I finally have something more to say about the works of Sam Shepard. After finding my copy of Sam Shepard's "Seven Plays" collection the other day, I have had the pleasure of reading his musical "The Tooth of Crime" and revisiting a personal favorite play of mine, "True West".
Let me just say that "True West" is a gem. It is basically what inspired (or rather, helped me discover) my love for isolationsit writing. In a nutshell, it is about two brothers, the younger one a civilized screenwriter on the brink of Hollywood fame, and the older a brutish personality who does not interact with society. The older brother is, in every sense, a parasite; He has no home and lives off of the good nature of friends. When he's not doing that, he's either staying alive by stealing small aplliances such as toasters and TVs from homes or dissappearing into the desert for long periods of time. The two brothers are staying together in their mother's house (the older uninvited), and over the course of a few days the reader (viewer) sees them go from content with (and possibly enjoying) one another's company to attempting to kill one another. Throughout the course of the show, both characters' insecurities and shortcomings are showcased as they lose all control.
You can probably see some similarities with my writing in here: A few characters interacting in a fixed set away from society and, without a very profound catalyst, changing drastically because of the exposure of one another's flaws. "Live with a man for forty years. Eat your meals with him, share your time with him. Then, take him to the volcano's edge and hang him over it. On that day, you will meet the real man." I don't know whose quote that is, I only remember it from "Firefly". Maybe they made it up. In any case, Shepard disputes this quite quickly in his writings, as he demonstrates how severe human insecurities are and how delicate human relations are.
To him, however, this drastic progression does not need to be the result of the years of familiarity that brothers have. In "The Tooth of Crime" it is two rock stars (Shepard's modern cowboys), one a big stud knocking on the doors of the fame the likes of Dylan and Hendrix attained, and a no name sent by one of the big-timer's (Hoss) rivals. The plot is simple: The rockers live by a code in which no rocker can overtake a city which another has claimed. However, this code is beginning to be broken left and right, and Hoss does not know what to do. He is unwilling to go against everything he has learned. he is essentially an old man in a world of wild youth (though he is actually quite young). One of Hoss' rivals sends this no-name to duel with Hoss to the death (apparently a tradition in "the game"). Knives are soon abandoned, however,a s the the duel becomes a battle of words.
The second act is quite strange, as it focuses on this duel, in which a "Referee" scores them on what are essentially burns as they verbally attack each other to music. This ismade even more alien by their jargon. "Can't get it sideways walkin' the dog. Tries trainin' his voice to sound like a frog...Fear that he's crackin' busted in two. Bustin' in three parts. Bustin' in four. Bustin' and dyin' and cryin' for more" goes one insult.
But at the core of the play lies the question of what someone's role in the world is. We're all only here to be replaced, times change, codes of conduct change, jargon changes. Suddenly you can't keep up with the kids, and you thought you were one. It's almost a tale of growing older, metaphorically told in an hour plus timespan. What does Shepard seem to dictate is the answer? Hoss takes his own life. So the world keeps turning, you gotta go with the flow, and when you're out of the game you may as well be dead. When the peak of your life is over, your life is over. But the entire play is filled with backhanded tactics- Lying, harassing, bribery, all to win the game. So maybe if you don't break the code to start with, you got some class on the other clowns. Maybe respect makes you King.
-OSK
The result is displayed on the home screen; it shows that five percent of the women are taller than 175.5 centimetres.
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