It's Over! And I can't believe that I liked it.

Alright, alright, I'll say it. I liked the story. Notice that I didn't say book, I had some problems there. I felt like the entire story could have been told in one hundred less pages. I swear, Bob was just puttering around Woolybucket for ages. Also, there was a huge chunk of the book devoted to stories of old about Woolybucket and those who lived there. Don't get me wrong, I liked reading about the people, but sometimes it seemed like Proulx got a little carried away. There were pages of her describing things that I couldn't relate to- old plows or barbed wire. I understand the importance of those seemingly minute things, they build up the image of the Old West, but to me they were very boring.

So here's what happened in the ending: Bob, after sufficiently screwing up his job at trying to find future hog farms by inciting a deadly shoot out by a crazed widower (no, not LaVon) in Global Pork Rinds' office building and stirring things up in general in the stubborn town of Woolybucket, quits. He does this because of both outside events and self realization, but the important part is this: there is some part of him that, through his experience, has made him fall in love with the people (no women, though, my prediction was wrong) and town of Woolybucket. I think that it is this major change within him that allows for the ULTIMATE ending.

So, Bob gives up his hopes of climbing the ladder of success through International Pork Rinds, and to his amazement, Ace Crouch, a man whom he was trying to buy land from, and the young, gangly assistant to Habakuk van Melkebeek back in the 1930's, has begun to buy up the panhandle, just as Bob had tried to do. Even more ironic is what he plans on doing with the land; he wants to create a giant reserve, a large plot of land dedicated to bringing back the Old West landscape and wildlife. But how could he possibly pay for this? Buckle your seat belts, it's about to get even more ironic. Ace Crouch received billions of dollars from his old friend, van Melkebeek, after he died. Ace is now a billionaire, thanks to a quirky Dutch man's love of Texas. And with that money, Crouch is going to restore Texas to a land that can be fallen in love with again. Along with investing in the help of all his fellow Woolybucket residents, Bob Dollar also falls in as an employee, showing a complete switch of 'sides'.

What was the whole point of this book? To understand this, it is important to know a little bit about the author- Annie Proulx. According to the back of the book, Proulx has a home and spends part of the year in the panhandle- hence the depth and intricacy that she is able to instill within the book. Her knowledge of the area is reflected, and in this the audience can see why she wrote this. It is clearly evident that holds a deep love and respect for the western plains, and she understands the workings of the small towns that reside there. In this book, Proulx has created a homage to that landscape which she loves, and in doing so, hopes to instill a tiny fraction of that same reverence within us.

I'm not about to go ride off into the sunset on Trigger or buy a pet buffalo now after reading 'That Old Ace in the Hole', but that is not to say that the book hasn't affected me. After reading it, I now have a connection with this previously unknown area. The fact that the area had such a strong connection to it's past stirred up a sense of nostalgia in me, and it got me thinking about the times when water was abundant, once you realized all you had to do was look down (as in deep), or when ranches were the core of the social fiber that made up the west.

In creating this book, Proulx created a window into a life of a town where past and present mix, but one thing stays constant- Cowboy Law: who ever you are, stay true to yourself, and what ever you do, do it well.

The Windmills

Ace Crouch is a land owner that Bob Dollar scopes out as a possible seller. Ace is old, and has no use for the land, much of which lies barren. However, in telling the story of Bob persuing Ace's land, the story of Ace himself is told as well.

As told in previous posts, a young Ace Crouch came to be the partner of the odd windmill man- the forign Habakuk van Melkebeek. Together, they tend to the gentle giants that stand sentry over the quiet plains. They forge a natural bond with each other, the towering stands of metal, and the land.

When the subject of windmills first came up, I was interested from the get go. All of my life, I have heard of them. My Oma, or 'grandmother' in English, hails from Frankfurt, Germany. She came to America when she was in her twenties and retains strong ties to the place and people that she left.

She loves America, but at the same time, I have always heard her comentary of how the United States could be altered to be more like Europe. One of the things that she dislikes about America is the lack of intrest in saving energy and preserving natural resources. Not long ago, an incident arose where the people that lived in a town near her voted against installing windmills along the highways as a way of obtaining wind energy because they found them aesthetically displeasing. For weeks, I heard of how ignorant people were being. "A turning windmill on the country side is a beautiful thing!" she exclaimed, "They are all over Europe, and no one over there calls them displeasing!" I had to agree with her- since when did preserving the earth depend on such a material matter as aesthetics?

