Class three and the second response

Continuing on with our consideration of genre, for Wedneday read the second part of Chandler's piece ('Working Within Genres'), Foucalt's preface to The Order of Things, and the (very short) O'Brien stories you can find among the links. Realize that there are three pdf files at that link, and try to read them in the following order: 'Spin,' 'The Man I Killed,' and then 'Good Form.'

When you've done that, write and post an analysis of these stories (and O'Brien in general if you know The Things They Carried), which specifically deals with the way that O'Brien breaks with the war story genre. That is, O'Brien writes in a post-Apocalypse Now, post-Platoon, era, and is well aware of a reader's expectations regarding war stories. How do these works undermine or work against those expectations? Be sure to establish to the degree possible what those expectations are, and then quote the details of the stories to show how O'Brien breaks with them both in his subject and his form.

One rule: In the response quote O'Brien at least two times, Foucault once and Chandler once (the second section).

And this week also write a one or two paragraph comment on someone else's response. Except (and here's a reward) the first person to post--whoever does that gets out of the comment

Class Two

As Chandler writes, while genres (particularly the 'small' genres such as Westerns, Horror works, Romantic-Comedies) are rather fluid and difficult to define, the field of 'genre studies' is one which we shouldn't try to define objectively, as a scientist might define a genus (though science has its own problems with these 'natural' classification). Instead, genre studies should
spend its time grappling with the 'why' and the 'how' rather than the 'what.' That is, 'if we are studying the way in which genre frames the reader's interpretation of a text then we would do well to focus on how readers identify genres rather than on theoetical distinctions.' Why and how the viewer/reader uses the Western, for example, rather than what defines the Western. And added to this is the suggestion that this turns on a critical relationship between the needs of the audience and the needs of the producer, a relationship which can tell us quite a bit about the needs of the culture at large.

More amusingly, watch the link to Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in Tombstone...some of the finest lines the western has ever offered (and, as we will get to when we discuss 'Purpose' next week, it is a genre dominated by good lines).

I'll post the readings (more Chandler, some of the Foucalt listed here) later this week (let's say by Saturday morning at ten), as well as a response for next Wednesday. Enjoy the long weekend.

After this point (ten a.m., or Jeanine's post) all posts will be taken gratefully, but credit cannot be granted.

What Genre is This?

In Chandler’s Introduction to Genre Theory he explains that what defines a specific genre can vary depending on the time period. Genres evolve over time as the values of society change and the focus of the audience shifts. A genre cannot exists till it is recognizable in more than one work, and often a single work meets the standards of more than one genre. So how then does the audience identify and classify the subject of the material they are reading or viewing?

Lee K. Abbot’s "The Purpose of This Creature Man" is a unique look at humanity that has roots in more than on genre. In one sense, it is a western. The tale of bank robbing outlaws who organize a gang and engage in gunfights with the law easily fit’s the mold of most westerns. On the other hand, it’s quirky and unusually loveable criminal characters, each with something different to bring to the table, gives the story somewhat of a comedic feel. Furthermore, the tragic ending, in which all the characters are forced to realize they cannot continue to live a life of crime, regardless of their approach to it, makes it a moral story, designed to teach the audience a lesson.

Perhaps by allowing this story to meet the criteria of several different genres the author is hoping to reach a broader audience. Or maybe the genre in which it is read depends solely on the reader, fit to his or her interpretation and personal values.

The beginning of the story may leave the reader a bit weary of the exact genre of the story, there were no definitive clear cut references that indicate a Western drama, it was not until Doc asked Duke to join his “gang of outlaws” that you are really introduced to some form of genre and time period.
The author Abbot again shakes it up when he speaks about the modes of transportation. Doc’s motorcar is important in shaping the story through creating a time frame for which things are happening. The usual and most efficient way of getting from place to place during the19th century was by horseback, the use of the motorcar outs the time frame for this story in the late 19th century into the 20th century and the start to the scientific revolution.
Bank robberies and stickups were common during the western era. The taking what you want mentality and uncanny bravado, believing you are untouchable, was common for desperadoes of the “Wild West.” The vigilante justice taken on by the jilted rebels and fed up civilians was the most effective form of justice during an era where braggadocios marauders lived outside the law.
One feature of the story that did not seem to coincide with the assumed genre of a western is kid. Transgender almost feminine men were almost non-existent in the West where the rough and rugged reigned supreme.
Purpose fits into what Chandler is saying because it shows that there is no definitive genre, there is nothing that sets a certain genre in stone. Genre can and will be whatever and however the reader perceives. The genre van change if a reader feels that an element does not belong with the assumed genre of the piece.

