but to be thought about over time and remembered."
Maybe you're right, Jude...   Though I think we are getting a bit closer to understanding what Proulx is saying.  

Thank you, Marcie, for taking the time to bring us  those examples of Proulx's evocative descriptiions and metapors - and her dark sense of humor too.
That's a good explanation of why Mero left - Wyoming all those years ago. Walking away like some of the people of Omelas - from the unproductive ranch - and because dad's girlfriend and Rollo were carrying on.  And maybe this is the reason Mero feels he can return to his roots -  now that Rollo has died.  

 "jerked" back - as Barbara says -   "I think Mero expects to be jerked back into his roots,  Inevitable."  I found it unteresting watching all symbols of his success outside of Wyoming fall away the closer he got to the ranch...until he was left with nothing at all...

It isn't until the very last paragraph that we see the steer -

"As he walked, he noticed that one from the herd inside the fence was keeping pace with him. He walked more slowly, and the animal lagged. He stopped and turned. It stopped as well, huffing vapor, regarding him, a strip of snow on its back like a linen runner. It tossed its head, and in the howling, wintry light he saw he'd been wrong again, that the half-skinned steer's red eye had been watching for him all this time."

"Seems to me the steer is a symbol - a ghost "

Barbara
OKay, that fits, Barb.  "Icelandic folktale "Porgeir's Bull" explores intersecting themes of persistence, human arrogance, and nature's revenge on man. Porgeir's bull is a famous ghost in Icelandic folklore.

The mention of the steer and the suggestion that he had been awaiting Mero's return, sent me back to the beginning to read the first part of the story and  reconsider Tin Head's story.  It's almost as if there are two stories, which come together to form one in that last paragraph with the ghost of the past waiting for him.

[JoanP]

Do we need to consider Tin Head's part in the story?  Are his actions pivotal to what has happened to the Corn family?
He never finishes a job, only skins the steer halfway...  How many times does Proulx use the word "half" to describe his actions? He quits halfway, and only eats 'half' his meal before returning to skinning the steer. Is the fact that he removed the steers tongue significant?

[salan]

I decided not to re-read this story.  Instead I am moving on to start the story by Alice Munro.
Sally

[JoanP]

Hopefully you will like it better, Sally!  Why do you think Annie Proulx is so popular with so many?  Have you read her Shipping News?

Do you remember how the previous stories ended?  They each had a twist, an unexpected surprise to end the story.  (Though none as jarring as F.O'Connor's Good Man, I'll admit.)  Do you suppose that a surprise ending is needed to end a short story-- or is it just a coincidence that these selected stories have ended so?

Think of the appearance of that steer (or his ghost) at the end of the story.  If Proulx hadn't mentioned the steer, what would have the story been?    We'd have an old man trying to get home for his brother's funeral -  What else?

And what if Tin Head had finished skinning the steer before going in for dinner?  No vengeful
ghost -

We'll keep this discussion open for further comments and further thought - but don't forget, a new story discussion will begin tomorrow - Alice Munro's  the Bear Came Over the Mountain Hope you'll join us!

[salan]

JoanP, yes, I read The Shipping News.  I did not care for it even though she is a good writer.  Just not my kind of story.
Sally

[JoanP]

I'm asking myself - who does like this kind of story, Sally?  Jude has mentioned "Brokeback Mountain" - and I did find her treating a sensitive topic in that story, which many would find interesting.  Many who liked Shipping News...and Accordian Crimes, would probably read everything she writes.   There is a message in this story, but youd have to really dig for it and appreciate  the underlying message of the steer.  I know I'd hate to have one of my brothers pass away without making up past differences - how sad that Mero had to wait until his brother died before returning "home."

By the way, we've included the link to "Brokeback Mountain" in the title of that story in the heading for anyone who wishes to read that one... If you read it and feel like talking about it, we'll leave the light on for you right here.

