Althouse put up a post about Chief Oshkosh of a famous Wisconsin Indian tribe and I thought it might be cool to punch up a pastiche of the Leatherstocking Tales with the ultimate joke that Chief Oshkosh didn't want to live in the woods but only wanted to make tiny overalls for yuppie kids. But it seems like too much work. Anyway here is the first and last installment.
Leatherpanty was the most famous of the trail blazers who went to live among the savages in the wilds of Nekoosa on the banks of the Wisconsin. He was born to a family of tanners in New York State but turned his face from that base trade. He longed for adventure in the woodland Eden that beckoned him. As he worked in his father’s shop he gazed out the window and dreamed of a place where he could live free. To be the man he wanted to be. So he fled his fathers house with only a strip of leather that he fashioned into a breech cloth to gird his lions. That is why they called him Leatherpanty.
(Leatherpanty Tales, James Fenimore Cooper 1846)
I don't think enough people have read the Leatherstocking Tales to get what the hell I am talking about. I mean most know the Last of the Mohican's because of the movies but I have yet to meet anyone who has ever read The Pioneers and The Pathfinder and The Prairie. So I just give up on this one.
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4 comments:
Hey, I read the "DeerSlayer" I began reading the "Pioneers" but gave up after the two chapters since no one had killed any Indians or bad guys.
One day, when I'm more mature, I'll give it another try.
I didn't say it was good, but it is kind of interesting in a historical kind of way.
If you want to read some great stuff in the same vien, check out Kenneth Roberts who writes about the same area in the same time frame and is a lot of fun.
I have read them all. My maternal grandmother left me a first edition 'Last' that got me started. They are exactly as you said, a great view into the mind of the 19th century American. Cool.
"Northwest Passage" is a great book.
The movie is pretty good too.
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