Western?

I am going to have to agree with Chandler when he says that defining genres such as 'the Western' is a problematic enterprise, because what exactly is a Western? Normally when people hear the word Western they think about cowboys, desperadoes, shoot-outs, bank robberies, etc. All sorts of things come to mind. Lee K. Abbot's short story The Purpose Of This Creature Man contains many of these features such as Doc and his crew who rob people and then ride away on horseback. Many of the characters had aliases too which is common in Westerns like "The Doc", "Chicken Jim", "The Verdigris Kid" and "Duke". In Merriam-Webster's dictionary Western is defined as "of, relating to, or characteristic of a region conventionally designated West" and the story does take place in the western part of the United States.
The setting, language, and everything about the story implies that it is a western. But it is still too vague, just because a story or film contains bandits on horseback in Texas, it doesn't necessarily have to be classified as a Western. It could have been a drama or something else relating to these things. Doc's crew doesn't consist of your average bandits, he has weird people who do awkward things. Best example being " The Verdigris Kid" who was a sissy and turns into a women at the end of the story, thats not what a bandit is supposed to be like, they are suppose to be these tough rugged guys who like to commit crimes and fight a lot.
Stories like this support Chandlers theory because there is no specific or definite genre. I believe in the Chandler reading there was something about how genres constantly change over time and we keep creating new genres and categories for things. In the near future this story might fall into another genre and no longer be a Western.

The Problem with Genres

I definitely have to agree with Chandler when he says that genres, especially westerns, could be problematic. He states that "genres can therefore be seen as 'fuzzy' categories which cannot
be defined by necessary and sufficient conditions." This statement couldn't be more true, especially when comparing it to Lee K Abbott's story The Purpose of this Creature Man.
The story seems to fall under the category of a western genre when one starts to read the first few lines and there is a 'hold up' which rings true of most westerns, however, there are multiple findings throught the story that would lead the reader to believe that there are many holes in anyone's ideas of a true genre just as Chandler agrees in his Defintion of a Genre.
I have seen many old western movies in my time and never have I known a leader of the outlaw gang of robbers to be a graduate of the "Stillman Academy of chiropractic Medicine in Peoria, Illinos." As Doc robs the safety deposit box from the clerk at the post office, he tells a man, "Son, think of me as an unwelcome but polite relative. In the meantime,stand upright and
square. Posture's lifelong and chronic." That doesn't sound like a typical western robber at all, more like a very well off and educated man.
There are certain lines throughout the story that are remniscent of an old western that keeps it going with the theme such as " Every marshall was trailing us, even the special Indian Deputies from the Nations." However, when I think of any western, I picture the imagery of the outlaws riding away on their galloping horses with a cloud of dust kicked up from the horse's hooves as they race away, not the leader of the gang putting away in his Dodge. Also, I have always thought that the typical western genre male character of a cowboy to be strong and masculine, dirty and spitting out tobacco through the space of his stained teeth, not at all feminine like the character of the Kid, who actually dresses like a woman and recites sonnets.
I guess Chandler is right. No one can actually say that one specific genre has to be a certain way and that is the end all. People are complex characters in nature with many facets and quirks about them so who am I to say that there can't be many genres and sub genres, etc. I have always thought of a western to be a certain way just because of how I have seen it portrayed in the past by society. Maybe that is not so at all.

What makes a western a western?

