Re: RARA-AVIS: King Suckerman, again

From: Bob Toomey ( btoomey@javanet.com)
Date: 02 Feb 2000


Bill Crider wrote:
>
> Immediately after I sent my first post about KS, I recieved Diane's post.
> I felt exactly the same way she did, that the details seemed forced.
> I feel that way about the details in Kaminsky's Toby Peters books sometimes,
> too, as if Kaminsky is sitting in a library somewhere copying stuff out
> of a newspaper. Anyway, I think that if you went back and read a book
> actually written in the '70s, you wouldn't find nearly as many brand names
> and details as you do in KS.

Interesting point. Reading stuff written in the 20's, Hammett for instance, you find very few period details. Some slang, Fatima cigarettes, not much else. What comes through most clearly is the way people thought about things in the 20's. But most contemporary writers who set stories in the past seem to feel obliged to justify their research by loading on the details. What they don't often capture is the attitude of the times.

BobT

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