Fred Zackel quoted Adam Gopnik's article in the New Yorker
about Philip K. Dick and concluded that Gopnik was "Full of
Shit" To truly appreciate how full of shit Gopnik is, I think
we have to see a little more of Gopnik's paragraph.
Gopnik wrote:
"... Since genre writing can support only one genius at a
time--and no genre writer ever becomes just a good writer;
it's all prophet or all hack--the guy is usually resented by
his peers and their partisans even as the Establishment hails
him. No one hates the rise of Elmore Leonard so much as a
lover of Ross Macdonald."
My belief is that Rara_Avis is as good a cross section of
hard-boiled and noir writers and readers that there is, so I
have a couple of questions, base on your opinions.
As many of you may know, I'm not as filled with awe at Ross
Macdonald as many of the rest of you are, but I'm not willing
to put him in the hack status just because I don't like his
metaphors. He covers a lot of story in his pages.
My questions to the group: Aren't there more than one genius,
hard-boiled and/or noir writers? And ... Do any of you
"lovers of Ross Macdonald" (using Gopnik's words) resent the
rise of Elmore Leonard?
(And with apologies to Fred for my nitpicking, it's the 20
September New Yorker, not the 21st, at least on my
cover.)
I thank Fred for his comments as well as for bringing the
article to my/our attention.
Jack Bludis
http://crimespace.ning.com/profile/JackBludis
http://jackbludis.com/
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