(taken from http://www.freefoto.com/preview/2003-03-30?ffid=2003-03-30&k=Kinderdyke+Windmills%2C+Holland )

And so, always, in my mind, windmills have been associated with something a little foreign and out of reach- beautiful, aged models that are somehow at the same time the result of forward thinking and new ideas. With this modern imprint of them in my brain, it was hard for me to picture them dusty and old squatting, a little delapidated, in the Texas heat, tall, abrupt changes to the otherwise flat landscape.

(taken from: http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsNorth/MontagueTexas/MontagueTx.htm )

But after thinking about it, the juxtopositon of the two ideas started making sense. The windmill is two symbols resting in one sleepy iron body. On the one hand, it is a symbol of progression and 'green' thinking- it shows conservation efforts at its finest and is associated with an intelligent way to create new energy. Also, though, it symbolizes an old way of life in the west, and despite the fact that they are worn and a little decrepit, they are still loved and cared for. They symbolize an old way of life that seems to be alien in modern times- a life of complete connection with the land, the windmill and self. Through tending to the windmills, people forge a closer relationship with the land and learn to become dependent solely on themselves and the wild, an idea that has faded in the time of Bob Dollar.

Themes from American Literature

The modern American dream is still based (albeit some what loosely here and there) on the concept of manifest destiny.

In the book, through the stories that are told about the 'old times' and the events taking place in the fictional present, a sense of need for land and expansion is conveyed. It is in this manner that the motif and theme is conveyed: that man, and essentially, Americans, will always have a hunger, a craving, a primordial want for more.

One great example of this theme manifesting it's self is through Bob Dollar's own job: to scout out new land for a corporation that farms and slaughters pigs. This corporation is not content to sit static on the land that is currently in their possession, they want to expand and grow and sink their tentacles of stink and death into more and more earth. Dollar's employer, Ribeye Cluke, told Bob before his first venture, "There is no reason why the Texas pan handle can't produce seventy five percent of the world's pork. That's our aim." (Proulx 6) The company is always growing and growing. One day America, the next the world.

We see this theme also in another time, in the story of Martin Merton Fronk, an ancestor of La Von's, whose story follows him from his original home in Kansas to the western frontier. Fronk ventures westward in hopes of acquiring a farm of his own. He is not satisfied to be in Kansas, he wants to push westward and pursue his fortunes in the land of cattle and cowboys. He is not content with normal life, and wants more sun, more money, more grit and more land. He was drawn into the allure and mystery of the west through whispered promises of fortune and grandeur. "One thing he understood clearly- there were fabulous profits in cattle..." (Proulx 75)

Man still maintains roots, no matter how hidden or deep, to nature in a profound and slightly archaic way.

This theme unfurls it's self best in the story of Habakuk van Melkebeek, a "crazy Dutchman who showed up on the Cutaway [a ranch] one spring day in the 1930's looking for work." ( Proulx 140) And van Melkebeek found it. He ended up working as a "windmill man", a person who works to make sure that all of the windmills on the farms work and remain functioning and make upgrades and repairs to them as it is seen fit. Any job on a ranch is closely related to nature, but Habakuk took it one step further by eschewing society and relationships and sleeping out in nature, with his beloved windmills. He had no relationships, save for what he had for the flat planes and the rotating metal. He was a true Western man, with an extremely close relationship with nature. He slept in it, ate in it, and immersed his life in it. "I like the pan handle," he said, "I like Texas, where it's flat." (Proulx 240)

Bob Dollar also has a relationship with the prairie. When he first arrived in Texas, he was a city boy that was merely driving through on business. However, after finally settling down and renting an old bunk house that lies low in the grasses, he begins to forge connections, whether he recognizes them or not. He doesn't seem to notice it just yet, but it is clearly there when he first agrees to rent the bunk house. "He thought the bold diagonal of caprock rim that divided the high plains from the southern plains, the red canyons of the Palo Duro striking and exotic." (Proulx 70)

Rhetoric Study

In this excerpt of the book, an old cowboy is having a flash back of when he was younger and was a very important cowboy on a very important, large ranch. His name, I kid you not, is Rope Butt, and in this part of the book, he is working on a ranch with a Dutch man named Habakuk van Melkebeek, who is very solitary and different. He tends to the windmills, and Rope is getting him a hand, young Ace Crouch.

