about the big lebowski –

more blue language than a “smurf with tourette’s support group”

hee hee…

Noir got me thinking of something I heard read on Doctor Demento, years ago..

(of course I wrote it down, and have since committed it to memory…)

Dual prize packages of rounded richness, twin curved cones of bouncing fun flesh, matched mountains of youthful tanned quivering exciting femininity, titanic orbs of temptation, happy hemispheres of lust, jaunty jiggling rotundities of passion–in a phrase…MY kind of breasts! – Anonymous Adult Pulp Fiction Hack

*giggles*

Oh! and I made it in under the 24 hour mark! 🙂 *happy*

Feelings a little hurt (about at the stubbed toe level, will get over it pretty reasonably soon – no great trauma) … I see Ornj was online, but not interested in talking to me (This has happened a couple of times, just chafing a little bit) … Perhaps it’s because I spent all day yesterday gabbing with her, and she wants a break. I’m probably being hypersensitive, but a hello is always nice, as I’ve not seen her today.(Since we’ve met, 24-hours haven’t gone by without us speaking…I’m mushy about stuff like that. ) I suspect she thinks that she’d be obligated to just blab back and forth for hours…It’s not the case. Other suspicions are dead chat proggies, or busy goofing with FD folk recently re-met. I can be such an over-analysis guy…

*ponderponderponder*

Ah well, I’ll find out when I gab with her next.

James Ellroy

Since the journal has gotten on a literary bent, I might as well continue the theme while the minutes tick away by telling you about one of the best writers I know of. James Ellroy began his career writing mysteries, novels that had a restless edge of deviant weirdness and a fetishistic noir sensibility. He achieved real notoriety with his novel THE BLACK DAHLIA, a fictitious exploration of an infamous murder case from 1940s Los Angeles. From there, he moved forward inexorably through time by means of a series of novels chronicling the unseen worlds of Los Angeles from the 1940s to the 1960s. As he did so, he emerged from the ghetto of “Mystery Fiction” to success as a critically-acclaimed author of plain old “Fiction.” His recent book,(1996, as opposed to 1989) AMERICAN TABLOID, is the first of a trilogy chronicling a larger world: American history, seen from the seamy side, going from 1960 up to about 1977 or so. AMERICAN TABLOID is the story of the Kennedy assassination, and like his other novels it includes a handful of characters from earlier books, chronicling their progression or (more commonly) disintegration over time.

One of the most interesting things about Ellroy is that with each novel two elements of his writing have progressed noticeably and dramatically: his style, and the characters whom he writes about.

In terms of style, Ellroy has moved from a dense, information-packed style typical of the noir crime novel to something far more impressive: a rapid-fire, slang-laden staccato stream-of-consciousness form of writing that can be hard to get your head around. A typical (of today) Ellroy passage quoted verbatim follows; the all-capitals are his:

——————————————————————————–
The hallway, the kitchen, there–
A clinch: his hands groping, hers grabbing knives.
Slow-motion numb–I couldn’t move. Shock-still frozen, look:
Knives down–in his back, in his neck–twisted in hilt-deep. Bone cracks–Glenda dug in–two hands blood-wet. Miciak thrashing AT HER–
Two more knives snagged–Glenda stabbing blind.
Miciak clawing the rack, up with a cleaver.
I stumbled in close–numb legs–smell the blood–
He stabbed, missed, lurched into the knife rack. She stabbed–his back, his face–blade jabs ripped his cheeks out.
Gurgles/screeches/whines–Miciak dying loud. Knife handles sticking out at odd angles–I threw him down, twisted him, killed him.
Glenda–no screams, this look: SLOW, I’ve been here before.

(from WHITE JAZZ, 1992)

——————————————————————————–
In terms of characters, his early novels typically chronicled that noir staple, the rough-edged cop or detective who was still on the side of justice and all that is good and true and worth loving. But as Ellroy wrote each novel, the characters moved more and more away from the ‘good and true’ and more towards the flat-out corrupt and depraved. The protagonists of AMERICAN TABLOID are bad guys, pure and simple. They’re mobsters, psycho cops, obsessive thrill-seeking military nuts, and every damn one of them is as crooked, corrupt, violent, and vicious as could be. Not a single one is out to follow some code of honor; they are the leg-breakers and the hit-men, the street-level losers and drifters who take the orders of the mob or Hoover or whoever. His latest novels tell the tales of those who do the dirty work and feel no guilt about doing so. Ellroy himself has said that he wants to take crime fiction and give it back to the bad guys, letting them be the stars of the book with no redeeming moral force to bludgeon the reader with a pat ending:

——————————————————————————–
“I want my readers to have an ambiguous response to my characters. I want my readers to identify with my characters on the level of their hidden sexual agendas. I want my readers to say, ‘Man, what a blast it would be to go back to 1952 and beat up faggots.’ Then I want them to realize, ‘Oh, am I really thinking that?’ In AMERICAN TABLOID, I wanted people to think ‘Yeah, what a fuckin’ blast, let’s whack out John F. Kennedy.’ I think crime fiction at its best is touching the fire and getting your hand burned.”

(from an interview in The Armchair Detective, vol. 28 no. 3)

——————————————————————————–
Ellroy is one of my favorite writers. Along with H.P. Lovecraft, I’d credit him as my most substantial inspiration. Where HPL has influenced my attitudes towards writing as an ideal, the work of publishing, and life in general, Ellroy has specifically influenced the way I approach the craft of writing. His books are amazing, awe-inspiring things that leave me gasping like a fish on the beach. Check out anything by him; you won’t be disappointed.

Scotto sings, to Oliver!

o/~
Consider yourself at home.
Consider yourself one of the family.
We’ve taken to you so strong,
It’s clear we’re going to get along.
Consider yourself well in.
Consider yourself part of the furniture.
There isn’t a lot to spare.
Who cares? Whatever we got we share!
o/~

Glad to have you folks here, reading and saying hey every here and again. Regardless of what you celebrate, I hope that the holiday season and the new year treats you all with joy, kindness and peace you can possibly stand. 🙂

*big huge honking bear hugs to all*

…. and to all a good night.

mah jongg with cookies! 🙂

thanks sweetalyssm for the link. 🙂

How to horrify scotto, before he watches angry beavers.

Angry beavers in 15 minutes! 🙂

Hmmm… many of my e-mails haven’t been catching up to me via LJ… does anyone know how long they’ll rattle in the system until they burp out at me?

I’ve been accused of being a lot of things, but “French Canadian” has never been among them. You can ask anyone.

I’m serious.

Hot diggety!

A way for me to keep up with you all… friend filters. 🙂

applying functionality now. 🙂

also, got cards from billijean and kellie today! hoody hoo!

*hugs*

name of the game is hurry up and wait. I want ever so much to have tomorrow off, but it looks like the data’s not coming…

got a lot of writing done, in the meantime.. that’s a good thing, anyhow… probably be a new story up by Saturday.

they bought lunch for the goonsquad here at work… I had all manner of starchy goodness. Mac & Cheese, Taters what be a-mashed (in DT-speak), and assorted snackies. All full.. going to start the low carb lifestyle on Saturday (friday, if I don’t have to work) and evaluate the results.This could be a good time to go pure vegan again, too. Not sure… it’s so good for me, but I like tasty fat so much… Heh… Newton is already so much higher on the food chain than I am.

Destroll has been mighty musical today… a little jukebox he be. 🙂 His fault I have the ‘Transformers’ theme running through my skull.

Woo, work beckons! maybe I can take tomorrow off after all!

I can think of nothing more beautiful, than to listen to my love say anything… as simple as mmhmm… a pattern of freckles on her cheek…a smile on her face, or her sense of accomplishment in a job well done…

I dream of holding her in my arms, feeling her head on my shoulder, hearing her breathe softly in the lead into sleep.

*heart skips a beat….off to bed with me… to dream of being close to her…

Dark Days – a documentary looks fascinating, in the limited amount of things I’ve seen about it. Things about the homeless are of special interest to me, and this looks remarkable.

warning to dial-up folks… the flash loads *SLOW*.