The LOTM DISSERTATION
... the trail from Cooper to Mohican Press
CHAPTER 5
PUBLISHED IN THE JOURNAL OF POPULAR CULTURE!
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Clearly, this site demonstrates that movements such as the Mohicans fan
community can pose a serious alternative, if not a direct challenge, to the
academy?s elite, monopolistic authority over matters of culture, history and
aesthetics.
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Through the years, we periodically received E-mail from a
fellow who claimed he was working on a thesis for school and needed some input,
and insight, from us. He was learned & seemed genuine so we obliged, as we
usually do when asked for info [of all imaginable sorts!], but, in the back of
our minds, we weren't really sure what he was really up to. Well, it appears
that those minute fears were unfounded & our trust was well rewarded! This
researcher, Michael A. Williams, has completed a PhD dissertation on the mythology of The Last of the
Mohicans. We were the proud recipients of the final work, in .pdf format, a
couple of nights ago [early December, 2002], and we
can't adequately describe our feelings. The work is
outstanding & scholarly. Superb, really. It begins with the James Fenimore
Cooper novel, of course, and follows the phenomena of LOTM through its various
film resurrections, culminating in the very special - to all of us - 1992
Michael Mann version. Oh, wait, no ... no it doesn't, for it doesn't stop there! The
final chapter - some 60 pages - is on ... US! As in On the Trail of
the Last of the Mohicans ... the book, this web site, the Mohican Board! So,
that really means, in many ways, its about you!
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MohicanLand is a community that arose virtually and eventually developed a
real-world existence as well. While it in no way corresponds in size to the
kind of fan communities that have made Star Trek and The Rocky
Horror Picture Show so widely familiar, its roots as a cultural phenomenon
lie substantially in those ?traditions.? More important things can be said
about it, however, when we appreciate a point implicit in both Rheingold?s
and Wellman?s work: that virtual communities, whether one refers to them
with that term or some other, are the quintessential example of ?imagined
community.?
There is a powerful affinity between this community, formed around a narrative
object that has always been a ?marked text? in the evolving discourse of
American national identity, and the mechanisms of nationalist ideology that
Benedict Anderson calls attention to in Imagined Communities, based on
narrative tropes of remembering and forgetting, with a nation as the object.
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Now, our first impulse was to make the .pdf file available on the site as a
download - to share its rich text with the "world" - but, we can't. Not yet.
Our enthusiasm must be tempered! We asked the author, a 49 year old gentleman
doing this research for the University of Rochester in New York. He has no
objection to our quoting some excerpts on the web site, which we are doing here. He's even offered to
allow accessibility to some folks ... though we're not yet clear on the terms ...
but he's not too comfortable on the download-for-all idea, because ... because
... there's a very real, very strong possibility that the work will be published!!!
A book! With a large part written about US! The web site, the Gatherings,
this Internet Community ... US! Ok, ok ... we're excited!
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Nonetheless, it seems to me that the people involved in
MohicanLand, and their productivity, cannot be understood as a
traditional star-based fan phenomenon. As focused as their interests in
this direction can be at times, Mohicans Web sites as a whole
demonstrate that their interests are much more broad than that. |
We can't tell you how very strange it was to be reading this stuff and knowing
the author was talking about our efforts in accumulating all this knowledge in
one place - our web site & the characters that lay within. All objectively from a
completely different perspective than from what we've ever experienced before.
Surreal, simply. It is really good stuff! We don't say that just out of
self-interest. It's really good stuff ... the whole thing. The whole
thing. The
section on 1992 runs about 75 pages, and it is the most detailed
"review" you are ever likely to come across. And, like we say
elsewhere, The Last of the Mohicans, the saga, is a deeply-rooted part of
Americana. That allows this site to exist as it does today. There's an
intangible attraction to the story that Cooper wrote - not to mention the
celluloid factors brought into play more recently by Mann. This dissertation covers it all.
Well-written, scholarly, objective, fresh ... you will thoroughly enjoy its
every word!
