RARA-AVIS: I Was Dora Suarez ... and more

E J M Duggan (ejmd@mcmail.com)
Mon, 09 Nov 1998 09:28:33 -0800 On Sun, 8 Nov 1998, billha@ionet.net (Bill Hagen) wrote:

> What is "a berk," applied more than once as an insult?
> Is it a clipped version of "berserk"?

No, it's a truncation of 'Berkeley Hunt' which, in its expanded form,
rhymes with 'cunt'.
To call someone a 'berk' (pronounced 'bUrk' as in Hare, rather than
'bArk', as in UCB) is not, however, considered deeply offensive. It is
as mild as say, 'twit' or 'plonker'. (I suppose there are times though
when one can call somebody 'a cunt' without giving deep offence;
although intonation, context and speaking position are always
important).

> Or this, "And can't get in my hair at all, will you?" From Bowman to the
> protagonist (3). Proof mistake, or would this London chief inspector
> really use "can't" rather than "don't"?

Not sure about this one--I'd be inclined to put it down to a proofing
error.

Meanwhile, Kevin Smith <kvnsmith@colba.net> wrote:

> The violence in Dora didn't bother me in the least. In fact, it was the
> lack of "IN YOUR FUCKING FACE qualities" that left me unimpressed with it.

I suppose by this I was trying to wittily invoke Raymond's style, which
is much better conveyed by your use of the barthesian term 'writing
degree zero'.

> Horrible things happen. Ho-hum. I never cared about any of the people in
> Dora Suarez,

This is exactly what I meant--and what I thought you meant too!
I'm not sure the point of reading Raymond is to 'care' or get involved
in character--the Detective Sergeant does that--but rather to watch
through the unblinking eye of Raymond's prose as some very nasty but
all too common occurences take place.

> Maybe your friend was right about Raymond's drinking...I seem to remember
> an interview (was it CrimeTime?) where he was half-pissed, and spent a lot
> of time talking about what a great, misunderstood genius he was, and that
> he wasn't more popular because people were cretins or something.

I saw a DR interview on TV--he was a very good performer, even though he
looked as if he'd had a few--I would have liked to have heard a
recording of DR reading his stuff.

Given the popularity of the books by that insider-trading, Tory-trash,
lied-about-his-academic-qualifications and wanna-be Mayor of London,
Jeffrey Archer, DR just might have a point about 'the reading public'.

According to a Waterstones survey, the most popular work of fiction in
the UK is _The Hobbit_.
(and there is a distinction to be made between buying books and actually
reading 'em).
And Delia Smith (basic cookery) sells more than the Bible.

But back to DR: I have some other Raymonds on my TBR pile:

_The Devil's Home on Leave_ (1985)

_How the Dead Live_ (1986)

_Dead Man Upright_ (1993)

IWDS (1990) fits between 'How' and 'Dead man', chronologically.
I don't yet have the first 'Factory' novel, _He Died with his Eyes
Open_, but so far I've been fairly lucky in stumbling across cheap
second-hand paperbacks or ex-library copies.

I hope to get round to reading another Raymond soon, though the TBR pile
is growing: today I added a Willeford (The Way We Die Now) a Gifford
(Night People) and Joel Rose's _Kill Kill Faster Faster_ to it. I still
haven't begun the Tony Fenelly trilogy I picked up after a trip to
Hay-on-Wye in the summer. I have however, just knocked off a few:

Lawrence Block, _The Burglar in the Library_
Barry Gifford, 'Wild at Heart' in _The Wild Life of Sailor and Lula_
Fred Willard, _Down on Ponce_
Carole LaFavor, _Evil Dead Centre_
Mark Ramsden, _The Dark Magus and the Sacred Whore_

Meanwhile, I have _Snowcrash_ and _Acid Casuals_ on the go, together
with _How to make love to a negro_, but the latter is so-long unread I
think I need to start it again.

Apologies for making this post into something of a dorothy-l type
multi-threaded ramble (it probably shoulda been three separate posts).
But what the hell--at least I didn't quote the digest!

ED

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