>
>In my other post today I mention "Hacks see the
clothes and mistake it for
>the man. Good writers see the surface stuff for what
it is, and pick and
>choose from it." Unfortunately, Ellroy's so busy
showing us HIS clothes,
>both in his fiction and his real life, that it
distracts from his work.
Sorry Kevin, but I think there's more to Ellroy's criminal
boasting than what you allow. It may serve promotional
purposes (he is certainly an entertaining and amusing reader
of his own works), but we also need to ask why flaunting a
rap sheet would promote the sale of books. Some of it goes to
credibility, veracity. In the same way that Hammett's
experience as a Pink contributed to the credibility of his
stories (yes, they're fiction, but do they have the ring of
truth?), Ellroy's experience as a lowlife contributes to the
veracity of his stories. This implies that genre themes have
shifted in the decades between these two writers.
You mentioned in an earlier e-mail that Chandler's Marlow
tried to maintain a code, despite its corruptions. The
difference between Chandlers' era and Ellroy's is the
acknowledgement of institutionalized corruption. Does anyone
on this list seriously debate that there are different laws
for different races, that the rich are not punished with the
same severity as the poor, and that the powerful are seldom
even prosecuted? The genre now accepts as a fundamental truth
that the official code (the law) is itself corrupt, as much
as its administration. There isn't much room for
Marlow's
"bruised romanticism." This applies at all levels of
society.
But it is more than this. In Ellroy's works corruption is the
natural state of human existence. It is the aspiration to
redemption, rather than its achievement, that is remarkable.
In a corrupt world, the man who admits his corruption
achieves not only credibility, but a perverse honesty.
That's one little boy's opinion, anyway.
Best Kerry
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Literary events Calendar (South Ont.) http://www.lit-electric.com
The evil men do lives after them http://www.murderoutthere.com
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