The stars of the West are all larger than life: Wyatt Earp, Wild BillHickock, Billy the Kid. Among the brightest of these stars is Jesse James, an outlaw who became a legend in his own lifetime—and, through his death, ascended into the pantheon. But, of course, Jesse James was a man, and not a particularly good one; and his murderer, Robert Ford, was also a man. Their story is much less one of clashing titans and more one of petty squabbles, ambition, and greed. Today, on The Projectionist’s Lending Library, we look into Ron Hansen’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. This novel blends history and fiction to reach something like what that epic—that all-too-human—confrontation must have been like. It’s the story of the American West, the story of the American people—butultimately it’s the story of two men and their tragic confrontation. Jesse James was a legend, of course—but he was a man. And so was his assassin.

In 1872, Polly Bemis came to America. She did not come, as so many have, out of hope of beginning a new life; she was forced here, sold into slavery (as the story goes) to a man named Hong King. One she arrived, however, she set about building a life for herself almost in spite of the men around her: she gained her freedom, she married Charlie Bemis, she settled down. These are details in the life of a single woman who has become famous in her adopted home-state of Idaho. Polly’s life was unique, and yet in some ways it reflected the lives of many other women who made the same journey. Today, on the Projectionist’s Lending Library, we read Thousand Pieces of Gold by Ruthanne Lum McCunn and we learn about this extraordinary woman who became a legend.Ruthanne Lum McCunn's Website

This is part two of a two-part episode on Edna Ferber's GIANT (1952) and the 1956 film adaptation of it starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean. In part two, Erik and Nathanael discuss the film, its historical significance, and its contemporary resonance, as well as its notoriety as James Dean's last film.

PART ONE OF TWO Please note that we had minor technical issues with recording on these episodes. We have to the best of our ability edited around them. They say everything’s bigger in Texas—the land, the sky, thehair, the ambitions, the hopes, the fears…. GIANT is a novel about that bigness, a novel about the way that immensity can overwhelm a person…. Virginian Leslie Benedict—nee Lynton—follows herrancher husband out West to begin a new life on the range. Once there, she encounters a kind of life she has never experienced among a kind of people she never dreamed existed. She struggles against insularity, bigotry, and sexism. Make no mistake—GIANT is her novel.It’s also a novel of America, and that is partly what we will discuss in the following episodes. For, whatever problems Texas may have at midcentury with race and class and gender, these are problems that can be seen writ large in the nation itself. And so here we are, in the first of a two-part series here on THE PROJECTIONIST’S LENDING LIBRARY, with Edna Ferber’s GIANT.

In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner concluded his speech on “TheSignificance of the Frontier in American History” with these words:“What the Mediterranean Sea was to the Greeks, breaking the bond of custom, offering new experiences, calling out new institutions and activities, that, and more, the ever retreating frontier has been to the United States directly, and tothe nations of Europe more remotely. And now, four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.”This season on the Projectionist’s Lending Library we turn our eyes westward and look at a definitively American genre—the Western. For America, the Western is our Iliad, our Odyssey. It’s the founding myth to which we look in order to derive meaning for ourselves. Here all the conflicts central to literature and human existence play out: man versus man, man versus nature, man versus himself. And in it, too, are all the complexities and contradictions of America itself: kindness, bravery, hope—anger, murder, genocide.And how better to begin such a season than by looking at the prototypical director of Westerns, John Ford, working with his recurring star, John Wayne.Today on The Projectionist’s Lending Library, it’s The Searchers.Ford adapts a novel by Alan Le May about two men searching for a girl captured by a band of Comanche in post-Civil War Texas. Their quest is a long one, its outcome ambiguous and unforgiving as the landscape they travel. At the end of both the novel and the movie we are left with a question: who really triumphed, and at what cost? Welcome as we explore these questions and more in the inaugural episode of our new season, all about that most American of myths—the Western.For more about The Searchers, check out Glenn Frankel's The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend.

In 1865—or perhaps it was 1833—Horace Greeley gave the famous advice to “go west, young man, and grow up with the country.” He said it in print—or to a young acquaintance—like most legends of the American West, the details are vague. All the same, over the course of the 19th Century many young men answered his call. One of them was Will Andrews, the protagonist of the novel we will be discussing today. Will is a young man, fresh out of college, with more dollars than sense, looking to discover himself in the great untamed territory of the West. What he finds might be too much for him as he faces thirst, blizzards, torrential rivers. He goes out a boy; if he’s lucky enough to survive, he might just return a man. Today, on The Projectionist’s Lending Library, it’s Butcher’sCrossing.From Booth's recommendations, here's the Pillar of Garbage video on Brick.

Just in time for Pride Month, we are joined by Jennie Lightweis-Goff to talk about Annie Proulx's short story "Brokeback Mountain" and the 2005 movie based on it. Please note that, of all our episodes, this one earns its "explicit" tag with a frank discussion of sex and hate crimes.High in the mountains, anything can happen. Men, separated from society, find themselves seeking comfort in each other. For Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, one fateful night on Brokeback Mountain transforms into a tragic passion that will dominate the lives of both men until death—and beyond. Today, on The Projectionist’s Lending Library, we look at Annie Proulx’s short story “Brokeback Mountain” and the movie based on it. When all is said and done, is the only thing left to us just this—to endure it? Is there any comfort to be found in even the most tragic of stories? And what, really, is the significance of beans? Happy Pride Month, everyone. Keep on keeping on.Check out Accented Cinema's video on Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman.

It's spooky season! In their October episode, Nathanael and Erik discuss the figurative and literal body horror seen in Kafka's absurdist novella THE METAMORPHOSIS and Cronenberg's visceral cult classic THE FLY.

Will Murray joins Erik and Nathanael to discuss John Ball's novel In the Heat of the Night and the 1967 movie based on it. Join us as we discuss the idea of the American South as branding and as scapegoat, interrogate the limits of generic forms, and answer the question of whether In the Heat of the Night is a feel-good movie.[Production note: there are some issues with sound here and there in the episode; we don't think this detracts from the overall flow of the discussion]

In the second episode of their Western season, Nathanael and Erik discuss Sherman Alexie's short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven as well as Alexie's adaptation of his own work in Smoke Signals. As the second installment of the season, they consider how a contemporary collection centered around the Spokane Indian Reservation responds to the American Western mythos. Topics include the bildungsroman and Alexie's adoption of it to Native American boyhood, oral storytelling in traditional and modern settings, and community-as-character.Show notes:⁠Sherman Alexie's Substack.