(no subject)

[scottobear]

Hmm... reading James Ellroy's "LA Quartet" Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz... so far, it's certainly his best work. (Reading Nowhere now... I'm glad that I took Robin's Recommendation... I initially didn't want to read them, because his later books are really kinetic, written in a telegraphic style that can go for paragraphs, pages, without a complete sentence. ("12:45. Buzz McCall on the Simmons roust. Goose egg on McKibben. Nothing yet from that lazy fat fuck in Ballistics. Hit the street and out to the Valley to brace the shine at his fuck pad." Etc... I've seen people's journals here written on the same level. bleh.)

Occasionally I got the giggles when reading in that format, which I don't think is what he had in mind. That said, Dudley Smith is one scary guy. I'd cross the street if I knew he was coming, not that it would help.

Other things I'm currently stumbling over...Pennsylvania Dutch Hex signs.

• http://www.folkart.com/hex/meaning.htm


• http://www.amishnews.com/hexsigns.htm


• http://www.folkart.com/hex/ramona/sketches.htm

Thinking about a Clockwork Distelfink. Can you dig it, Scotto? Noir fiction in Pennsylvania Dutch country? Maybe.

Comments

[rejectomorph]

Strange guy, Ellroy. Have you ever seen one of his appearances on the late night talk shows? He's one of those people who comes across as half genius, half raving lunatic. Not surprising, considering the way his life has gone. He lived in a neighborhood not far from where I grew up, and I remember the hushed whispers of the adults at the time his mother was murdered. (I didn't know it was his mother, then, of course- I heard him tell about it a few years ago, and remembered the incident.)

I've read the first three books you mentioned, but haven't gotten around to White Jazz. His take on the Black Dahlia murder is interesting. In another strange coincidence, my aunt lived in a house very near where Elizabeth Short's (is that the right name?) body was found. My aunt always claimed that she knew who the murderer was, but, as far as I know, she never told anyone. There's a lot of weirdness in my mom's family.

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[scottobear.livejournal.com]

No, I can't say as I've ever seen him interviewed in person...but I can imagine his style.

Her name was indeed Elizabeth Short...You lived in some tricky neighborhoods as a boy! If your aunt knew, I wonder why she held back?

[rejectomorph]

I only found out about my aunt's odd claim a couple of years ago, several years after she died, so, unless she told someone eventually, I guess I'll never find out. My mom said she never even dropped any hints about who it might be, but she couldn't wait to move away from that neighborhood. That being said, I have to say that the women on that side of the family have some strange traits. My grandmother used to read tea leaves, and was forever claiming to know things that she couldn't possibly have known. My mom considers fortune-telling and such to be works of the devil, but nevertheless has that trait. She frequently claims to know things that people have done, with no evidence at all. Like her mother, she usually turns out to be wrong. My grandmother's maiden name was Bell, and my grandfather was fond of saying "the Bells are all dingy." It seems likely that my aunt's "knowledge" was one of those delusions to which the family was prone. Still, even paranoids have some justifiable fears, so, who knows?

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[scottobear.livejournal.com]

What a fascinating family trait! I wonder what causes that belief to set in, especially if they're more often wrong than right.

Raised to believe in second sight?

[rejectomorph]

My grandmother certainly belived in psychic powers, and sometimes consulted fortune tellers. My mother always disapproved of them. She has no explanation for why she believes certain things so adamantly. She simply knows that John Wayne was gay, that Bill Clinton did not have sexual relations with that woman, that Dan Quayle was tricked into mispelling "potato," that one person accused of a crime is guilty and another innocent,and all the evidence in the world will not sway her. While my grandmother would have attributed her own knowledge of such things to her psychic ability, my mother simply "knows" these things to be so, and assumes that all right thinking people will agree with her, evidence and reason be damned. In short, Mom is a wacko, and that is the one thing she doesn't know, even though everyone else in the world does. I'm accustomed to it, myself, but it's fun to watch the reactions of other people when she spouts one of her odd beliefs to them. It annoyed me when I was a kid, but now I find it quite entertaining.

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[scottobear.livejournal.com]

yikes... well... as long as it's harmless, and entertaining. :)

all right-thinking people... there's a scary turn of phrase.