I had a slightly different take on the piece. King emphasized
that the language of pulp fiction was what attracted him and
that the garish covers were part of the appeal. I didn't feel
any condescension toward the genre by King or by CBS.
I'd be interested in Charles' take on it was.
Keff
> Stephen King's appearance on CBS's _Sunday Morning_
today featured some
> interesting statements about how he got interested
in crime fiction. The
> mythical aspects of the plotting and the PI's
defiant argot were two I
> remember. But the prevalent tone of the interview,
studded by images of
> paperback covers (many from Hard Case Crime)
indicated that the tough
> guy novels of the 50s and their illustrated covers
were basically
> /amusing/. Maybe that, and the GG art on the covers,
were reasons for
> their popularity. But those covers also show urban
working- and
> under-class settings as well as clothing and body
language typical of
> people of these backgrounds. Many of their readers
identified more with
> the stories of Cain,. McCoy, Thompson, or Goodis
rather than a
> high-brow, culturally sanctioned one. Police and
racketeers were many
> readers' antagonists, as well as the writers'. What
seems amusing or
> camp today was much more than amusing when the 1950s
crime novels were
> being written and read. The _Sunday Morning_ focus
on those sexy
> outrageous covers, while good for Hard Case Crime
now that King is their
> latest author, trivialized the genre (as Hard Cases
writers, both
> classic and contemporary, certainly do
not).
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