I'm not sure what tax laws have to do with it--the sheer cost
of printing,
publishing and distributing books, by authors living or dead,
is high
enough. And it's probably hard to send dead authors on promo
tours, or book
them on the blab show circuit. (Dead writers who slept with
Lillian Helman,
on the next Oprah!)
About the whole Classic vs. Contemporary thing: While I have
a lot of
respect for the work of Hammett, Chandler, and Macdonald (the
Holy Trio
that everyone from the latest hot newstand thriller's
publisher to Charles
Schulz has invoked) were it not for contemporary writers,
there wouldn't be
much point. Any art form that stays stagnant dies. And,
probably, any
mailing list that stays locked in the past. Remember, our
pals Dash, Ray
and Ken wrote about their time. It seems only right that our
hardboiled
authors write about ours. (Yes, yes, I know, Ellroy and
Collins and a few
others work the past like nobody's business, but they're the
exception).
So, yes, we sould read the classics; yes, we should discuss
those old books
and the pulps and those old flicks and radio and TV shows and
all that
jazz, but remember that part of Chandler's tirade in The
Simple Art of
Murder was about not wanting to write these cute little
pieces set in a
world nobody lives in, or, by extension, in a world nobody
lives in
anymore. The mean streets are still mean, but in some ways,
they're even
meaner, or at least mean in whole new ways, and a man (or
woman) must still
go down them.
To me, the continuing traditions, and the constant evolution,
are part of
the thrill. I'm not so much interested in "Classic Vs.
Contemporary", as I
am in "Classic To Contemporary". Just as allusions to past
work make
contemporary works resonate, so, too, does the continuing
evolution shine
new light on old works.
Sorry, I'm blithering. What I mean to say is, old, new, I
don't care, I
love 'em all.
Couple of other thoughts... Guys, quote the relevant parts of
a letter when
you reply, not the whole thing, including salutations, text,
previous
letters quoted, previous letters quoting previous letters
quoted,
signatures, etc. Reading eighty-one paragraphs for a two-line
response is
frustrating.
And does anyone remember when Snoopy was writing a hardboiled
detective
novel? Does anyone have copies of it? I think I have one
strip somewhere,
but I seem to remember it running for two or three days maybe
a million
years ago...I'll try to dig up the one I have, and post it
for a few days
(a sort of cyber-fridge).
Kevin Smith
Web Guy for The Thrilling Detective Web Site
For info, mailto:kvnsmith@total.net
"You wanna talk to me, go ahead and talk"
Bob Dylan, via Sam Spade, in "Tight Connection To My
Heart"
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