Re: RARA-AVIS: Someone who doesn't like Pelecanos

From: Kerry J. Schooley ( gsp.schoo@murderoutthere.com)
Date: 05 Jul 2004


At 11:19 AM 03/07/2004 -0700, Mario Taboada wrote:

>What surprised me about this interview, besides the
>incoherence, was the lack of actual content. It also
>surprised me that he harps on Pelecanos, one of the most
>solid crime writers around.
>
>Something is wrong with this whole picture.

And yet so many things touched sensitive Rara Avian nerves. The contrivance of applying moral messages to a genre that's best examples have been more about moral uncertainty. The excitement of language and rhythm in Ellroy's works compared to the relative lack of same in Pelecanos'. And though Leonard does not get is props as a master creator of scenes, interviewer and interviewee still dismiss the content is mostly more vacuous moralizing, and not worth reading. How dare they?

And they talk about a market that wants the atmosphere of the genre, but is frightened by things like the word "fuck" or, for that matter, moral uncertainty. Is that a description that could be applied to Rara Avis discussions of late, and the underlying striving for literary acceptance? Gregoritis and Moviano were generalizing of course, but they raised a valid question: Has the genre lost its edge?

By the way, (and I have yet to read the book) the best noir I've come across lately was (the movie) House of Sand and Fog. The strange, doomed, human struggle for redemption in the face of self-interest, crime and corruption. Moral uncertainty up the butt hole. Maybe that's why it hasn't been discussed on Rara?

Best, and just because you're all getting so comfortable discussing your faves, Kerry

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