I was doing a bit of maintenance tonight and updated the
list's welcome message, which was two and a half years old.
It's much the same as before, except I changed "fiction" to
"writing" and remind people that the list should stick to the
hard stuff on paper. I'll include it below, just so everyone
sees it.
By the way, there are now 160 people on the regular list and
188 on the digest version. I think the digest readers
overtook the others sometime in the last year. (Digest
readers: If a digest every comes out funny because of weird
characters or attachments, let me know.) The list is two
months shy of its fifth birthday.
I thought San Francisco month was interesting. Seems like
most of us think of Hammett when we think of the city. Next
up, Boston!
Here it is:
[Last updated on: Wed Oct 31 23:14:20 EST 2001]
Welcome to RARA-AVIS, the mailing list devoted to the
discussion of hardboiled and noir writing.
Send your messages to rara-avis@icomm.ca.
Please follow these four rules of conduct:
- No
flames.
- No
binaries.
- No MIME
attachments.
- Trim as
much quoted text as possible from your replies
(this
definitely includes the footer added to the bottom
of
each message).
If you want to insult someone, do it in private e-mail. If
you have a photograph, drawing, sound clip or video clip
you'd like to share, please put it in an FTP site or on a web
page, and announce it. If you can't do this, either offer to
send it to people upon private request, or ask if someone
would be kind enough to make it publicly available. These
rules are taken seriously and they will be enforced.
Possible topics for discussion include:
- Just what
is hardboiled fiction?
- How does it
relate to film noir and/or the pulps?
- Does Ross
Macdonald belong in the triumvirate with Chandler
and
Hammett?
- Who are the
best modern practitioners?
- Are there
any truly hardboiled women writers?
- How does
the genre fit into modern literature?
- Let me tell
you about this great book I just read!
- Matt Helm:
he's nothing like Dean Martin.
- What's
happening in non-English noir writing?
- etc.,
etc.
Things that aren't possible topics:
- Anything that
isn't related to hardboiled and noir writing.
Fiction, non-fiction, poetry and comics are all welcome
topics; movies and so on are best discussed in relation to
the written word.
There is no FAQ for the list, but lots of information is
available by browsing or searching the list archives. See the
URL below.
Everyone is welcome to join, no matter what their specific
interest in the topic: fans, academics, collectors, writers,
film noir buffs and people searching for the Maltese Falcon.
It would be nice if you sent out a brief message saying
hello, introducing yourself and perhaps outlining your
interest in hardboiled fiction.
Both a regular version of the list (rara-avis) and a digest
version
(rara-avis-digest) are available.
The web page for the list can be found at
http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
We have a reading and discussion forum going, where we all
read a story or novel or author at the same time. All
comments are welcome--list members range from interested fans
of the genre to people doing their Ph.D. on a particular
writer. You can find out what story we're on at
http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/reading.html
Please take a moment to browse iComm's web site. It's
at
iComm provides free Internet services to non-profit and
charity groups and has donated the resources necessary to run
this list.
Some quotes:
----------
It was about eleven o'clock in the morning,
mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet
rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my
powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display
handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue
clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I
didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed
private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million
dollars.
- opening lines to THE BIG SLEEP, by
Raymond Chandler
"How c-could you?" she gasped.
I only had a moment before talking to a
corpse, but I got it in.
"It was easy," I said.
- closing lines to I, THE JURY, by Mickey
Spillane
----------
Signed,
William Denton <
buff@pobox.com> The List-Owner
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 31 Oct 2001 EST