The Noble Savage in the New World Garden by Gaile McGregor (review)

Reviews 253 struggles to find a common theme or some reason thatwouldjustify publishing all these interviews in the same volume, but they seem to share only their initial publication in TheBloomsbury Review. Living in Words offers some readers an introduction to writers they might not have heard of before, and it will be a source of some use for scholars studying the work of any of the interviewees. However, different editorial decisions could have made the book more useful than it is. Compare, for example, the reading lists following the interviews with Kay Boyle in Living in Wordsand in Fiction! Interviews with Northern California Novelists (1976). JAMES H. MAGUIRE Boise State University The Noble Savage in theNew World Garden. By Gaile McGregor. (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1988. 357 pages, $33.95/ $16.95.) Gaile McGregor’s thesis is that “the American,” from the Puritans to the 1980s and almost certainly on into the future, was, is, and will be obsessed by an idealized and Edenic version of the wilderness. At the same time, “the Ameri­ can” is repelled and even horrified by the savagery that is found in the wilder­ ness and within the self. Therefore, McGregor concludes, “the American” is doomed to an ever-changing, always returning, love-hate relation with the one and only possible strategy for rationalizing this fundamental contradiction: the concept of the noble savage. Far from being just another popular story, the noble savage is a “necessary . .. component of the American myth,”temporarily dropped from time to time, but always re-invented to serve as a palliative, to mask but not to heal the wounds caused by a national value system that is “selfrighteous ,” “self-righteously aloof,” “fraudulent,” “sick,” “unwholesome,” and “morally reprehensible.” The thesis itself—America’s obsession with the noble savage—is interest­ ing; but the general desire in America for a new frontier is more often a desire for something to exploit financially than a quest for virgin land and life with a noble savage or two. And the thesis—whatever its merits may be—is left in limbo because of problems in the manner and method of its defense. “The American,”a term used passim, is consistently “he.”‘The writer”is also a “he,” the “colonist” is a “he,” and “us”is “the White Man.” Thus women are omitted. Blacks, Jews, Scandinavians, Germans, Italians, and Hispanics are omitted. Regional differences are ignored. Cultural and economic changes such as the industrial revolution are ignored. Indians are given brief attention but only to be insulted. According to McGregor, their own “curiosity and avarice”put “the Indians”into “the clutches of the white trader.” 254 WesternAmerican Literature There are other problems with TheNoble Savage. Repeatedly, assertions are presented as if they were original but then supported by quotations from critics who have already said the same thing. On pages 91-92, for example, we find the following: “says Curti,” “says Slotkin,” “as Curti explains,” “according to Boas,” “Green,”and “according to Curti.”It is good to be responsible for sources and to cite them, of course, but there are no page numbers in the citations, and the reader is leftwith whatseems a summary ofselected commentators on the noble savage presented as if it were original. In a book that deals with so many different subjects, it is understandable that some sections are stronger than others. The section on the American West (205-222), however, is a mistake. No one should be faulted for a couple oferrors (Faulkner’s “Dilthey,” “be”for “by”), but the references to Frank Water’s (sic) Man Who KilledDeer (sic) is indicative. Dozens of relevant authors and scores of relevant novels are not mentioned, nor is any awareness shown of the relevant criticism and scholarship. McGregor does not seem to have sufficient control of the territory. The section on science fiction (222-308) is just the opposite. Here the generalizations are supported by close analysis and by a convincing number of examples. Critics are cited, but it is clear that McGregor knows science fiction and has presented for consideration her own interesting analysis. Unfortunately, however, there are too many gaps in The Noble Savage. Comments...