Film theorist Robert Stam notes "While some genres are based on story content (the war film), other are borrowed from literature (comedy, melodrama) or from other media (the musical). Some are performer-based (the Astaire-Rogers films) or budget-based (blockbusters), while others are based on artistic status (the art film), racial identity (Black cinema), locat[ion] (the Western) or sexual orientation (Queer cinema)." So I guess it's the location that makes it a western. What about time? Can we still produce western movies now using the natural setting without creating artificial studio? Or could it have been produced in, say, 12th century? I looked up the word "western" at Wikipedia.com, and it says "The Western is a fiction genre seen in film and other visual arts. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in what became the Western United States (known as the American Old West) but also in Western Canada and Mexico. Classifying different genres may not be clear cut as they may often overlap, but no one can argue against its usefulness. Denise MacQuail makes this clear "The genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently and to relate its production to the expectations of its customers. Since it is also a practical device for enabling individual media users to plan their choices, it can be considered as a mechanism for ordering the relations between the two main parties to mass communication."
So, what makes "the purpose of this creature man" a western? Let's look at the time and the place. I found a first clue in Doc's Hobbes motorcar. A 1906 model. With that in mind, I assumed that the story is set in 1906 or later. A Western can be as early as 1860 and as late as 1920s. Let's look at the place. Duke, whose alias given by doc, had criminal history in Missouri. Also, Doc and his gang's first score occurs in Arkansas. The problem is, these are not in west. Then I wonder if this is a Western at all. The sawed off Winchester scattergun may make this a Western. The fact that one guy organizes a gang to commit crimes also may make this one a Western. Apart from time and place criteria, what about contents? What kind of story constitutes a Western? Only the ones in which guys like Doc and his gangs rob places and spraying bullets everywhere? Because I thought "Far and Away" was a Western.

Is it or is it not a Western?

Can “The Purpose of this Creature Man” be described as a typical western? It’s hard to say. It can go both ways really. On the one hand, like most westerns, there are the typical characters one would find in the works of this genre, more specifically Doc and his crew, the “desperadoes”, a ragtag team of outlaw rogues who mock society’s vaunted rules, risking their freedom and lives in robberies both for the thrill of it and for their own enrichments. They perform heists and hide from the authorities, guns always within reach. One will find this breed of individuals in, most likely, any western story. It is rare, though, to encounter them as the protagonists of the tale, portrayed not as out-right villains, but as psychologically complex individuals most can identify and sympathize with. There’s Doc himself, the leader and mastermind of the team, always scheming and plotting yet he’s a true gentleman and never fails to give his victims medical advice; Jim, the religious eccentric, constantly making peace with his Maker; Kid, the transvestite, not a character one would ever expect to find in a traditional western… Within all these characters lies the deviation that makes the story not of the typical genre, at least not generically.

Chandler, author of The Problem of Definition, at least to my understanding of it, argues how genres are not as set as one would ordinarily expect them to be, that, despite the basic ideas of said genre (in this case, westerns) being ever present, the way it is presented, in any media, will always include certain divergences depending on a number of factors, the way of writing certainly being one of them. And this story being written as a sort of modern-style western, complete with semi-current event issues (and even a “1906 Hobbes motorcar”), is a direct result of it turning out the way it did.

A Western that can be considered a Comedy?

Chandler is saying that you cannot classify a genre by certain themes or ideas involved with it. Whether they be in things such as movies or books this is true. By calling something a comedy because the satire may be entertaining or make you laugh doesn’t necessarily make it so. Just like with the idea of Westerns “The Purpose Of This Creature Man” can be called a Western because it has all the signs of one Ie: bank robberies, appropriate slang terms and language but at the same time there are other situations where this can be disproved. On page 145, Doc proposes to name Le Duc something simpler and more to the point. At first he wants to be called Ringo. I’m probably not the only one who thought of this but as soon as I saw the name “Ringo in the text I thought of Ringo Star/ The Beatles. This brought up the idea of L.S.D. The song was about a drug but cleverly disguised as something else. In the same sense the Duke’s name made him seem like more of a man than he was. It was not common to hear of a bank robber with such a name. This was one of the things I feel made the story less of a western. Then theres “Verdigris Kid” he was the exact opposite of your stereotypical bank robber or male character, both extremely feminine and womanly he seemed to be a cross between a young boy and a feminized sexual pedophile. The Duke describes him as sissified who called people “darling and sweet chips” He even goes so far as to ask him if he is attracted to men, though his answer doesn’t automatically imply that he is he claims to “prefer the hairless and narrow-chested” This can either be seen as an attraction to prepubescent girls or young boys. The suspicion that he may be attracted to girls however is dismissed when Doc brings up the idea of Prison. Then there’s Perceval. He Is supposed to be a cowboy but recites poetry. When I think of cowboys, I think of masculine men who are of few words and not overly flowery or wordy. This was another thing that disagreed with the idea that the story was a western. The story does not fit into the genre that this would usually fall under because there are too many instances that contradict what a Western is supposed to symbolize and stand for. Chandler finds categorizing genres problematic because there are so many ways to categorize genres that it would be extremely difficult to just call something one name. Also according to Carolyn Miller “the number of genres in any society... depends on the complexity and diversity of society” What’s to say that if a totally different group of people besides ourselves from other backgrounds read the story read the story that they would identify it as a western? There are clear indications that show people could call it a western because of common ingredients but as a whole it is too flimsy to be taken seriously as one.

