cooper (jane@almaludo.freeserve.co.uk)
Sat, 27 Nov 1999 18:54:03 -0000
Hi everyone, I've been a bit quiet recently, to be quite
honest, I'd got a little bored with some of the lines of
discussion, the ins and outs of lots of authors I'd not read
and to be honest, wasn't too bothered about, but that's just
my opinion. The list is to be all things to all people after
all, but I've been really interested in this current line,
the evolution and growth of the HB genre. I missed a lot of
discussion of Vachss, but he was one of the first new wave HB
writers I read, and his work came as a real shock to the
system, but, yes, after the shock wears off, he is a bit of a
one trick pony(talking Burke here) I'm not saying the issues
he raises aren't important, but probably the books just end
up being issue led (with the "Doc Savage" stuff chucked in.)
Like a lot of writers who write series books I think he could
benefit from taking a step back and saying where can it go
from here, and letting a realistic life evolve for his
characters(no, not letting Burke go suburban and soft, the
picture just flashed of him scaring the shit out of PTA
meetings and walking Pansy{was it Pansy, who cares} in the
park) but I think the model shown by Pelcanos is one many
could study. I'm glad that the Brit contingent got a mention,
we may not be up to the US classics(cheers Juri) but I think
a run for ones money is given. By the way on the subject of
lists, I hate to say it and I'm sure I'll get a slap for it,
but it is such a guy thing, my husband is a copious lister,
but I've yet to meet a female one. (I'm sure he'll do my list
for him if I ask, as well as his end of year music, book,
game and film lists) but yeah, everyone else is doing one,
why shouldn't we? Jane inthefirst@onelist.com
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Sat 27 Nov 1999 - 13:52:19 EST