Well, each his own, of course, but I'm not basing my opinion
on Bloch just on PSYCHO. I have the SELECTED STORIES, and
have read through them, and with a handful of exceptions I
just don't think there's much there. In my opinion you could
list countless writers from the same period who did the same
sort of thing much better.
One example that comes to mind is Frederic Brown, a simply
superb craftsman who could do all sorts of things (sf, PI
stories, thrillers, wacky comedies, etc.) extraordinarily
well. Yet he remains pretty much unknown to the general
reading public, and one reason might be that there was never
a blockbuster movie version of any of his stories. (It's a
damn shame no one ever tried to do a movie version of NIGHT
OF THE JABBERWOCK).
Again, I regard Bloch's reputation, such as it is, as mainly
reflected glory from the excellent movie version of
PSYCHO.
doug
--- Ron Clinton <
r-and-jclinton@email.msn.com> wrote:
> Doug wrote:
> > I've never been a fan of Robert Bloch's work,
and
> I've
> > long thought that the acclaim he enjoyed
was
> mainly
> > due to Hitchcock's PSYCHO, a far better work
of
> art
> > than the original book.
>
> As far as the late Bloch's other works, I'd
suggest
> and recommend any of his
> short-story collections, the venue in which he
truly
> shined as a writer.
> His 3-vol. collection, THE SELECTED STORIES
OF
> ROBERT BLOCH
> (Underwood-Miller) (aka THE COMPLETE STORIES
OF
> ROBERT BLOCH (Citadel
> Twilight tpb)) is a landmark in genre fiction and
a
> legacy any author would
> be supremely proud to leave behind.
>
> Ron Clinton
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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