I think you'll like the next one - a love story - with a twist, of course!  Will look for you here: The Bear Came Over the Mountain

[salan]

I didn't find it strange that the brother returned home for the funeral.  Going to funerals of relatives used to be a tradition in the south (possible in other sections of the country, also).  I remember when my mother died (1981) relatives came from all over, many of whom I had never met.  They all converged on our house, ate the food & sat around and laughed and visited.  I remember thinking that they didn't care enough to visit when she was alive & I resented them being there then.  However, it seemed to please my father that she was shown such respect.
Sally

[PatH]

I'd better feed in my remaining thoughts before it's too late.

I looked for a reference to Porgeir's bull that wasn't talking about its relevance to this story.  Here's one.  It's long, about other stuff too.  I think I've gotten it to go to the right spot, but if not, scroll around until you hit Chapter VII  Gangway for Ghosts, bottom of page 78.   In this version, the bull was constructed by Thorgeir (that funny letter can be either P or Th) as an instrument of revenge, but he can't control it very well, and it goes all over the place, a malevolent ghost.

Thorgeir’s Bull

The author is kind of charming, and traces her ancestry back to the colorful 10th century Icelandic psychopathic poet Egil Skallagrimsson.

[PatH]

Good thought, Pat...environmental or even anti animals for food...hence, Mero is vegetarian?

Anyone who wants to say the story is propaganda for vegetarianism can find plenty of ammunition.

Mero's father's girlfriend has bloody bitten fingers, and at one point as she's telling the story of the bull she is sucking the welling blood.  Tinhead has killed the bull in order to eat it.  When Mero leaves the ranch, he stops in Cheyennne to eat.  He orders a steak, and when he cuts into it, the blood runs across his plate, and he's horrified, imagining the beast, with its mouth agape.

He becomes a vegetarian, and seems to escape the bad luck of the rest of the family.

There's more blood as he returns: he bleeds when he has the accident; when he gets stuck, the light from his taillights looks like bloodstains on the snow.  His memory of the ranch includes cliffs like bones with shreds of meat on them.

And finally, there is the bull, waiting for him at the scene of his former crimes.

[PatH]

And a final, fairly irrelevant note.  At one point Rollo sells the farm to the Girl Scouts, but they sell it again after a girl is carried away by a mountain lion.  There actually is (or maybe was--I don't know if it's still there) a big Girl Scout camp near Ten Sleep.  My daughter's Cadette troop stayed there back in the '80s.  Fortunately, none of them was attacked by a mountain lion.

[marcie]

I've been re-reading, trying to see why Mero is going to the funeral. I'm not sure that it's out of respect or even a feeling of responsibility to attend.

I'm going back to the sentence: "He would see his brother dropped in a red Wyoming hole. That event could jerk him back; the dazzled rope of lightning against the cloud is not the downward bolt but the compelled upstroke through the heated ether."

Is the "downward bolt" his brother's death and Mero's going back to the ranch "the compelled upstroke through the heated ether"? Is Mero "compelled" to go back -- drawn by "unfinished business" between him and his brother and between him and the "violent" land? He's been successful in his new life but that doesn't seem enough for him. He goes back and it seems he's inviting the "half skinned steer" to stalk him in the land he should have realized by now was not a place for him.

Pat, I think your thoughts about the "crimes" of meat-eating are in line (in my mind anyway) with my trying to figure out the story.

[PatH]

I think of the lightning bolt, which goes first one way then the other as Mero's life--first going away from the cursed land, then drawn back when the bolt goes the other way.  And I see the bolt ending at the red hole in the ground, jerking him back.

[JoanP]

Thanks, Pat.  I really think you're on to something important here...and maybe we can understand what brings Mero back to the Wyoming ranch at this time.

We know already that Annie Proulx was invited to visit the Nature Conservancy in Wyoming - and to write a book on her findings. Half Skinned Steer is that book.

