RARA-AVIS: The List

From: Kevin Burton Smith ( kvnsmith@thrillingdetective.com)
Date: 16 Apr 2002


Ekkehard wrote:

>I don't quite know about how much publicity voters and list members wish the
>TOP 111 list to get. I, at least, would like to publish it in my German
>webzine Crime Corner (www.crime-corner.de) - would that be ok with
>everybody?

Fine with me. I'll sure post it on my site, with plenty of links and stuff. I'm pleased, of course, that so many P.I.s made the list. Although not all P.I.s are hard-boiled, it's pretty clear that the private eye is intrinsically linked with the hard-boiled genre (not that most of us ever had much doubt).

The whole process has been entertaining, if a little frustrating at times, the way it's dominated the list. It's interesting to see the high regard in which some relatively obscure characters are held, for one. And how availability affects the vote. Some of my beloved pulp characters and relatively forgotten P.I.s who just made it to the list could easily rank much higher, I think, if only more people had read them. And, of course, it's a little disappointing that supporting players from popular novels (bolstered in some cases by popular films) cracked the list, while protagonists from some now difficult-to-find novels and series didn't crack it at all. Like, Jo Gar didn't make it? Bummer... but understandable. (Which is why folks like Crippen & Landru are so important...)

Thanks, Mark. I think we all owe you one, for the time you put into this. And to Bill, of course, for letting you have a place to play.

Let's do another poll in, oh, about four or five years.

-- 

Kevin -- # 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/ .



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