Response

Lee K. Abbott’s short story “Love is a Crooked Thing” can be classified as a western for the following reasons:
Language, Setting, Characters, and Plot, along with some particular scenes.
The language used in the story lends it a western air. Language like the narrator’s use of “banditos” and “desperados” brings up mental images of dusty trails and masked men on horseback. Doc calling his followers a “gang of outlaws” and “ne’er-do-well[s]”, he calls the police “lawmen” and affectionately refers to his followers directly as “boys”.
The setting is an obvious throwback to westerns as the location is the Midwest United States and the time is at the turn of the century (1900’s).
As far as the characters go, names like “Doc”, “Chicken Jim”, “Big Bob Cook”, and the “Verdigris Kid” make it easy to slip into the western feel. The fact that they are outlaws, moving from place to place and holding heists, is not enough to invoke the western classification. However, the way Abbott lays out these heist scenes, such as Big Bob bursting in with guns drawn, as well as the hit of the fort to steal the soldiers’ pay does take the story back to the western side of things.
What make’s “Love is a Crooked Thing” such an unusual western are all the little bits and pieces that don’t quite fit into that western mold. The Doc’s cold, calculating, scholarly nature is a far cry from the normal gun slinging, dirty western villain. The same applies to the cohort of unusual characters he surrounds himself with. The “Verdigris Kid” is a transvestite, hardly standard western material. His other lackeys include a poet and a scholar, more outsiders in the normal western posse.
Yet it all comes together in what can be easily classified as a western. That classification, however, and classifications in general for that matter, are all subject to the inconsistencies of their components. Some people would say it is a shaky western because of its characters. Daniel Chandler is particular, would choose not to classify it. According to Chandler’s “The Problem of Definition” section of his piece “An Introduction to Genre Theory”, he believes that all works can be classified into any or all genres, simply based on the point of view of the classifier. That point of view, Chandler says, can be changed by location, time period, personal politics, as well as what the trend of the time is.

Assignment #1

While reading "An Introduction to Genre Theory" by Daniel Chandler he begins to discuss the origin of the word genre. It is referred to a type of class mainly in literary pieces or other type of texts. While normally hearing the term genres in those terms, Chandler portrayed the word in another meaning. He refers to the term "Western" as a type of genre. Chandler goes on to discuss in the story how genres can be problematic mainly because defining some genres as "westerns" or "thrillers" can put a wrong impression in someones mind. However since we have always used genres to describe everything it would be hard to abandon the concept. Chandler also talks about how genres come from story contents, literature, media, and location. That's how he comes up with the "western"as a genre. To analyze the genre of a western you must compare it to other westerns, and examine its characteristics.
I understand the story Chandler is trying to portray to the reader how genre can be used to describe many different aspects. I agree with him when he compares the word genre not only literature but also movies, TV, and readings. I think the purpose of the term genre is to inform the reader of what he is about to read or view and inform them what the main viewpoint is. After looking at "Love is a Crooked Thing" and reading the first paragraph i picture a western setting. The way the story is written also portrays to me a western genre.
So after reading Chandlers story and reading his viewpoints about the word genre, and then reading Love is a Crooked Thing I definitely agree with the way Chandler feels the word genre can portray many things.

Response

This story had many western ideas, images, and places that provoke the feeling of a “western.” From the sawed-off shotgun on the first page, to the Mexican standoff at the very end this story had many “western” images. My favorite thing that went on in this story was the interview sessions in which they questioned the potential thieves. The result is pure comedy. You have Doc who is the brains of the operation, you have the narrator, a poet, a man (or a woman depending on who in the party you ask), and you have and intellectual. The party is very odd, but well formed, each character with his, or her own idiosyncratic breadcrumb to add in. Some things did not add up however. I was thrown off by the fact that Doc had a car. Also that he was well shaven at the start. “Up close you could see his shining bardlike face shaving nicks…” Cowboys always ride on horses, and are always scruffy. With this added comedic party though, couldn’t it also be considered a comedy? Chandler shows many different ways to look at a text and how all of them seem rational and defendable. It’s getting more and more difficult to segregate somethings as just one thing. Take the movie Serenity for example. This is a sci-fi western. The purpose of genre is to tell the audience the types of things that are to be expected. For instance if you don’t like science fiction, you probably won’t like things that involve aliens, time travel, lasers, or anything involving space. Purpose although is almost as abstract as the idea of genre in and of itself. Purpose is what society deems it, and as being defined by a variable so does the definition change.

