Weird West Review 3: The Man on the Ground and Black Canaan
We've already reviewed Pigeons from Hell, The Horror from the Mound, The Dead Remember, and Old Garfield's Heart, and now here are the last 2 Weird West Stories by Robert E Howard: The Man on the Ground and Black Canaan. Warning: SPOILERS.
THE MAN ON THE GROUND
Cal Reynolds and Esau Brill have hated each other for ages, and now all that hatred has led to a shootout that won't stop until one of them is dead.
A hate too strong for even death to destroy; a hate powerful enough to embody itself in itself, without the aid or the necessity of material substance.
We get what Howard was trying to do, with all the talk about this overwhelming, death-defying hate, but the story is pretty slight and the ending isn't exactly shocking. He did manage to slip in some more 'oozing brains', though.
BLACK CANAAN
After being given a cryptic warning, Kirby Buckner returns home to Canaan, where he finds the threat of a war and powerful black magic.
Seven drops of blood that fell on the pine needles have given me your soul! I took that blood, and Saul Stark gave me the man who ran away. Saul Stark hates cowards. With his hot, quivering heart, and seven drops of your blood, Kirby Buckner, deep in the swamps I have made such magic as none but the Bride of Damballah can make. Already you feel its urge!
The setting, with its complicated history between the white and black populations, the basic plot, and the sorceress, were interesting and intriguing and could've made for a complex story with very grey characters and motivations; after all, Stark was cruelly using black people to realize his ambitions, so he's no hero. There was a way to write this without it being so damned racist, but unfortunately, Howard chose a different route. It wasn't the white characters using the n-word that was the problem for us - of course they'd say it, they're racists - but Kirby referring to sandals as 'barbaric' - really, even the sandals? - and the repeated mentions of 'primitive' and 'jungle', as if there were no other ways to describe people and landscape. And let's not forget Kirby's surprise at finding a black woman attractive and Howard's need to remind readers of that whenever the sorceress shows up.
Besides all the racism, the characters are thinly sketched. Kirby says his family has a leading role in Canaan and the other men accept his guidance, but he ends up doing very little in that regard. Then there's the sorceress and Stark, who see him as dangerous, though there's nothing that makes Kirby stand out from the rest. Also, after all the buildup, the villains turn out to be ridiculously easy to defeat. All that power and hints at her being more than human and the sorceress dies from a normal bullet? Though, at least she got more to do than Stark, who only showed up in the end to lead a failed ritual and lose to Kirby in a boring, non magical fight. This story is longer than the others, except maybe Pigeons from Hell, but apparently it wasn't long enough for Howard to give those 2 an ending matching all the hype.
WEIRD WEST RANKED
Since we've now reviewed all of Robert E Howard's Weird West stories (if there's more, please accept our sincerest apologies), we should probably rank them. From best to worst:
1. Pigeons from Hell
2. The Horror from the Mound
3. Old Garfield's Heart
4. The Man on the Ground
5. The Dead Remember and Black Canaan
Yes, that last one is a tie. Black Canaan was better written that The Dead Remember, but it had enough issues of its own to push it to the bottom of the list. The Man on the Ground was slightly better than The Dead Remember, but only slightly, and didn't have as many flaws as Black Canaan. However, it should be a lot lower than Old Garfield's Heart, so that fourth place is a little deceitful. The first 3 are not only the best of the bunch, but also good stories.