Urban Options by William Pankey, and: The Texas Outback: Portraits of a Wildly Weird Country by Caleb Pirtle III

Abstract

Reviews 361 vehicles for the perpetuation of compelling images,” a fact which provides “the most jarring . . . facet of modern Western art because it flies in the face of the usual mandate that an artist must offer an original, not a derivative image.” In the West of the visual imagination, the emphasis on replication “runs closer to the great, lasting traditions in world art.” The book has two flaws. First, most of the reproductions are tiny (even though it would take poster-size plates to do justice to a Bierstadt or a Moran). Second, the book needs much better proofreading than it got. But its expan­ sive coverage (115 artists are represented in the plates) and lucid analysis —usually playing to the level of a general audience—make it something of a bargain. For literary studies, the book demonstrates obvious parallels in visual art. It also provides an eloquent reminder of the importance of myth (something “often lost in the litter of art criticism”) in understanding the role of the West in American culture. WILLIAM BLOODWORTH East Carolina University Urban Options. Photographs by William Pankey. (Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company, 1986. 64 black and white photographs, $35.00.) The Texas Outback: Portraits of a Wildly Weird Country. By Caleb Pirtle III. Photographs by Gerald Crawford. (Waxahachie, Texas: McLennan House, Inc., 1986. 162 pages, black and white photographs, $19.95.) The Texas landscape varies from sprawling cities like Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, and San Antonio to the well-watered piney woods of the Big Thicket in East Texas and the stark, arid region of the western part of the state. Two recent books deal with this contrast between urban sprawl and untouched desert. Urban sprawl is apparent in the perceptive work of William Pankey, a professional photographer whose view of Dallas between 1983 and 1986 reveals the design of modern city life—the geometric patterns that we ignore in streets and buildings, the stark contrast of old and new side by side, the quiet drama of people we usually overlook. The coffee table 10 x II/2 format holds the 64 photographs originally produced by a platinum printing process which has resulted in rich tonal distinctions in the black and white prints. The pic­ tures speak for themselves. They have to; there is no text except for the short introduction by John J. Jasinski, Curator of the Southland Corporation in Dallas, one of the major supporters of the project. The collection nonetheless communicates the essence of the varied city experience. In contrast to the wood, concrete, and asphalt images of Urban Options is the work of Caleb Pirtle III, whose sparkling prose narratives deal with the 362 Western American Literature Big Bend of Texas, one of the truly unique sections of the state. Here, the picturesque Davis Mountains, admittedly lacking the grandeur of the Rockies or the Tetons, quietly watch over the Chihuahuan Desert. Sparsely populated, this vast Texas “outback,” as Pirtle has labeled it, shows little alteration by man. The diligent observer can discover here romance in the beauty, the stark­ ness, and the stories of the Big Bend. Pirtle draws his stories from the logical sources of history, legend, and folk­ lore. The narratives from any country that has seen this much hardship, suffer­ ing from extreme heat and cold, soldiers and Indians locked in struggles to the death, star-crossed lovers, and the mysterious Marfa lights, cannot be dull. Pirtle’s narrative is ably illustrated by Gerald Crawford’s 36 black and white photographs that capture the essence of the terrain and the few time-worn structures. The contrast seen in the material in these two books is remarkable. Both are worth considering, for here is loneliness and isolation in landscapes, manarranged and natural. LAWRENCE CLAYTON Hardin-Simmons University This I Can Leave You: A Woman’s Days on the Pitchfork Ranch. By Mamie Sypert Burns. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986. 281 pages, $16.95.) Under the Texas Sun: Adventures of a Young Cowpuncher. By Anna Manns Dana. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986. 97 pages, $12.50.) Both books are reminiscences of ranching life in Texas; both are anecdotal and make free use of exaggeration; both were prepared...