--- Bob Toomey <
btoomey@javanet.com> wrote:
>
> Doug Bassett wrote:
> >
> > I strongly disagree with the notion that
a
> > hardboiled/horror marriage is impossible. In
my
> life
> > I've stumbled across all sorts of
hardboiled
> > marriages: hb westerns, hb SF tales, hb
poetry
> > (Bukowski), hb memoirs (Burrough's JUNKY),
etc.
> Since
> > "hardboiled" is a perspective, a way of looking
at
> the
> > world, it can be applied, I think, to any
literary
> > genre. Why not hardboiled horror?
But the
> goals of horror are
> completely different from the goals of
hardboiled.
> Hardboiled is
> grounded in a skeptical, cynical, unsentimental
view
> of the world.
> Horror is the polar opposite -- romantic,
> sentimental, emotional. So if
> the story is successful as HB, it undercuts
the
> horror, and vice versa.
I agree with this in part -- this is what I was getting at
when I suggested that, for such a marriage to work, the
"horror" in the marriage would have to be redefined. I guess
I would say that I have a more fluid conception of
horror.
>
> > One obvious indication that such a marriage
might
> be
> > successful is the large number of people who
like
> both
> > genres. This suggests, to me at least, that
people
> are
> > responding to something similar in both.
Another
> is
> > the many, many writers who've tried to blend
the
> two
> > genres already.
>
> First, and again, HB isn't a genre, damn it, it's
an
> attitude, an
> attack. Second, I like Gilbert & Sullivan,
and
> Louis Jordan's jump
> blues, but I don't see much being accomplished
by
> trying to blend the
> two, just because I happen to like both styles
of
> music.
Well, like the rest of us frail mortals, I occasionally slip
between thinking of hb as a
"perspective" and hb as a "genre". Mea culpa. As for your
music choices -- one example like yours, granted. But if
50,000 people in a stadium all told me they liked Gilbert
& Sullivan and Louis Jordan, I'd start looking hard at
the two and start asking myself what they have in common.
That, I think, is the position we're in with hb and
horror.
You really like old-fogey stuff like Gilbert and Sullivan?
:)
>
> > I quite agree with you, though, that
recent
> attempts
> > to blend the two have been unsuccessful.
That
> doesn't
> > mean that it's not worth trying, especially
if
> you're
> > interested in horror (a genre that, in my
opinion,
> has
> > managed to back itself into an
aesthetic
> dead-end). It
> > may mean redefining the nature of "horror"
in
> horror
> > fiction, but, well, the genre could use
the
> jumpstart.
>
> I'm not sure horror has reached an aesthetic
dead
> end. I do think it's
> been oversold and most of it is the usual
imitative
> crap (Sturgeon's
> Law: 90% of everything is crap) being put out
by
> untalented hacks to
> make a quick buck from an unsophisticated
audience.
That doesn't mean good,innovative work isn't being
done.
I review horror magazines for a small horror magazine. Yes,
of course there's still good work being done in the field.
But I think I know whereof I speak on this point: the genre
as a whole really needs a new approach. They've been sifting
the same pile of sand ever-more finely, and it shows.
doug
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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