Re: RARA-AVIS: Ellroy versus Cave. Split decision goes to Cave.

From: Rene Ribic ( rribic@optusnet.com.au)
Date: 03 Feb 2002


Rene said :

 Ellroy, who is well known for his contempt
> >for rock music & musicians allegedly mercilessly lampooned Cave at
one
> >or more of his readings, the story getting back to Cave who was
> >apparently devastated.

Kevin said :

> He shouldn't be. Pound for pound, he's a better writer.

Probably. I wasn't game to be the one to say it, though.Some people on this list (I stress some) may be interested in Cave's novel, "The Ass Saw the Angel". If you're one of the people who can't get into J L Burke because of overwriting you'd better give this one a miss. IMO the ghosts of Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor & maybe even Jean Genet loom large & Cave must have worn out his thesaurus but if you can get past that it's worth a look. He must be the only truly literate rock/pop singer, aside from Leonard Cohen, I can think of . Even as a 13 year old rock fanatic I remember finding the "poetry" of Jim Morrison & Marc Bolan hilarious.
(Lenny Cohen, whose records I love, is used as the soundtrack for Robert Altman's movie "McCabe & Mrs Miller" a sort of noir western -or maybe northern , IIRC it's all shot in the snow - great movie, great soundtrack, although haven't seen it in nigh on 20 year).

Jess said :

Did Ellroy do this for any other reason than contempt for the profession of the fan who wrote him?

As I understand the story, no.I may not have all the facts, that is the trouble with gossip but that is the story going round. Rene.

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