Owen Wister Archives - Words To That Effect

Weird Westerns - Words To That Effect Ep 46

November 24, 2020February 14, 2024 Conor20th Century Literature, Westerns

Ep 46: Weird Westerns

In a way it’s maybe strange that the western is such a prominent genre. Given it’s connected to such a specific time and place – the mid-to-late 19th century, American west – why are we all so familiar with the many tropes of the western? Cowboys and Indians, shootouts and read more…

September 17, 2017January 4, 2018 Conor19th Century Literature, 20th Century Literature, American Literature, History

Owen Wister and the Fictional American West [Article]

Travelling Out West Episode 6 of Words To That Effect (listen here) looked at some of the influences of neurasthenia, a nervous ailment that was ultimately as cultural as it was medical. For men living in large Eastern U.S. cities, one of the frequently advised cures for neurasthenia was a read more…

September 4, 2017January 25, 2018 Conor19th Century Literature, 20th Century Literature, American Literature, Medicine, Supernatural

Episode 6: Neurasthenia, Cowboys, and Feminists

Neurasthenia: The “National Disease of America” In 1881 an American neurologist named George Miller Beard published a hugely influential book: American Nervousness. In it, he laid out the symptoms, cures, and implications of what he called “neurasthenia”, essentially what one might call nervous exhaustion. Beard didn’t coin the term but read more…