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I suspect that ?scholarship? is a more intensive area of fan activity in
the Mohicans fandom than in many other fandoms. The work at the center
of this fandom, already established in the literary and popular canon as an
?American Classic,? is at least doubly historical: an adaptation of an
adaptation of a 175 year old novel whose subject is a period 70 years in its
own past. Authority and expertise range beyond the limits of the work itself,
and encompass all kinds of historical, political, and cultural issues. The Web
site self-consciously fills a role as a historical authority and reference
source, a role that goes well beyond simply reprinting Baker?s [note: Mark
Baker] material.
TOLOTM includes much material on historical accuracy, and on the historical
context for the diegetic narrative and for Cooper?s moment as well; some of
this material is apparently authored by the Federicis, some by others,
Granted, the style of the writing is not necessarily academic. There is
nothing resembling a scholarly apparatus, with only basic attention paid to
referencing, and it lacks somewhat in historical and critical self-awareness.
Nonetheless, this fan production rivals in quality many such discussions found
in literary and historical journals. Nor is the scholarship limited to
strictly historical subjects. A deconstruction of Twain?s famous critique of
Cooper, for example, applies Twain?s approach to Twain?s own work. This
essay is as incisive, well written, and analytical as any number of works of
academic literary criticism. [SEE: MR. TWAIN'S CRITIQUING OFFENSES]
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And, it's critical, it's not just a love fest, though clearly the man enjoys
what he's writing about. Anyway, we could go on & on ... We are quoting a few
things from the last chapter only here. Just a few. Just to whet your
appetite. Let it be said, in this chapter,
basically on the Internet community phenomenon known as "Mohicanland,"
he talks of Gatherings & reenacting, he talks of Wes Studi & Eric
Schweig and more, he
mentions some of you, by NAME [Major Bray, Eric Hurley, Mighty
Mohican Mama, Sarah Melcher, Mark Baker, et al], he delves into the meanings of this web site
and, as its creators, we can say he is remarkably perceptive
& right on in most all cases. He has been, it is readily apparent, the ULTIMATE
LURKER! Egad, this is so very weird ... And, soon to be a book, more than
likely!
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The fact that Gatherings exist at all is an indicator of the fans?
dedication either to their object, or to their fandom, or both. ... The
community, originally purely a virtual phenomenon, has thus acquired a
significant ?real world? dimension?one whose history is recorded, and
its future furthered, on the Internet. The physical and the virtual existences
of the Mohicans fandom are thus mutually reinforcing.
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'Nuff said, till its expected - and much hoped for - release as a publication
...
READ ON SITE
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The AUTHOR:
The Recycling of the Mohicans: The ?Classic? Novel and Iterative
Adaptation
Michael Allen Williams
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Supervised by
Professor John Michael
Department of English
The College Arts and Sciences
University of Rochester
Rochester, New York
2002
From the CREDITS:
Thanks for assistance also go to Rich and Elaine Federici, the graceful hosts
of the Web site, On the Trail of the Last of the Mohicans
The TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Curriculum Vitae ii
Acknowledgements iii
Abstract iv
Table of Contents vi
List of Tables vii
List of Illustrations i
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 The Literary Tradition and Popular Culture, 1826?1910 25
Chapter 2 The Last of the Mohicans (1920) Dirs. Maurice Tourneur and
Clarence Brown 92
Chapter 3 The Last of the Mohicans (1936) Dir. George B. Seitz 165
Chapter 4 The Last of the Mohicans (1992) Dir. Michael Mann 246
Chapter 5 The Cult of the Mohicans: Fans on the Electronic Frontier, and
the DVD Version of the 1992 Version 319
Conclusion 378
Bibliography 382
Appendix 1 Filmography: The Last of the Mohicans 402
Appendix 2 Film and Television Adaptations of Literary Classics 405
Appendix 3 Copyrighted Theatrical Adaptations of The Last of The Mohicans 409
Appendix 4 Synopsis of The Leatherstocking (1909) Dir. D. W. Griffith 410
Appendix 5 Intertitles, The Last of the Mohicans (1920) 412
Appendix 6 Screenplay Excerpts, The Last of the Mohicans (1936, 1992) 417
~ All quotes in these tables are from this work [CHAPTER
5], generously passed along to us by Mr. Williams! ~ |
When, and if, this accomplished work is published, you can bet
we will feature it right here ... so,
STAYED TUNED!
  
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