Charlie Huston's non-horror noirs are pretty damn superb,
too. The violence in his books hurts. And there's plenty of
it.
Cheers,
Al
----- Original Message -----
From: Frederick Zackel
To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 2:33 PM
Subject: RARA-AVIS: Couple items...
Aloha from the cornfields of Ohio, where the corn
is already tall enough to
hide an armored car.
The state of California issues PI licenses and
these licenses need to be
renewed yearly. Yes, there is an annual fee, too.
Prospective candidates
need to be tested to get a license, and that test
is given once every year.
About twenty years ago the state of California
had to jettison the entire
results of one year's PI test results after the
state discovered somebody
had swiped the test and most candidates had a
copy or the test before they
walked in to take it.
(Heeheeheehee...)
Then, while perusing Publishers Weekly, looking
for loopholes, I spotted and
stopped in mid-step...
Charlie Huston said,
"I think that Already Dead is noir first and
horror second. The plot, style
and cast of characters are all very consciously
noir, while the trappings
they're dressed up in are horror. And while I
didn't really plan it that way
from the start, the combination evolved quite
naturally. The idea of a
character doomed by his or her own appetites is
pretty classic noir."
Vampire Gangs of New York
PW Talks with Charlie Huston
by Patrick Millikin -- 11/7/2005
The dedication to Already Dead (Reviews, Oct.
10), your vampire crime novel,
reads "to all the odd and brilliant kids I used
to sit around basements and
diners with, imagining strange worlds." Care to
comment?
"Already Dead was started after I'd finished my
first book, Caught Stealing.
I wanted to relax a bit and let my imagination
go. I don't recall exactly
how I settled on a vampire story, but I had the
line, "I smell them before I
see them" kicking around my head, and that
sounded like a vampire talking.
The dedicatees are a bunch of guys I used to hang
with in my early teens. We
were all pretty heavy SF, horror and fantasy
geeks. In between getting into
a little trouble here and there, we'd do some
gaming. No paper or pens, just
us making up worlds and populating them with
characters. It was as much
communal storytelling as it was gaming. So, with
Already Dead, the idea of
my creating what is essentially a fantasy world
probably goes back to
hanging with that gang."
The book features an elaborate world of vampire
clans. Were the underground
subcultures of New York an inspiration, and is
there a group that actually
drinks blood?
"I don't think the clans are modeled on existing
subcultures as much as they
are politically inspired. But a lot of those
subcultures are in the book.
Squatters, goths, punks, greasers are all in
there in non-vampire form. But
some vampires still cop the same style they had
in "life" and play the old
roles. And yeah, there is a vampiric subculture,
parts of which are devoted
to blood letting and drinking. It's something I
plan on working into later
books."
Joe Pitt is in many ways the classic noir
protagonist. The fact that he's a
vampire seems oddly appropriate. Can you talk
about melding the two
genres-the vampire novel and the hardboiled
detective story?
"I think that Already Dead is noir first and
horror second. The plot, style
and cast of characters are all very consciously
noir, while the trappings
they're dressed up in are horror. And while I
didn't really plan it that way
from the start, the combination evolved quite
naturally. The idea of a
character doomed by his or her own appetites is
pretty classic noir."
At the heart of Already Dead is a love story.
Pitt's girlfriend has AIDS,
and the only way that he can save her is to
infect her with the virus that
will turn her into a vampire. Talk about
noir!
"People have commented on Pitt's girl, Evie, as a
humanizing character that
helps build sympathy for him, but not too many
have caught that she's the
whole point of everything for him. Yeah, not only
is he doomed but his girl
is as well. And he could save her, but only by
making her life worse."
Hmm... Maybe I should read it, after all.
Best
Fred Zackel
Thought for Today: God is not in charge of
parking spaces.
Thought for Tomorrow: Last year the magazine The
Economist gave
its own definition of hatred. Hatred is the
willingness to pay any price to
inflict harm on others. Think Iago. Think
terrorists. Suddenly most
fictional villains seem like wussies.
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