--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, DJ-Anonyme@... wrote:
>
> Then I guess I was very lucky at the University of Maryland in the mid
> '70s, where I took, not one, but two different courses on crime fiction.
> I took a survey course on the history of the mystery from Ian Ousby, who
> later wrote several books on the subject (including one on Chandler, I
> think).
Very lucky. I never heard any hardboiled or in fact any genre author
mentioned in any literature course. Of course, I was lucky in having
discovered the stuff by myself. Since the stuff had the magic, I
wouldn't have cared what anybody said about it... the same with
Wodehouse, jazz and other discoveries I made early on. I would almost
say that I'm glad nobody spoiled it for me with academic analyses. It
took me years to be able to reread some of the stuff that we analyzed
in literature courses: a total turnoff, with a few exceptions (a guy
who introduced me to Raymond Queneau, for example).
On the subject of hardboiled and noir, I think it has become an
important part of contemporary literary material. I don't know how it
happened, perhaps film helped the process.
Best,
mrt
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