SPCMD Chairman Patrick wrote:
> As you know perfectly well, Kevin, vitriolic
attacks
> on eminent authors with no bearing on any of
their
> actual writing does not constitute an
"opinion."
They don't?
Is that some kin of anti-semantic remark?
Um, you should read my posts sometimes. I did mention the
editing (of which there seems to be an increasing lack) in
Ellroy's books and how his prose style has become
increasingly over-the-top and self- indulgent, even as the
page count of his books has soared.
Maybe I'm wrong, but that DOES seem to me to be about his
writing. And not particularly vitriolic. Critical? Maybe.
Disappointed? Yes.
And somewhere in the Rara archives a few years back, I went
on about his then-recent series of short stories in GQ, which
several of us -- not just me -- found rather disappointing.
Again, the discussion was mostly about his writing. It's not
the sort of in-depth writing workshop analysis or academic
autopsy you seem to be demanding (but have never really
delivered yourself), but again it did revolve mostly around
his writing. You could look it up.
And if I've made too big a deal of poor old James'
promotional schtick, well, gee, that's too bad. Granted, the
pantie-sniffing B&E stories and all the rest were sorta
amusing for the first five hundred years or so, but it's long
since devolved into self-parody . Still, he's the Mad Dog,
delighting in confrontation and controversy -- he should be
able to take it.
After all, it's hard to believe a man who would address a
crowd of moviegoers at a film festival, as he did a few weeks
ago in Hollywood, by loudly proclaiming "Hello, perverts and
pussies," is such a sensitive soul. And you know, as a former
and hopefully future fan of his actual work, I still think he
might surprise us, if he wanted to.
then again, since "eminent" authors are no longer fair game,
how about if we just offer vitriolic attacks on
self-proclaimed writers whose chief writing "accomplishment"
seems to be a MySpace page?
Would that be better?
Kevin http://thrillingdetectiveblog.blogspot.com/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 08 May 2008 EDT