Post by q on May 8, 2006 22:40:51 GMT -6
MARI SANDOZ ~ CRAZY HORSE
The further we go back in time, the better the resource, I always say. Mari Sandoz was perhaps one of the best authors on the American West in her time. I know alot of people who have reviewed her book on Crazy Horse think its nothing but drivel. I guess for Custer fans it's a bit of a let down, because so little was dedicated to that battle in her book. However, one must consider it's potential value not upon one subject in which hundreds if not thousands of other books had already told and retold those stories. What was she to say or add that already had not been told? Perhaps it's greatest value is not in what it does say about the battle, but in what it doesn't say. Consider this. The narrative was taken only from primary sources....interviews, photographs and letters. Then consider; Not much is or was known about his life, his birth, his death, or even his burial. Yet she attempted to document as much history as was known about him. The book includes historical facts, events and characters that all were a part of Crazy Horses life. A difficult biographical task for anyone to do about someone whose life so little is known about. Undaunted she documented all that was known about him in the book. She had the great advantage back then that no one today had. She interviewed still-living old friends and relatives who really knew Crazy Horse. Those people are all long gone now and their recollections are no more, except in her book. For a look into her research which is quite extensive and accessable goto....http://www.unl.edu/libr/libs/spec/sandoz2/
Sandoz did not write the story from the point of view of the outsider like you or I would probably do. Instead she created a book that feels as if it was written by the Indians from their own point of view. And I Think that is one thing that will make this book enduring for generations to come. Just because the book does not include much historical detail about the LBH, it's value lies beyond. Because there is so much information on late Sioux history, and it places Crazy Horse and what is known about him squarely in the middle of the story that gives it a different feel. There will never be such a book again. It is an irreplaceable historical and cultural document about a man not much was known about.
Pehaps from what she wrote about the battle, we can glean from her pages in what little she did tell. Perhaps the reality of Crazy Horses participation in that event was no more, nor no less than what she was told. And in turn, what she wrote for us. And perhaps just perhaps....Sandoz's unique and moving ways of portraying Crazy Horse wasn't all in vain. Crazy Horse comes across as a troubled loner among his people, a bit manic-depressive but a strong leader and noble warrior amoung his people. But the residual effects of Sandoz's unique and moving ways of telling his story aren't so hippocritical and bad as they seem. Or as bad as some seem to think it is. Because if we can only realize one thing... she left for us as a hidden tribute to the man. As an enduring legacy... he remains... as dark and mysterious to us as he was to his friends and enemies... then... as now... and forever.
The further we go back in time, the better the resource, I always say. Mari Sandoz was perhaps one of the best authors on the American West in her time. I know alot of people who have reviewed her book on Crazy Horse think its nothing but drivel. I guess for Custer fans it's a bit of a let down, because so little was dedicated to that battle in her book. However, one must consider it's potential value not upon one subject in which hundreds if not thousands of other books had already told and retold those stories. What was she to say or add that already had not been told? Perhaps it's greatest value is not in what it does say about the battle, but in what it doesn't say. Consider this. The narrative was taken only from primary sources....interviews, photographs and letters. Then consider; Not much is or was known about his life, his birth, his death, or even his burial. Yet she attempted to document as much history as was known about him. The book includes historical facts, events and characters that all were a part of Crazy Horses life. A difficult biographical task for anyone to do about someone whose life so little is known about. Undaunted she documented all that was known about him in the book. She had the great advantage back then that no one today had. She interviewed still-living old friends and relatives who really knew Crazy Horse. Those people are all long gone now and their recollections are no more, except in her book. For a look into her research which is quite extensive and accessable goto....http://www.unl.edu/libr/libs/spec/sandoz2/
Sandoz did not write the story from the point of view of the outsider like you or I would probably do. Instead she created a book that feels as if it was written by the Indians from their own point of view. And I Think that is one thing that will make this book enduring for generations to come. Just because the book does not include much historical detail about the LBH, it's value lies beyond. Because there is so much information on late Sioux history, and it places Crazy Horse and what is known about him squarely in the middle of the story that gives it a different feel. There will never be such a book again. It is an irreplaceable historical and cultural document about a man not much was known about.
Pehaps from what she wrote about the battle, we can glean from her pages in what little she did tell. Perhaps the reality of Crazy Horses participation in that event was no more, nor no less than what she was told. And in turn, what she wrote for us. And perhaps just perhaps....Sandoz's unique and moving ways of portraying Crazy Horse wasn't all in vain. Crazy Horse comes across as a troubled loner among his people, a bit manic-depressive but a strong leader and noble warrior amoung his people. But the residual effects of Sandoz's unique and moving ways of telling his story aren't so hippocritical and bad as they seem. Or as bad as some seem to think it is. Because if we can only realize one thing... she left for us as a hidden tribute to the man. As an enduring legacy... he remains... as dark and mysterious to us as he was to his friends and enemies... then... as now... and forever.