Etienne Borgers (freeweb@rocketmail.com)
Mon, 8 Nov 1999 01:39:37 -0800 (PST)
I think Jason here strikes a point!
I agree: editors are biasing most of the "profile" of
would-be success mysteries they tend to publish lately. We
spoke some time ago here about their quasi-impotent way in
recognizing something of value in new material. So they try
to reconstruct why a book was successful in the past (even
very recent past), and think that it's only a matter of
factual content to make a success with another author...etc.
Sounds familiar?
There's more than Grafton in the line of culprits.
All these characters that you remember only because they eat
wild mushrooms, cultivate orchids, are passionate by breeding
dogs with no tails,,, [just complete yourself the endless
list], make the general public think they enter the world of
real mystery fiction.. and tradition goes way back to the
classic
"detective" of the cosies and whodunits, to whom you had to
add some singular traits to distinguish the one from the
other, in endless similar plots. There's a public for these
things... so, fine, let them enjoy neo-cosies and "new wave"
whodunits, not forgetting neues-gothic. But the necessity to
push a hard-boiled author in these "cornichonneries", puzzles
me. Just because the reading public for real hard-boiled
shrunk these two last decades, and it's an easy way to gain
readership? and a bigger part of the feminine readership at
the same time? Well, IMO that will be the end of HB then, if
this system is strictly enforced. There's no future for this
approach. I think HB asks more than fashion statements or
domestic habits, to give a certain realism and depth to its
characters.
On the other hand, the reading public made of HB fans is not
totally clean in this bad case: most wants series...!!
Authors' fatigue does exist when they are entrapped in the
small repetitive world of their heroes. Give them a break!
Let them explore non-serial fiction.
My 2.5 cents.
E.Borgers Hard-Boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
--- Jason Debly <DEBLY@nbnet.nb.ca>
wrote:
> I agree totally! Unfortunately, publishers
and
> agents seem to think this
> mundane trivia has some sort of literary
quality
> when actually it has no
> baering on character or plot or anything else
for
> that matter. I have been
> told by a number of editors and agents that
Sue
> Grafton's success is part of
> the reason for the demand of this poor
writing
> habit. Grafton's success has
> caused editors to search for the next Grafton.
She
> is the worst offender of
> this trend and even though she is by no means a
hard
> boiled writer, her
> success has affected what publishers are
looking.
> for. Trust me, as an
> amateur hard boiled detective novelist, it
ain't
> fashionable to be one right
> now.
>
>
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