At 08:33 AM 13/07/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>So whatever Ellroy does (or doesn't do) for you, rest
assured it's not
>some spontaneous literary style bursting out of
nowhere, the result of
>unfettered genius, but a carefully worked out,
studied and deliberate
>style, a lengthy and extensive process that requires
a lot of reworking
>and laboring over the manuscript from both the author
and the editor.
>Doesn't exactly play into the literary enfant
terrible mythos, does it?
It does to me. I never equated Ellroy's style with some
spontaneous, free-form, stream of consciousness. The language
in both White Jazz and L.A. Confidential are derived from
other forms. That requires work and study. If he makes it
look easy, that's only a measure of skill. It doesn't rule
out genius, nor does it rule it in, but it is (or was) a
gutsy form of rebellion from "literary" language standards, a
big push down the path of colloquial. Hell, we might even say
it goes beyond colloquial, into the origins of popular,
style-forming language. I can well understand why this would
both stimulate and alarm an editor. It certainly seems to
have done the same to many people on Rara Avis, and
elsewhere, or we wouldn't still be discussing it.
Best Kerry
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