--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Kevin Burton Smith
<kvnsmith@...> wrote:
>
> Knee-jerk name-dropping is usually a sign of lazy
criticism -- you
> can spot it a mile away. My guess is that most of
these "critics"
> have never even read the books or authors they
cite.
In some cases they have read them, but they do not have a
nuanced view of what is an enormous field. So they use
adjectives, titles and authors in a careless way: noir,
hardboiled, rivals the best of Chandler, it's noir like
Hammett, etc. etc. I don't think the general public even
notices the inaccuracies. There's a huge oversimplification
in the images of popular literature and its practitioners.
Just look at how everything is a "thriller"!
Best,
mrt
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 06 Jun 2008 EDT