Kevin Burton Smith summarizes his observations with:
>>All the meanness and carnage of these soulless
wallows
comes off more like pornography than noir, at least to
me.<<
That makes a couple of us. I feel the same way about *The
Badge* and to a lesser degree about *The Soprnaos.*
>>Makes me wonder who's getting off on
it.<<
I'm not sure many reader's are "getting off on it." But I've
read enough about Cormac McCarthy's *Blood Meridian* here to
let me know that I don't want to read it. That in spite of
liking *No Country for Old Men* and thinking that
*The Road.* is the best book I've read since college.
If some of the things mentioned here with *Blood Meridian* go
to film, I supsect we'll have a spate of copycat events with
the criminal element of society.
As much as I think *The Godfather* was a great film, the
thread of revenge for disrespect that ran through the movie
is now pervasive in city crime. Do any of us doubt where the
term "Diss" comes from?
And how many bludgeionings with baseball bats have we seen in
the news since the event in *The Untouchables?* At least a
couple and that is only in my city.
Readers can handle that stuff. It takes attention and a
degree of intelligence to imagine, and probably more vividly
if written well, than it does on the screen. But readers are
not *generally* in the criminal poplulation--although I
understand that a whole lot of reading goes on in jail.
In the movies, too many who see it think it's cool. It
becomes a thrill to be sought.
I know Kevin's position, or mine--which may be slightly
different but not by much--won't be popular with most of the
regulars here, but that's why we discuss these things. It is
part of the aura of rara_avis.
Jack Bludis
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