Re: RARA-AVIS: Noir humor
Mario Taboada (matrxtech@sprintmail.com)
Mon, 23 Feb 1998 11:48:28 +0000
With Robert Leslie Bellem, it's hard to know whether he was
trying to
parody the genre or whether he was simply unaware of how funny
his style
was. If I remember correctly, Frank Gruber says in his memoirs
that
Bellem was quite a nut (politely: a very eccentric guy). Some
of the
stories by Frederick Faust (as Max Brand) also seem too funny
to be
anything but parodies, as do some of Earl Stanley Gardner's
(things like
the Ed Jenkins stories). With Norbert Davis, it's clear that he
was
intentionally funny - in fact, he wanted to be a comic writer
(which he
was: one of the best).
I also think that Willeford was viciously funny in his
novels. He must
have been conscious of it...though he never quite gets down
to parody.
But how about Latimer?
Regards,
Mario Taboada
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