At this same time in February, 1997,  the USDA released a report by the internal USDA Civil Rights Action Team (CRAT). The CRAT report included 92 recommendations on changes in management, program delivery, and employment practices  on small farms and ranches -

"– Farm policy should encourage farming systems that produce safe, healthy, and diverse food."
Inspections and regulations were implimented  on farms and ranches to ensure safe practices.

After Annie Proulx wrote her book, she decided to buy land in Wyoming - 600+ acres...where she still lives.  (I think) - and continued to write her Wyoming stories.



 

[JoanP]

So look at Mero.  I feel it's safe to say that he fled Wyoming because of the unsavory practices on the family ranch...and stayed away most of his life - until his brother died.  

Do you remember how the brother died?  The ranch has been converted to raising emus...a tourist ranch, is that right?  "Wyoming Down Under"
 "Poor Rollo was helping Tick move the emus to another building when one of them turned on a dime and come right for him with its big razor claws. Emus is bad for claws....  He tried to fight it off with his cane, but it laid him open from belly to breakfast."

So Tick's wife calls Mero - tells him Rollo always wanted Mero to come back..to "see how things had turned out."

Marcie...that works -Mero "compelled" to go back -- drawn by "unfinished business...We're all drawn to our roots - maybe nostalgia.  But I think Mero can only come back when the nightmare of the business is finally over. As Pat puts it - he's drawn back when the lightning bolt goes the other way.

My goodness...have you decided whether Mero ever did back it back to funeral...or is his situation too overwhelming to overcome?
Is the appearance of the ghost of the steer Proulx's way of telling us that Mero is going to die too?

Do you think he deserved to die?   Did he shirk his responsibility to improve the situation on the ranch by walking away.  (I'm thinking f the People of Omelas who walked, leaving the child in squalor and torment.





 

[marcie]

Pat, that's a helpful interpretation of the lightening bolt.

JoanP, I assumed that Mero died. I don't know that he or anyone else "deserved" it. Nature in this story is violent and I don't think that the family members understood it.

[salan]

I also assumed that Mero died.  Very depressing short story.  My favorite short stories in this group are The Book of Funny Smells and The First Confession.
Sally

[BarbStAubrey]

There was humor and a feeling of good will to both Sally that is missing in these stories written after the 50s - has literature become so serious in all genre's showing the dark side I wonder - come to think most of the novels with that light touch we consider light reading - can you think of any of the prize winning authors who have won because of a story with humor and good will.

[PatH]

Notice that when Rollo started raising emus, he was still raising animals for food.  Emu meat is supposed to be very lean and healthy.  I've never had the nerve to try it; it looks very unappealing in the stores, a dark blob sealed in cryovac.

I agree that Mero probably didn't make it through the night.  He was already in too much trouble, and everything he did just made things worse.

[JoanP]

The way the author wrote it, having him shed every modern convenience as Mero got closer to Wyoming was significant, wasn't it?  Beginning with the Cadillac.   If course he shouldn't have been driving - his age was taking its toll.  Far too late for the return to his home.  Then went the cell phone...  No help there, no contact with Tick for directions. Then water, food...
You're right, Pat...everything he did made matters worse.  It would have been a happier ending if Tick had found him and brought him "home."  But that wasn't Proulx's story.

I understand that her Wyoming stories are all "rough."  She has said in an interview:

Proulx: "Place and history are central to the fiction I write, both in the broad, general sense and in detailed particulars. Rural North America, regional cultures in critical economic flux, the images of an ideal and seemingly attainable world the characters cherish in their long views despite the rigid and difficult circumstances of their place and time. Those things interest me and are what I write about. I watch for the historical skew between what people have hoped for and who they thought they were and what befell them."

In fact she's got a story in the June 13, 2013 New Yorker called "Rough Deeds" - can't bring it here because you have to have an online subscription to it.  Plan to look for it when I get to the library this afternoon.

But I'd like, just once, to read a story she's written before the move to Wyoming...a story where the "place" is not as "rough."