Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: The Reading List, and some other blather...

Reed Andrus (randrus@home.com)
Thu, 09 Apr 1998 22:41:33 -0700 Kevin Smith wrote:
>
> Well, if we're voting, I sorta like A Long Reach or Solomon's Vineyard or
> Freaky Deaky. Maybe Hollywood Noctourne.
>
> As for not reading A Long Reach because of some recent events, well, not
> knowing offhand what happened in Arizona, I can guess that some bounty
> hunters killed someone, probably innocent bystanders. But this shouldn't
> deter us from reading about bounty hunters. I realize you're from Arizona,
> Reed, and this story may hit close to the bone, but if we let reality
> intrude on what topics we read about in fiction, we won't have much left to
> read. If this was the criteria, we couldn't read books about cops,
> soldiers, private detectives, disgruntled employees or even school
> children. And, to tell the truth, some well-armed American mowing down some
> innocent (or not so innocent) bystanders is no longer a big international
> news story. It happens too often. Sorry.

> New Address! -> mailto:kvnsmith@colba.net
buff/rara-avis/.

Actually, I wasn't living in Arizona when the bounty hunters ran amok,
but the incident received wide attention in California -- just another
nail in that state's coffin! My comment was questioning the political
correctness of bounty hunters as protagonists in noir fiction -- if the
character placement is outside of modern day, I agree with the
historicity factor cited by Gary Niebuhr; if the novel is set in modern
times, it could show a disregard for public sentiment.

... Reed Andrus
Phoenix, AZ (rising)
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