>Jeez, what a bunch of.....well forget that for a
moment.
>One word: 'Gratuitous' - as in 'gratuituos
violence'.
>Many things have been said about Raymond and partic.
_Dora_
>but this is just wrong. Horrible as it is the violence
has a very
>specific place and meaning in Raymond's books. To call
it
>'gratuituos' is to miss the point - which is hardly
surprising since
>most of you gave up after 30 or so pages. Why didn't
you just say
>"I didn't like it" and leave it at that? Save
bandwidth.
>Kev Smith is a good example of this (Hello
Kev!):
>> As for Dora, I too, was rather unimpressed. I did
manage to finish it,
>> though. The violence didn't bother me so much as
the fact that I really
>> didn't care what happened to anyone in this
strangely lifeless book.
>This is fair enough. It takes a lot to impress our
Kev, clearly.
Well, I always try to be a good example. Thanks.
>Whether or not it is 'lifeless' is debateable but then
Kev says..
>>Degree zero is right.
>> No doubt this was the writer's intention, and in
that, he succeeded.
>Right, he succeeded in doing what he wanted to do.
Terrible.
No, it's not terrible. He's to be congratulated. But it
doesn't mean I have
to like what he succeeded in doing.
Oh, and degree zero was not a measurement of Raymond's
talent, it was a
measure of the temperature of his prose. Mark Sullivan
recently wrote about
how "Raymond's is a different writing style than much
hardboiled, kind of a
DEGREE ZERO writing, very matter of fact, little or no
engagement." And
while Mark and I came to different conclusions about the
book, I thought he
summed up Raymond's style very well.
>> according to an interview I read,considering how
much disdain he had for
>> the general reading public, he probably wouldn't
have wanted massive
>> popular success, either. He succeeded in that,
too.
>..which is strange. Holding up popular success as some
kind of measure
>is pointless. Raymong cared passionately for his
subject. That's why
>he wrote the books he did. He was a gentle, thoughtful
and warm man.
>I never met him but have met a few who did, including
Mark Timlin, who
>still talks passionately about Raymond (The only man
to change his name *to*
>Derek, as Timlin is fond of saying)
Hey, he could be Mother Theresa for all I know. I just didn't
like his
book, although a lot of people, including you, Pete, thought
I would. I
thought I would too. I didn't. Whether he was a nice guy or
not (or whether
he sold a bamillion books or not) doesn't really come into
the factor.
>Besides, anyone who can drink that much and stay
upright desreves some
>respect.
Yep, it's a well-known fact: alcoholism is the mark of true
genius. I guess
I'm just not drinking enough...
**************************************************
Kevin Smith
The Thrilling Detective Web Site
http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
This month: New fiction by Terry White and Henry Mazel,
and Stand-Alone Private Eye Novels
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