The phenomenon of San-Antonio is certainly intriguing. A
French woman once
mentioned to me that she threw them out when she finished
reading them. Can
you imagine?? Here we are carefully guarding our precious
Pocket Books and
Livres de Poche, trying to keep them whole, and people are
throwing books
out. This is an aspect of pulp writing not often discussed
here - their
"nowness" and disposability. Did you all read the article
Terence Rafferty
wrote in GQ criticizing the Library of America's publication
of the
AMERICAN NOIR classics? I sort of hope most of you don't
really read GQ but
this is a recent article that you should definitely read if
you can. It's
maddening - he argues that the hardboiled, pulp fiction of
that time should
not become the exalted literature of our time as if that
would somehow
compromise both it and us.
I think that what we like about hardboiled literature is that
we like to
read it over and over, just for the writing. Some people
criticize Chandler
for his muddy plots but I think that's part of his work to
deemphasize
narrative and focus more on rhetoric and imagery - just like
film noir
...and jazz.
On the hardboiled subject, what do you all know about
Simonin's TOUCHEZ PAS
AU GRISBI ? I saw in an old video guide that it was made into
a film but I
have never seen it and as far as I know it's not on video.
It's an
interesting, gritty novel published not long after the war
with the
weirdest thing ever - a glossary of the slang used in the
back. Does anyone
know of an American counterpart to this? Has anyone else ever
done this?
Hey, Josh, I am preparing to do an orals section on
hardboiled, too. What
are you including? I'm hoping to just discuss a few novels
closely but I
haven't made my list yet. My examiner on that section is
Vincent
Crapanzano, the anthropologist. Seems appropriate, I
guess.
Thanks again, sorry this is so long, JUDY
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