One of the things that struck me during my long Doc Savage reread was that a number of the books took place in Canada’s northwest, a wild, outlaw zone where you might be safe if there were Mounties nearby. Otherwise you were on your own: it’s an isolated wilderness area where every man and woman has to fight for survival alone. That’s the setting for Brand of the Werewolf —
Mystery on the Snow —
and The Three Devils.
This is a genre — Canadian adventure — that was popular in the US a century ago and quite anachronistic now, when Canadians are either extraordinarily nice or Wolverine. That led me to read HOLLYWOOD’S CANADA: The Americanization of Our National Image by Pierre Berton for some perspective on the now defunct genre.
Writing in the early 1970s, Berton discusses how Hollywood took a country whose landscape is dominated by farm acreage and lots of big cities and turned it into a wilderness dominated by mountains and forests. Everyone lives in isolated hamlets and drinks in the local saloon (Canada was a dry country for a large chunk of its history). The Mounties struggle relentlessly to live up to their creed, “always get your man.” Blackfoot tribesmen launch attacks on covered wagons heading west. When a stranger shows up in the wilderness everyone knows not to ask questions (like small towns anywhere, if a stranger shows up everyone wants to ask questions and get in their business). Mounties establish justice with blazing six guns. Travel is by horse. Indigenous people always wield bows and arrows, not guns. Berton goes into much detail about what a fantasy this all is but due to the power of movies, even some Canadians swallowed it at the time of writing (I’ve no idea how things may have changed since).
The book was a help to my efforts to define this lost genre. It also made me appreciate that the Canadian cliches are more widespread than I realized. Bruno Hen in The Monsters lives in the American northwoods but he’s straight out of Canadian cliches: a “half-breed” (mixed race) with no redeeming features, a petty thief, a bully, and spiteful enough that when he robs a neighbor’s fish trap he destroys all the fish he doesn’t take. Berton’s book says the Métis — Canada’s indigenous/white population, considered a tribe of their own — are extremely law abiding IRL. In Hollywood films, they’re either happy-go-lucky rogues or black-dyed villains.
As I continue editing, I’ll keep my eye out for more examples.
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