I think that part of what's being rejected by Kevin and
others is the cult of Morrison. I find cults odious, too. It
happens a lot when artists die young.
Dizzy Gillespie said once that one of his great satisfactions
as a jazz musician was knowing that he could never be the
object of a cult.
Some people (Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Chet Baker) attract
cultists, while others (Dizzy, Louis, Duke) don't. In
classical music, Horowitz had a huge cult, whereas
Rubinstein, an equally great or even greater musician, never
did. He didn't even get fan mail. Go figure.
Pop and rock have of course thrived on cults. The selling
system fosters the cults.
In hardboiled literature, cults are relatively rare. II'm not
even sure one can speak of a Chandler or a Hammett cult. Yes,
they were the best, but... Perhaps we are too cynical to
idolize *any* writers. As cynical as hardboiled writers
themselves...
Best regards, and yes, let's bury our dead thread. And our
alliterations.
MrT
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