"It was around this time that Rope Butt had written his first cowboy poem, twelve lines that took four hours to compose. It was burned into his memory.

Ridin' ol' buddy down the draw
I seen a cow jaw
but it had a flaw
it was broke in two
could fix it with a screw
and some glue.

That cow jaw made me think
of my uncle Leon Skink
he wore out four saddle in his life
and four wife
once he give me a pocket knife
it cut like stink.

The next morning, he rode down to the Crouch place. The kid, Ace, had been pleased and excited at the thought of going to work, and he did not seem disappointed that the jog was windmill repair assistant under a man who twisted the language into Dutch pretzels. Rope could understand why. The Crouch place was run down and lonesome, the grass over grazed, the fences mended and mended again into knots and bobtail ends, the cows scrawny and yellow-backed with maggoty infection. There was a windmill near the house, an aged wooden tower that he bet had seen plenty of emergency repair. Though it worked, it screeched horribly from lack of grease and a dozen other ailments. Rope thought that an instructional course in windmill repair for a member of the family would be a boon to the Crouch ranch.

But while Ace was getting his things together, old Mr. Crouch, who had a face like a gizzard and showed in his every gesture and word that he came down hard on his sons, bargained over young Ace's labor, insisting that three-quarters of the boy's pay had to come home.

'I'm givin up the work he could be doin here. We need all the help we can git.' He waved his hand vaguely. 'Anyways, what does he need money for if he's got board and lodge? Just spoil him, y'know?'

Rope smothered the impulse to say that the kid might want a new shirt or pair of pants that wasn't holed and patched, that he might appreciate boots that fit, or even that he might want to put some money aside for a new saddle or a horse or a down payment on a house should he get married in a few years, and remarked instead that he guessed Mr. Crouch would have to ride over and speak to Slike [the main overseer] about the kid's pay. The way it worked usually was that a hand drew his money and it was his, for he had done the work that earned it. Just then the kid came chargin out onto the porch with his change of raggedy clothes and an ancient kack that looked as though it might have been used by the Spanish conquistadors when they passed through.

'Your dad needs a talk with Mr. Slike about the money arrangements, first,' said Rope Butt, feeling sorry for the kid, who was clearly crazy to get gone from home that minute.
It was deep sleep night, the bunk house rattled with snores and stinking of cowboy bean farts when Rope was awakened by the sound of the door sighing on its hinges, a few stumbling steps, something eased down to the floor- the squeak of leather indicated a saddle- and a tired sigh. Somebody had come in and was going to sleep on the floor. He couldn't think who it was- Habakuk van Melkebeek, the only one missing, was out in some pasture with his bedroll and chain tongs. Then a new thought came to him; the windmiller might have taken a fall and dragged himself in for medical attention.

'Habakuk?' Rope said softly, 'that you?'

'It's me, Ace. Ace Crouch.'

'God sake,' said Rope, sitting up and fumbling for the light string.
The kid was a wreck, his nose swollen to twice its earlier size, his lip split, both eyes black and a gash in his forehead that would leave a white scar.

'Your dad do that?' said Rope.

The kid nodded. 'He did, but I got the best of it. I got out a there and he ain't goin a bother me no more. Any money I earn, it's mine.'

'Good,' said Rope Butt, 'You didn't kill him did you?'

'I wanted to, but I don't think I did. I hit him on the head with the shovel and it made a sound like hittin a kettle and he feel down. He was cussin and half up again when I took off.'

'Glad a hear that,' said Rope Butt, 'they come down hard on kids that send their daddies to the happy huntin grounds. I'll take you to Habakuk in the mornin. He's out with one a them dan old windmills. You got a bedroll?'

'No,' said the kid.

'You lousy? You got lice?'

'No. We was poor, but we wasn't dirty.'

