RARA-AVIS: fredric brown

From: a.n.smith ( ansmith@netdoor.com)
Date: 24 Jan 2000


> Try Fredric Brown's THE SCREAMING MIMI or THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT. He has a
> way of combining character and plot in such a way that I actually felt
kind
> of screwed up for a couple of days after reading these (especially MIMI.)

thanks to encouragement from other rara-avians, I put in an order for an old hardback copy of The Screaming Mimi, and I'm thrilled with it so far. He really has something in the style that I think is great and screwed up, as you say here. I think it's interesting to go back to writers like this and see how they fit into the world 30 or 40 years after they've written. And Brown fits like a glove (with a thumb missing).

Same with a movie I saw on TCM the other night, Kiss Me Deadly, from a Spillane book. After hearing how it didn't make much of a splash when it was first released but eventually was seen as a noir classic, I watched and thought it's even more interesting in 2000. The plot is, pretty much, falling apart throughout the whole thing, and the ending is ridiculous and therefore perfect.

I'd like to find more works like these, Brown, weird film noir, etc. , where the writers were just out of their gourds and would probably fit in more today than they did in their own times. Any suggestions?

Neil Smith

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