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Michael D. Sharp Email: msharp@umich.edu
Department of English Lang. and Lit. Phone: (313)
761-8776
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Fax: (313) 763-3128
On Wed, 26 Nov 1997, Ryan Benedetti wrote:
> On 11/25 William Denton wrote:
>
> >This sounds interesting. When does it suggest
this started? When
> >post-modernism started would be the answer, I
guess, but who knows
> >when that was. What are some of the first
examples if offers as
> >evidence?
>
> I'll try to stir up my addled memory as well as a
reference to the book,
> if I can find it. As I remember it, the author of
_The Doomed
> Detective_ traces noir detective fiction back to the
feulliton,
> the "sleuth-tracks-villian" installments in French
newspapers
> that were popular just before the turn of the
century, I believe.
> He spends a chapter talking about the traces and
following them forward
> and then gets into discussions on particular
novels
> by Calvino, Pynchon, Eco, and
Robbes-Grillet?
> Most of those authors were publishing in the
seventies,
> though post-modernists claim that no artistic work
can fully be
> contained by the literary era or movement it was
written in.
> We can even apply post-modernism to Milton and
Homer.
> Everything is possible, nothing is real: yadda,
yadda, yadda.
> Again, don't take my word on all of these, I'm
dragging them
> out the fog of my reading memory. I'll try to get
you
> the actual reference for the book, though.
> It was pretty interesting. As a side note, the big
Duke critic
> and post-modern/late capitalism theorist, Frederic
Jameson,
> wrote an essay about Hammett and Chandler and their
subversive
> post-modern, pulp politics. I'll find the reference
to that too.
>
> >Borges? What Borges story fits this?
>
> Charyn selected "Death and the Compass" for the
anthology.
> It is an excellent noir crime story, though again, it
is
> more post-modern in its style.
>
> >Stephen King may praise
> >Thompson - and I'm glad, if some of his fans try
out Thompson - but I
> >don't think he's a very good writer, so whatever
he may be doing, I
> >won't find out.
>
> I agree. King is a hack. His attempt at hard-boiled
fiction,
> "Umney's Last Case," was an insult to the
genre.
> If he had studied Thompson more
> closely maybe he could have created some truly scary
stuff.
> Ah, but he would've had to sacrifice the cash. I
wasn't trying to
> suggest that King was interesting or pushing the form
like
> Auster, Lethem, and Gibson, I just found it
interesting that
> King was aware of him. I also want to emphasize
that
> Auster, Lethem, and Gibson extend the boundaries of
the form
> whereas someone like Thompson extends the depth of
the form.
> I myself came across Thompson late. About nine years
ago,
> in _The Black Lizard Anthology_
> I found his story "This World And Then The
Fireworks."
> I didn't pick him up again until last week,
> when I tore through _A Swell Looking Babe_.
> I must say I have found him one of the best I've
read;
> though, until I came to this group,
> I came across few who even knew of him.
> Because I live in a tiny town on the Hi-Line of
Montana,
> the closest good bookstore is about 110 miles
away
> from me, but on my next trip, I'm going to sink
some
> bucks into Thompson's books. The oversized Vintage
paperbacks
> are certainly worth the ten or twelve
bucks,
> and I usually cringe at paying more than three
bucks
> for a used paperback. I saw last year or so
> that someone published his biography.
> I'm sure it's been discussed out there already (in
fact,
> wasn't it mentioned recently?).
> If you don't mind repeating a previous
thread,
> what do you all think of it?
>
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