Weird West: Reciprocal Shift In The Western Genre

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The Old West was, at the peak of its popularity, an artistic representation of Americana. Leading men such as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood were larger than life and representative of America’s view of its place in the world—a rugged avenger who does what he wants to right all wrong—and with the shift in American culture came a reciprocal shift in the Western genre. The Weird West incorporates elements unfamiliar to the West, whether they be originally from this Earth or otherwise. In some cases, weird comes in the form of atypical choice of the protagonist’s species; in other cases, it comes in the form of an invading alien race. Weird Westerns are incredibly diverse and malleable, so the elements of their stories that qualify them as weird …show more content…

As a result, well-established longtime characters spawned during the genre’s infantile stages are hard to come by. However, it’s no great assumption to assert genre-crossing was an established literary style well before the name “Weird West” was coined. One of the first examples of a supernatural presence in the West was a story titled “The Horror from the Mound” by Robert E. Howard. The story, published in 1932, was a very early adopter of including elements such as ghosts and demons. Other characters from the 1930s, such as the “Six-Gun Gorilla”, err a bit more on the weird side of the Weird West. In the story, a gun-toting gorilla avenges his slain master who adopted him from Africa. These two early examples are prime indicators of just how diverse the genre is. In the case of “The Horror from the Mount,” the weird part of the story comes in the form of otherworldly foes; in the “Six-Gun Gorilla,” the weirdness comes from the fact that a gorilla has been tamed to carry and successfully discharge a firearm. This also demonstrates another important quality of the West West: whereas Western stories cycle through a 6-shooter of plot choices, Weird Westerns are able to remain Western while still breaking the

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