Re: RARA-AVIS: James Ellroy Reading

From: Joy (jmatkowski1@comcast.net)
Date: 15 Oct 2010

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      Thanks for the thorough review, Raymond. I feel like I was there, without having had to go to the bother of actually showing up. To me, the most interesting part is:

    "And that basically he lives in LA of over 40 years ago in his head writing his books."

    Joy

    On 10/15/2010 12:17 PM, TAIT RAYMOND wrote:
    > I attended a reading by James Ellroy last week on 5 October at the Cambridge
    > Union here in Cambridge, England. The reading took place in the main
    > chamber which you can see pictures of here:
    >
    >
    >
    > http://www.cus.org/
    >
    >
    >
    > When I went in to take a seat people were sitting on both sides of the
    > chamber with a lectern placed in the middle just in front of the ‘big red
    > chair’ so that he would have been facing down the middle of two rows of
    > seats opposite each other. A little while before the scheduled start time a
    > young woman came in and asked everyone on one side to move to the other so
    > that they could move the lectern and he could face one side of the chamber.
    > An audience of 100 or so gathered. Just after 7.30 she came back and gave a
    > brief introduction before asking us to welcome James Ellroy who entered and
    > took up his position. He is a very striking man! He also dresses well and
    > that night was wearing a more casual outfit than I might have expected:
    > Sleeveless dark grey pullover, long sleeved reddish shirt with a nice
    > pattern, white trousers and what appeared to be trainers. It all looked
    > good anyway.
    >
    >
    >
    > He began with a very theatrical introduction where he spoke about being in
    > Cambridge, quoted a chunk of TS Eliot and then something else that I didn’t
    > recognize before addressing the audience more informally. He explained that
    > he was going to read five short pieces from The Hilliker Curse and then we
    > would be able to ask questions. At some point during all this he went off
    > on a bizarre riff about how if we all bought 1,000 copies of the book or
    > something like it we would be able to have unlimited sex with anyone we
    > wanted forever. It was a bit more complicated than that with separate
    > stages but didn’t quite come off in my view. He also gave us a variation on
    > this which every audience gets: ‘Good evening peepers, prowlers, pederasts,
    > panty-sniffers, punks and pimps. I'm James Ellroy, the demon dog, the foul
    > owl with the death growl, the white knight of the far right, and the slick
    > trick with the donkey dick. I'm the author of 16 books, masterpieces all;
    > they precede all my future masterpieces.’ He told the story about his
    > mother asking him on his tenth birthday who he wanted to live with, her or
    > his dad, and how she hit him when she said his dad. And how he invoked the
    > Hilliker curse as a consequence.
    >
    >
    >
    > Then the reading. He reads in quite a unique way, more like a poet than a
    > novelist - phrases hurled out in a very declamatory way with pauses in
    > between. I wasn’t entirely sure this worked until he came to the fourth or
    > fifth passage which is written in a ‘he said, she said’ form where I thought
    > it came off really well.
    >
    >
    >
    > And then the questions and answers section which was of course the highlight
    > of the evening. They covered the following territory
    >
    >
    >
    > Who is the Blood the Rover dedicated to? I can’t remember exactly what was
    > said but I think it was the woman who was the ‘she’ in the passage he read
    > from The Hilliker Curse. This was the first question from a woman who is a
    > big fan and had read all his books. It developed into a fairly lengthy
    > dialogue between them. Who knows, maybe they spent the night together?
    >
    >
    >
    > Something about Closure. There is no such thing as closure says JE. He
    > spoke about the influence of the death of his mother and then told a sort of
    > joke. He would like to meet the person who invented sex and ask what
    > project they are working on now. And he would like to meet the person who
    > invented the concept of closure and shove a plate up their ass.
    >
    >
    >
    > Does he have any influence over film versions of his novels? No. He went on
    > to talk about how films are like hamburgers and he doesn’t watch them. He
    > explained that he doesn’t read newspapers, doesn’t watch TV and doesn’t go
    > to the cinema. Has no books in his home apart from his own and one other
    > the identity of which I have forgotten. And that basically he lives in LA
    > of over 40 years ago in his head writing his books.
    >
    >
    >
    > He mentioned Beethoven and someone asked what was so great about him. He
    > explained that Beethoven had revolutionized music in a way that no other
    > artist has done with any other artform and spoke about the greatness of
    > Beethoven’s late music and the importance of his deafness.
    >
    >
    >
    > I asked him about the extent to which he believes the events in American
    > Tabloid for example are the sorts of things which actually occurred and the
    > extent to which they are a conscious exaggeration. He replied that he
    > didn’t want to seem glib but that he makes all that shit up.
    >
    >
    >
    > Someone else asked if he had ever had any legal comeback from anyone. He
    > said there had been one legal action where a researcher had identified the
    > death of someone in one of his books but it turned out this was another
    > person with the same name. He said he wasn’t able to talk about the
    > specifics.
    >
    >
    >
    > Someone asked about Noir. He said he wasn’t noir at all.
    >
    >
    >
    > Someone asked about Raymond Chandler. The most overrated writer in the
    > history of American literature. Terrible plots etc. Now Dashiell Hammett…
    >
    >
    >
    > Does he believe in God? Yes
    >
    >
    >
    > Will he go to heaven? Yes
    >
    >
    >
    > After the questions he signed books for us with his characteristic scribble.
    >
    >
    >
    > I found him charismatic and intimidating, unique and impressive. I haven’t
    > read enough of his books to be able to assess his real worth but having just
    > read American Tabloid for the first time which I think is a huge novel in
    > every sense I mean to read more.
    >
    >
    >
    > Raymond
    >
    >

    ------------------------------------

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