Somewhere within the story of “Lobo the King of Currumpaw” by Ernest Thompson Seton, is a tale so epic that not even the effrontery of Seton’s baroque story-telling and juiced up plot lines, could smother it.
The unadorned story of being and belonging, struggle and sacrifice and a nobility so lofty that not even iron traps could contain it, stands on its own. It transcends Seton’s well-intentioned ornamentations and casts an imposing spell on the mind. The story of Lobo could have made for a gripping tale had its protagonist turned out to be just a man. The fact that the protagonist turns out to be a four-legged creature ups the ante in ways that are paradigm-shattering . And the parables that come tumbling out of this tale foment epiphanies that make us question our very place in nature and the larger scheme of things. Not bad for a tale about a loup garou who would not fall for the wiles of weasly ranchers who would kill him by any means necessary.
Lobo, the loup garou who would be King of Currumpaw proved, once again, that the ascribed roles of protagonist/antagonist could easily be switched within the blink of an eye. Seton's eye, that is.