'Well, now you're in a place where you will be poor and dirty. Long as you ain't lousy, you are welcome a take on my old bedroll. I got a new one a couple month ago. never throw anything out. Old one's kind a thin but it's comin on good weather so you won't freeze. Payday, you'n go into Woolybucket and get you a new on and a tarp.'

'Thanks,' said the kid. And that was that." (Proulx 142)



This is one of my favorite passages out of the entire book. This is because she packs in such good rhetorical devices. In order to make it easier, I color coded some of them within the excerpt. Below is a key.



Metaphors

Similes

Personification

Imagery


Humor

All of the devices that Proulx use come together to create a literary situation that not only flows well but resonates with the reader. Through her use of metaphors, she incerts a humorous way to see things in a new light. It allows the reader to look at a thing through her eyes, to step into her shoes for a moment to see how she views the world. It adds humor and insight, as well as calling attention to a part of the character that Proulx wants noticed: van Malkebeek was a man who "twisted the language into Dutch pretzels" (Proulx 142).

The similes in the peice add history and discription to the passage, and give the characters a face in the reader's mind. By adding comparisons, Proulx is able to allow the audience to picture things and people and the reader is then able to connect more realistically with the story.

By writing in so much detailed imagery, Proulx allows the reader to completely immerse his or her self deep into the world of flat plains and dusty cowboys, making each scene and dialogue more real. Also adding to the realism is Proulx use of dry humor. It lets the writing better mimic real life in the way she lets humor, sarcasm and sorrow all meld together to create a work.

Homosexuality

"I rather see the old schoolhouse where many a Cowboy Rose kid learned his ABC turned over to a hog farm than to them homaseashells [homosexuals]...Woolybucket County don't need no damn fags." (Proulx 138)

-Francis Scott Keister, fictional Woolybucket resident

Through out the book, and consequentially Bob Dollar's life, there is a reoccurring vein of subtle homosexuality. His surrogate care taker, Uncle Tam, had a roommate and suspected partner, Bromo. Although Bob was never sure, he had suspicions, and through the book, the audience can judge these to be true.

Then, once Bob arrives in Woolybucket, he is briefed on the history and gossip of the area. A large chunk of this news is devoted to the retirees and city dwellers that think of Woolybucket as an excellent place for a second home or empty-nester house. Of these people, the talk of the town is currently the gay couple that moved in and renovated the old Cowboy Rose schoolhouse and turned it into a glassblowing studio.

The entire community is a put off and unsure of how to deal with the issue, as in the West, homosexuality never was or is common or spoken about (there is no mention of Broke Back Mountain), and so every one has different ways of viewing the situation. However, generally they feel the same: gays are bad. As shown in the quote above, they see it as even worse then the hog farms, which they despise. To them, on the spectrum, there are "homaseashells" and pig farms, and then there is the good old West, complete with cowboys and riding off into the sunset.

This represents the area's inability to accommodate it's self with the modern age. While all around it, the outside world is coming to be more open and okay with homosexuality (a debatable topic within it's self...), Woolybucket County is stuck in it's ways, and inevitably the past. It seems that every one in the county is still obsessed with the way things used to be, and they spend most of their time revisiting old stories and living in the past. It's almost as if a step into Woolybucket County is a step into a time machine, which, I'm sure they would be proud of.

Image Study #2

(taken from; http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Practical/FactoryFarm/factory_farming.htm )

(taken from: http://www.woodstockfas.org/animals03.shtml )

(taken from: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article10453.html)

I decided to do some image research on hog farms. I never really thought about where processed pig came from, but now that I do know I feel really bad for these animals. The way that they are squished into tight cages with no room for anything is incredibly inhumane. It angers me that by working for Pork Rinds Inc. Bob is endorsing this kind of thing. I know that Bob is pretty meek, and he really doesn't have any idea what hog farms really look like, but still. He shouldn't work for a business that he knows nothing about. I'm not sure whether I hold him accountable or not. Maybe later he'll do something to redeem himself in the eyes of animal lovers.

