At 07:14 AM 21/11/2002 -0800, you wrote:
>I think he's pompous and pretentious and too often
takes a little boy's
>delight in offending people and acting out. I also
think, at his best,
>he's one hell of a writer. Unfortunately, so does
he.
Yes, but it's so clearly schtick. I'm not sure we know where
the ego ends and the performance begins. And I don't think it
matters. The books are the books.
I have to admit I'm a bit surprised by the focus within RARA
AVIS on Ellroy scat. I'd have thought we'd leave that for the
rubes. Here we're fans of hard boil and we've defined that
genre stylistically, for discussion purposes at least. Yet no
one mentions how Ellroy takes the colloquial and wrenches it
into high gear.
An entire novel written in a style that mimics derivative
jazz. Followed by another that uses the tabloid press as
point-of-view. The ideas alone are audacious. What's
remarkable is that he carries them off, something that the
movie L.A. Confidential doesn't quite manage. Ellroy has said
that he lets the content of his novels determine the style.
And his content comes from the heart of the 20th
century.
Something like 150 million killed in the past century. Yet we
prosper and keep counting. I can't think of another author
who so effectively catches these amoral, hysterical times. I
don't care if he is an asshole.
Kerry
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Literary events Calendar (South Ont.) http://www.lit-electric.com
The evil men do lives after them http://www.murderoutthere.com
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