Re: RARA-AVIS: Daniel Woodrell on "Noir"

From: richshado (richshado@yahoo.ca)
Date: 04 Feb 2009

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    A friend of mine had told me about the discussion going on here. In the past, I had found myself at the archive site but posts such as the one excerpted below have left a film on my monitor screen.

    --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Brian Thornton
    <bthorntonwriter@...> wrote:

    > Wow! Grad school comes in handy when troweling out overwrought
    metaphors
    > such as those cited above!
    >
    > "Pure noir." "Bastard child."
    >

    Mr. Thornton, who is kind enough to let us know his profession in his email handle, can talk the talk but I was wondering if he could walk the walk. I found his short story here: http://www.shredofevidence.com/category/author/brian-thornton/

    "Hatchet-faced"? That has always been an interesting one. I've seen hatchets and my share of faces but "hatchet-faced"? Does that mean a thin, sharp, pointy face? Overwrought? He used the adjective first, not I.

    Mr. Thornton goes on to write: "Her stomach jumped again, so loud in her ears that she was sure he could hear it."

    Well, that line kind of reads itself.

    > (Sorry, couldn't resist. It just seems that so many "literary
    writers" seem
    > to assume that the rest of us have never read a book without
    pictures, and
    > then the name dropping begins. Ugh.)

    Name dropping? Check out Mr. Thornton's page at something called Crimespace: http://crimespace.ning.com/profile/BrianThornton

    The way I figure it, the page is some type of promotional device. You tell me. Mr. Thornton provides a slide show on his profile which pictures him with his considerable arm wrapped around various authors.
     Some of those in his clutches seem quite uncomfortable. But that may just be me reading into it.

    Sure is easy to criticize, ain't it?

    Rich Shado



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