"Red Dead Redemption"
October 5 2022
I had to write a quick entry about one of my favourite games ever, Red Dead Redemption II! It's a major part of what inspired the story I'm working on. I really wouldn't even be making this site if I hadn't played it, so here's a little dedication to it, and a quick exploration of how it treats the topic of dime novels.
A side mission titled The Noblest of Men, and a Woman has the player encounter a dime novel writer by the name of Theodore Levin, who is basing his newest story around the gunslinger Jim 'Boy' Calloway. You're asked to go and hunt down several other outlaws who convened with Calloway at some point in their lives to get an accurate account on what he was like, as unfortunately, the present-day Boy Calloway is an old drunkard. After you encounter all the mentioned outlaws in the game, Boy Calloway demands that you then track down his longtime nemesis, Slim Grant, for one final duel. Levin insists that it would make a great end to the novel. Upon finding him, though, Grant refuses to fight Calloway, so instead, Calloway shoots him in the back, challenges the protagonist to a duel instead, but fumbles, and dies unceremoniously. You apologize to Levin for giving him a lame ending after all that work, but he insists that with a little tweaking, it makes a great ending. You later receive an issue of the dime novel, rewritten to be more fantastic. Levin tells you it's quite a hit.
It's a fun mission that takes place in little bits and pieces throughout the game, making it feel very worthwhile to complete.
The reason this quick, inconsequential side mission in a much larger video game inspired me so much was because of the nature of Levin and Calloway's relationship. The idea of an inexperienced author following around a harrowed old gunslinger is a neat dynamic. Of course, the game makes it much more comedic by having Calloway be completely incompetent, doing much less riding and shooting and more sitting around and drinking. But a story following the similar structure, only focused around a dime novelist who is swept up in the whirlwind life of an actual outlaw cowboy - now that was a story I really wanted to expand upon.
So here I am! My story has grown a lot from that little seed, but I wanted to include this section because it just felt wrong not to. This game is amazing, and if you have any interest at all in video games, please play it, you won't regret the money or time.
