Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Ellroy - X-offender?

From: Kerry Schooley ( gsp.schoo@skylinc.net)
Date: 16 Dec 2002


At 05:15 PM 14/12/2002 -0500, you wrote:

>On top of that, I could no longer ignore the racism, misogyny and
>homophobia in his books. Up until then, I had pretty much accepted his
>rationalization that it was the characters and the times, not himself
>who felt that way. But it is his choice to write only about those times
>(and it's not like his earlier, contemporary books didn't have similar
>characters with similar views) and those kinds of characters. Yes, I've
>seen Kerry's defense that he is exposing the corruption, bigotry, etc.,
>in our society. No, he's not. He's wallowing in it. And sometimes
>he's so gleeful about it that he seems to me to be championing it. His
>work is pure nostalgie de la boue. He misses those (whether mythic or
>real) good old days when strong white men were strong white men, for
>good and bad, and everyone else knew their place.

Fair enough. We can only speculate as to his motives. I still find value in his work, but perhaps I'm naive. Goes with my being so young and spritely.

Kerry

------------------------------------------------------ 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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