(taken from http://www.amazon.com/Ranch-Estacado-Western-Frontier-Library/dp/0806114282 )

The XIT Ranch is the ranch that started the barbed wire fencing business in the panhandle. It was a really large ranch, and it had a bit of a negative connotation. LaVon's grandfather worked on this ranch when he was down on his luck. It's a bit of a household name in Texas. It really represents the cowboy past of the entire town. Almost every one has connections too it, and although it was rough and dirty and hard, it was a time when cowboy life was simpler and idyllic (at least to those looking back on it now).

Character Study

Bob Dollar:
Bob is a young man who recently from a junior university. Currently, he is employed by Global Pork Rinds Inc. to scout out the location for their next hog farm in Texas. He has "the broad face of a cat, pale innocent eyes fringed with sooty lashes..." (Proulx 1) and has grown up without a mother or a father. He was dropped off at a young age, at his Uncle Tam's house after his parents decided they would rather go on an adventure to Alaska with out him. He is very inquisitive and helpful, and he is very kind. However, he is a bit of a pushover and he doesn't always seem to be the most clever. (His cover story for going to Texas was that he was looking for a Texan wife...that seemed like a pretty lame cover story to me.)



Uncle Tam:
Uncle Tam was Bob's primary care giver when he was growing up. It was speculated by Bob that he is homosexual (with his old roommate and business partner, 'Bromo'), but Bob was never sure. "The two men were housemates and business partners and, Bob wondered a few years later, if perhaps not something more, for there was in their relationship an odd intimacy that went beyond household or business matters." (Proulx 16) Tam is the owner of a junk shop, and he has an obsessive love of plastic. He looks at plastic items as art, and loves watching 'Antiques Road Show'. Tam is quiet and introspective, but he clearly loves his nephew, Bob. He was never rich, but he gave all that he could to him so that he could grow up properly. He is very dedicated and quietly passionate about the things that he loves.


Wayne 'Bromo' Redpoll
Wayne is the business partner and housemate of Tam. He is the polar opposite of Tam. He is openly aggressive about allot of things, most of them particularly inane. He is impatient and argumentative and very competitive. "...Wayne tried to counter Bob's skill [at crossword puzzles] by dredging up odd crossword information and explaining it to him as though that were the point of the puzzles..." (Proulx 13) As soon as Wayne realized that, even as a youth, Bob was better then him at crosswords, he made it look like he was still better then him. Wayne is constantly feeling extreme about something. Either he loves plastics passionately or he hates cliches and sayings and wants to damn them to hell. This is the perfect foil for Tam's stoicism.


Orlando
Orlando is Bob's "fat boy". "In every installation of life...there was a fat boy." For Bob, his fat boy became his only (and therefore best) friend when he was younger. Orlando was big and scary. He dropped out of school, wore skulls and crossbones and overalls. "He was not like other fat boys. He was not jolly...Bob Dollar knew instinctively that this was an evil fat boy." (Proulx 31) He is a minor character, but I think that he is important to the way that Bob grew up. He had a large influence on him, convincing him to steal prescription drugs from Tam and offhandedly making Bob feel self conscious about his lack of real friends.



LaVon Fronk
LaVon lives in the Texas panhandle, in the city of Woolybucket. This is the lady I was talking about before. The yakker. She talks to the extreme. She puts her knack for gossiping and telling stories to good use by beginning to write a book about all of the families of Woolybucket. She is very driven and knowledgeable about the area. She seems to be a perfect representative of her area. She was born and raised in Texas and knows all about the cowboy values and has good old Texan common sense. She also has a way of blatantly stating the truth that is refreshing. Mixed into her long tirades about her family history or the history of "barbed war" (that would be Texas speak for 'barbed wire') she does make some very good points about life. She does, however, have some very unexpected parts to her character. "'That's Pinky.' She reached for the box, set it between them and pried up the cover. Bob was horrified to see a tan tarantula with baby pink feet staring up at him." (Proulx 70)

Page 103...and LaVon is still talking...

So, in the part of the book that I'm reading right now, Bob is just sifting around the town that he's in- Woolybucket, the county seat of Woolybucket county, to pick up loose information that might be helpful to his employer- Global Porkrinds Incorporated, who wants to put a hog farm down in that part of Texas. As for lodging, Dollar rents a little bunk house from this widower named LaVon. His cover story for going down there (the locals aren't exactly receptive to the large hog farm corporations), is that he was looking for a Texan girl to marry. I have a feeling that he will end up doing that, though, however ironic it maybe.