'The Purpose of this Creature Man' as Western

Throughout 'The Purpose of this Creature Man', hints that it can be classified as a western are present and sometimes quite obvious. However, as soon as one can visualize it as such, those western hints are contradicted.
The first striking hint of a western can be defined by the various settings throughout the story. There are mentions of Missouri and Illinois, as well as New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Although some of these states are techincally 'central' United States, I may be wrong, but a story set in New York or North Carolina, for example, are far from being considered westerns at all.
Another connection to a western story 'Purpose...' makes are the frequent descriptions of Native Americans; although I've seen a limited amount of westerns, once I imagine a western film, the image of Native Americans fighting cowboys instantly comes to mind.
The most obvious portrayals in this story that allow it to be classified as a western are the "hands up" at the banks for one, and the depictions of western clothing: the boots and leather laced vests just scream out western to me.
As mentioned before, many of these connections to the west are contradicted by the narrators education at the Newata (OK) School of Industrial Arts and Doc's statement while holding up the Washington & St. Louis Dial-Lock Drop Steel Safety Box: "I am a graduate of the Stillman Academy of Chiropractic Medicine of Peoria, Illinois...I can cure sciatica, the bloddy flux, etc." (p. 142). As far as I'm concerned, cowboys or westerners as the ones that I imagined while reading this story, didn't get much of an education. This too can be made apparent through their dialogue, which is quite informal.
'Purpose...' can be related to Chandler's 'Introduction to Genre Theory'. To sum up Chandler's confusing argument, according to him and many other scholars and authors, a story, poem, film, show, etc. cannot always be categorized as a certain genre because it may classify as many different genres all at once; the concept of a certain genre changes with time. It evolves according to the changes in media as well as society. This can be related to 'Purpose...' in that the story is not set in one time frame, but is set throughout an extended period of time. Although in the beginning it may have appeared to be more of a western than it did towards the end, this might have been so because as Chandler explained, the classifications of genres alter with the recurring changes in society.

Genre 'western'

This piece of writing does have many words and phrases in it that would conclude one to believe it is a piece from the genre of a 'western'. The fact that it takes place in Oklahoma, which we learn on the first page, the word holster from the first page, and the word outlaw on page 143. These are all words that would typically be found in the genre western. There are also however a few things that make this seem a little out of place in the genre of a 'western'. Some of these things are the vocabulary or diction chosen. Some of the words seem out of place or too educated. Typically 'western' is a genre with men who are just living in the west and riding on horses. The character "Doc" seems a little educated for a 'western'. Also the way in which the story is told as though parts of it are a book being written about what is going on in the story. None of this matters however because when it comes down to it this movies purpose is to be a piece from the 'western' genre. Just like the question, "what makes a poem a poem?" The intent for a poem to be a poem makes it a poem, and the intent of this piece to be a 'western' mfakes it a 'western'. The purpose of being a western along with the characteristics of this piece that are similar to all 'westerns' is what qualifies this to be a 'western'.

Response (8/27/2007)

Lee K. Abbott’s “Love Is The Crooked Thing” contains anything that your typical Western story would have. It has your “tough hombres” like Doctor Leroy Toolchin, who, according to La Duc A.K.A. Duke, the speaker, had a face that said “Citizens, be still. My profession is violent but I will be gone shortly” as he awe-strikingly bore witness to the Doc rob the town safe box, as seen on page 142. The good doctor would later offer Duke, after giving him that nickname, as “number two in [the Doc’s] outfit” on page 145. With “tough hombres” and gangs of outlaws, “Love Is The Crooked Thing” sounds like it would be classified under the Western genre.

