> Maybe it's some kind of latent academic streak in me,
but I have no
> problem with this. Oates is a pretty good writer from
the highbrow
> mainstream and I think it is obvious that she has,
over the years, taken
> Chandler seriously enough to talk about him. I have
disagreed with some of
> her pronouncements, but that isn't too unusual. Since
"we" are the ones
> saying that Chandler has some elements of high
literature in him, I think
> the burden falls on us to demonstrate it. My
dog-eared copies of Chandler's
> books are testimony to the affection and respect that
I feel for the guy,
> but many of his stories are flawed and not just in
terms of the Byzantine
> plots. To my mind, Oates is guilty of not much more
than a lack of
> reverence. Suits me.
> I suspect that Oates really does appreciate the ways
in which
> Chandler *was* an original.....the occassional
flights into his particular
> flavor of poetry, the weird nostalgia for a mythical
LA past that may have
> never existed except in the imagination of the author
and his hero (another
> aspect which Ellroy borrowed), and the dialogue
(rarely equaled, never
> surpassed).
I don't mean to sound like I have some peculiar problem with
Oates
or her views toward Chandler or anyone else. Having
passion
toward writers is a good thing. If it's positve or negative,
it still
demonstrates an involvement with literature I find
admirable.
But I do think that the "high art" or "high culture" analyses
of genre
writing really misses the point. It's like an opera critic
dismissing
rock-and-roll as being simplistic and idiotic without noting
it's power
or the contribution it's made to many of our ideas about
ourselves
and our lives in the decades beginning with the
fifties.
I think crime fiction is the rock-and-roll of literature.
It's got a good
beat, you can dance to it, and every once and awhile it
has
important things to say.
I know it's only rock and roll but I like it. Good golly Miss
Molly,
give peace a chance.
> Anyway, when Joyce Carol Oates does an retrospective
on you I think
> that you have pretty much arrived.
>
No kidding.
Fred
Please note new addresses below:
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Down on Ponce by Fred Willard
fwillard@bellsouth.net
http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/~fwillard
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