However, I hope to God that it isn't LaVon. I swear, the woman talks like I have nothing better to do then just sit and read page after page of her words. For the past fifty or so pages, she has just been blabbing on and on about the history and whereabouts of EVERY SINGLE PERSON in her tiny town. Granted, she is writing a biographical book profiling the families of Woolybucket, and Bob did ask for it, but I don't think he would have if he knew what it would have led too. There was one part in the book where Bob just mentioned the fact that the only radio stations in the panhandle played hymns, and LaVon just cuts him off and begins bellowing like a dying hippopotamus stuck in the mud. I mean singing. She just seems too over the top- too chatty, too obnoxious, too judgmental.

But, she did say my favorite line so far out of the entire book:
"To live here it sure helps if you are half cow and half mesquite and all crazy." (Proulx 114) It was an excellent quote; it perfectly epitomizes the entire setting and aura that Proulx has created of this part of Texas, and in a great voice. I may hate her, but I have to give it to her, she does have her moments.

Image Study

I haven't gotten very far, but already Proulx has given some really good imagery for her readers to work with. At this point in the book, the main character- Bob Dollar-is driving through small Texan towns in the panhandle looking for a small enough, old enough, forgotten enough town to buy out for his new employer, Global Pork Rinds (no, I'm not making this up). Her descriptions of some of the sleepy towns that he investigates as possible future hog farms remind me a little bit of some North Georgian towns that I go to alot- a main street with a little newspaper office, a diner or two all surrounding a little patch of lawn, and a modest but proud courthouse at the center of it all.

(taken from:http://english.wunderground.com/wximage/viewsingleimage.html?mode=singleimage&handle=RaunL&number=34&album_id=13&thumbstart=0&gallery= )

In the book, Bob has some trouble at first finding a place to stay. Soon enough, though, he finds a woman willing to rent out log bunk house with no electricity or any modern appliances except for a couple of bunk beds. Sheets not included. The bunk house is out in the middle of no where, but he likes it that way because he is captivated with the landscape of the panhandle. This picture reminds me of the way Proulx described Bob's first glance at the bunk house.

(taken from: http://www.planetware.com/picture/usa-reddish-sandy-road-in-west-texas-us-tx520.htm )

The very beginning of the book starts out with Bob's long drive west, into the heart of the Texas panhandle. The way Proulx writes it, it comes off as being creepy and a bit ominous. There are buzzards and hawks circling and watching from the telephone posts, waiting for road kill, and Bob's rental car is the only one on the road for miles. Over all, it gives the reader and eerie feeling. This picture reminds me of the part in the book when Bob took a wrong turn and ended up driving on old, non-paved roads for hours.

(taken from:http://www.dizzypigbbq.com/HTMLCompetitions/comp21jack.html )

Through out his journey during the start of the story, once Bob gets to Texas, he starts looking for an appropriate small town. At one of his stops, in Cowboy Rose (the name of a town...it's named after a desert flower) he stops to get gas from an old gas station that had a little lunch counter inside. This really symbolizes how the place that he is entering is so stuck in the past and in it's ways.

Day One: Post One

Alright, I'll give it to you, Mr. Kent, this was pretty easy. I thought I would have to memorize code or something to make this. But, I'm warning you, don't expect any feats of technological brilliance. I'll leave that to the AP computer science kids.

The book that I picked was "That Old Ace in the Hole", by Annie Proulx. I have read some of her work before- I absolutely loved "The Shipping News".

It was great writing, and I really liked the setting. That's part of why I picked this book. Her writing is once again based in a place that I really don't know anything about, so it has the potential to be really interesting. If it was based in somewhere like Atlanta or New York or places that I am familar with, it wouldn't be as appealing. I also think that it's interesting that the two settings are basically polar opposites. I mean, it would be hard to find a place as unlike Newfoundland as the pan handle of Texas.

So, I'm really excited to start this book and this project. Hopefully, it'll be a good read and the big bad internet monster won't swallow me whole. Hopefully.

-Emily Beam

(picture taken from: http://books.simonandschuster.com/That-Old-Ace-in-the-Hole/Annie-Proulx/9780743548830/book_club_tips)