Daniel Chandler, in the “The Problem of Definition” section of his writing “An Introduction to Genre Theory”, states that “…in the case of films, some seem to be aligned with one genre in content and another genre in form.”. While “Love Is The Crooked Thing” is not a film, I believe this statement applies to this story. While the content is that of a Western, the form, in some instances, can have some atypical dialogue to that of a Western. An example of this is when the Doc, on page 147, speaks about his intellect in saying: “I know quotes from Utillo and Sange… a little about the planets, namely Mars.” In the grand spectrum of things, the character of the Doc contradicts the archetype of the gun-toting, hot-tempered, quick to kill, criminals. The Doc seems to be a very, cool, collected, intellectual man, as if he were a villain from sort of espionages story, clearly a transcendence from the typical Western criminal.

Chandler, in his essay, “An Introduction to Genre Theory”, is trying to explain how genres aren’t so cut and dry, but there are many different barriers that genres set up that the media tends to defy. “Love Is The Crooked Thing” defies the traditional boundaries of the typical Western medium mostly through it’s viewpoint of the typical “bad guys” that rob banks and threaten people, albeit these “baddies” are stoic in comparison to the gun-crazy, sheriff killing archetypes of Western media.

Just got your e-mail so I put my response in a post.

In my opinion the details that give us our first clue to the western nod of this story is the dialogue. Wrought with grammatical errors, we all know outlaws never made the dean’s list, and sentence scrunching contractions like; ain’t, the dialogue harkens back to the days of gunslingers and cowboys. The author follows the rich dialogue with the appropriate accoutrements for a western. I mean really, any western worth it’s salt wouldn’t be complete without it’s fair share of :
“…horse thieves, back stabbers, dry-gulchers, claim-jumpers, …”
The shoot-outs, the robberies, the way the characters were dressed, each of these things scream of a western story. Oh and let’s not forget the sawed off Winchester scattergun.
However there were a few things that I found inconsistent. Granted, I may be tainted by my love of Sergio Leone but if it is to be a western, a true grit dusty boot heels
knocking on the hardwood floor western, then they’ve got to ride around on hoarse back. Every time I started to hear spurs jangling in my head along came a reference to some sort of automobile and destroyed the illusion for me. Every time they talked about Doc’s Ford I started to think of Bonnie and Clyde instead of The Man with no Name. Car’s in my mind speak to a different time period, one just after the “wild” west but maybe I’m just being naïve of American history.
Also there was a little bit too much education in these outlaws. I don’t mean to imply that in my mind the true western is filled with a bunch of blithering idiots. I’m not against them reading or writing or even composing the occasional poem but being, “completely educated at the Newata (OK) School of Industrial Arts,” was a bit much for me. It seems to me that the more education a man gets the less likely he is to stray toward a life of robbin’ and thievin’.
I have to admit I found it difficult to extract Chandler’s individual rhetoric or thesis from the sea of paraphrasing, citations, and devils advocate arguments. Please forgive me, I didn’t get my nap today but I didn’t see a clear personal opinion on the part of Daniel Chandler but rather a barrage of quoted opinions from other authors. That being said I shall do my best to complete the assignment.
I believe his argument was summed up in the last paragraph, the last paragraph typically being the conclusion, yet I do not feel comfortable quoting it since it is clearly cited from (Derrida 1981, 61). This was however something I agreed with. It is impossible to consider all of story telling without instinctively wanting to group them together somehow, seeing commonality somewhere along the line. In the case of The Purpose of This Creature Man it is perfectly reasonable to consider the elements of story that the reader finds conflicting to the typical western as the authors attempt to make the story original. On the other hand there are other elements in the story that burn so brightly, the story on a whole cannot help but be classified as a western.I believe this has a much broader application. Although there are stories that have yet to be written and original ideas we haven’t seen yet, at some point any story will lend itself to classification of some sort.

Day one Response one

Wonderful to meet you all today. As we discussed, read 'The Problem of Definition' on Chandler's Introduction to Genre Theory listed under 'Important Links.' In addition, read Lee K. Abbott's 'The Purpose of This Creature Man,' which you should have received as an attachment to an email. It is quite out of order, but I trust you all can read the page numbers and follow along. After you've read both, attempt to answer the following question(s) in 250-400 words: Chandler suggests that defining genres such as 'the Western' is a problematic enterprise. Find details and moments (scenes) within the story which clearly define the story as a 'western.' Then find details and moments which seem unusual or idiosyncratic to your understanding of the western. Lastly, make a connection between what Chandler is trying to say (paraphrase his argument in a sentence or two) and the story as you understand it (or, to put it another way, how does 'Purpose' fit into his argument?).