In a message dated 1/21/03 6:57:44 PM Eastern Standard Time,
Kevin writes:
<<
While the Hardman books do have plenty of moments of
true grit, and
he writes the hell out of the Atlanta setting, there's
also an
element of "gee whiz over-the-topness" about them that
actually makes
them great fun to read, a sort of down-and-dirty
version of Spenser
and Hawk. I don't think you have to necessarily live in
the gutter to
know what you're talking about, though occasionally it
helps. And
maybe if Dennis hadn't known the alley life so well,
his books would
have been a bit better written (some of them seem
pretty cranked
out), and he'd still be with us, still writing kickass
books. I think
the only thing "absolute" in that statement is that the
guy who wrote
it wants to sell those books.
>>
I completely agree with you Kevin. Experience cannot
compensate for a lack of craft although it can at times
augment. For example, Dennis' PIMP FOR THE DEAD opens in The
Stein Club, which was a real bar in Atlanta. The scene has to
work and achieve believability for the average reader who
never set foot in the Stein Club. Regardless of whether it
had a real world model or not, the writer has to have the
craft to make it real. Now if it does have a real life model
and the writer is successful in conveying the scene, those
few who know the model get an extra kick. But the key is
writing ability no matter if the scene is based on a real
model or just imagination.
While we are at it, Ralph Dennis did not to me display great
knowledge of
"the gutter." What I recognize are ordinary places and
settings that anyone moving around Atlanta in the 1970s would
recognize...restaurants, hotels, neighborhoods and so forth.
Not really the gutter.
And Dennis was cranking them out in the 70s and you are right
Kevin, it shows at times. What I appreciate is that within
the framework of the numbered paperback hero, he managed to
breath more life into the volumes he churned out at a speed
fast enough to support himself.
Richard Moore
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