Norman Maclean Fishing, that's right, and we sure didn't like it, but we had to eat it, and eventually, we-you know, it was a source of great love and pride. Norman Maclean was, certainly, my fa-he was, you know, he could always beat us after he got say to be eight or nine years old, and we didn't like that partic. Studs Terkel But he was more or less the challenge to the others, wasn't he? Your brother obviously was the-you were there, but he was three years younger than you. Studs Terkel Well, that's interesting, you speak of clans, 'cause we think-let's stick for the moment with the Scottish flavor of this, your father, a Presbyterian minister, and also a stubbornness in your brother. And the-whether he's fantastic in taking that back to the clans, I don't know. He's a Canadian Scot, and he's the great historian who's author of "The Rise of the West", and of course he picks up the Canadian Scot business in it, and the competition, and decide how each person sees something of himself in it, and what he sees is the Scots going all the way back to the tribal and clan competitives business, and certainly in the characters, Scot characters I depict there, they're highly competitive, my brother and the sawyer, Jim Roberts, you know, they'd kill you before they'd lose. Norman Maclean Well, I-Bill Neill wrote me a nice letter about the story. This is a kind of a love out of battle, really. It's a family, and the battles there, but also something more. "A River Runs Through It" concerns primarily your brother Paul and your father, your family, and a brother-in-law. Studs Terkel Throughout in all three stories, we'll come to the other two in a moment, but let's stick with the first one first. Norman Maclean Well, Studs, I say it's a depiction of a time-all three stories are roughly, that I call the end of history, when for most of history there were no roads through the woods, or not many, and very few trails, and everything was hand and horse, and there are no cats and no Jeeps and no power saws, and cross-cut saws, and it was a world that was infinitely beautiful and very tough, and it's hard at times to tell the toughness from the beauty, it was a tough kind of beauty. Studs Terkel It's also a reflection of a very beautiful story, but a reflections also of another time, isn't it, of a certain kind of craftsmanship and pride and passion. Norman Maclean My father and I for whatever comfort we could find in life. And it was deep in our particular way of life, and at the end it's just when my brother is murdered, I was about-it's one of the few things, fishing is one of the few things we have left in the way of religious comfort. It would be as I say, it's very hard in my family to know where fishing and religion left off, and steep, of course fishing is very deep in the Bible itself. Norman Maclean Oh yes, and mine, too, I think. Studs Terkel But the fishing was almost an extension, was it not, of his theology. Great rivers like the Blackfoot and Flathead and the Bitterroot, all great trout streams, and my father was a Presbyterian minister who believed that his job to his church was done when he preached two good sermons on Sunday, and he left the church to my mother after that, and then he and his two sons went fishing. Norman Maclean Well, this is in western Montana, actually, near Missoula, Montana, and not far from Idaho on the western slopes of the continental divide, in the heart of a very great trout fishing country. But I suppose we start at the beginning, where this was and your relationship to your brother Paul. Studs Terkel And this is how the story opens, so it's really in a way the story about you and your brother Paul, and your father the Presbyterian minister, and women of your family, and fishing. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry fly fisherman." We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. Norman Maclean "In our family there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. "A River Runs Through It and Other Stories", and Mr. The theme you might say of these stories might be the fusion of art and life, and published by the University of Chicago Press. Studs Terkel There are three beautiful short stories, a couple of might be called novellas, written by Norman Maclean, who has just retired as Professor of English, University of Chicago after many years, and the stories really are based upon memory.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |