Larry McMurtry makes some odd comments in an interview in today's New York Times Magazine:
But cowboys aren't always popular. You can look at the rise and demise of the western movie. It's not like there are hundreds of westerns being made now, as there were in the 40's and 50's.
How do you explain their decline?
There's no money to be made in them anymore. It costs too much to deal with animals. If you want a bear in your movie, it costs you $60,000 for one day.
Still, there's ''Deadwood'' on HBO. And we now even have a White House West. You're a native Texan -- what do you think of the president's ranch in Crawford?
I find it hard to think of it as a ranch. Crawford is basically a suburb of Waco, and I have been through it a million times. The president has this obsession, which he inherited from Reagan, of brush clearing. I don't get it. What do you get when you clear brush? You get a photograph of yourself with a chain saw and a cowboy hat.
What, exactly, do you think cowboys represent, other than the triumph of alpha males?
Cowboys are a symbol of a freer time, when people could go all the way from Canada to Mexico without seeing a fence. They stand for good ol' American values, like self-reliance.
Maybe some American values, but you can't say that cowboys were ever interested in spreading democracy.
No, they were interested in spreading fascism.
If you put it that way, how do you explain your own fascination with Buffalo Bill?
I never thought about it.
You should probably come up with a better answer, because I'm sure you'll be asked the question many times on your book tour.
No, I won't. This is the only time I am talking about this book. Why write a book and then talk about it? It doesn't make any sense. I can get another book done in the time it takes to do a book tour. I don't want to sit around reliving last year's book in conversation.
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