I like the Southwest. Anyone who knows me probably knows this about me. So, a random loopy praising of such, in an indirect manner.

Ever notice how there’s no Northwestern Literature classes, or Midwest Literature classes? Ah, but there are most definitely Southwest Literature classes. No other landscape has quite the qualities to lend to a whole genre of its own; the Southwest landscape is often described as having similar importance in that genre to one of the characters or plot. Where a forest story is usually about the mystery and shadow created by that landscape, or an arctic story is often about stark survival, a story in the desert has both starkness and survival on one side and life persevering on the other. And at the same time, nothing in a desert is what it seems, and yet is clear at the same time – there are hidden and apparent needles among the flowers. And it is a desert that is characterized as that most epic of places, of the biggest skies, the tallest storms and wide expanses.

The great director of Westerns, John Ford, went to immense lengths to find just those expanses in an age where the only way to create landscapes of epic nature was to actually find them and film in them. Frank Herbert used the desert landscape as an integral part of his colossal Dune series, combining the romanticism of Southwest literature with science fiction. Cultures from both sides of Europe to Japan have become fascinated with Western stories. I could go on listing, so I’ll just stop there I suppose. Somebody tell me if they think I missed anything.