tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896069787782846811.post5306009772248324313..comments2023-04-30T07:27:54.645-07:00Comments on <b>HUNGRY GHOST BLOG</b>: Price: "Not a mystery writer..."David Chutehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05606470667042155559noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896069787782846811.post-28467795574745270002010-07-07T13:57:49.801-07:002010-07-07T13:57:49.801-07:00Wouldn't have to be a world. Could be a moral ...Wouldn't have to be a world. Could be a moral spectrum of the ways people react in a crisis.<br /><br />Price is saying that without the mystery plot, "Lush Life" would be a travelogue.David Chutehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05606470667042155559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896069787782846811.post-40923803125833113092010-07-07T13:52:34.750-07:002010-07-07T13:52:34.750-07:00Regarding your update: Until I read the Newton and...Regarding your update: Until I read the Newton and Price quotes just the other day, I had never considered the structure of a crime novel as simply a way to organize a book that might otherwise be a shapeless mass of observations.<br /><br />Occurs to me that you could come up with a taxonomy of writers based on the division between those who write in order to set forth a plot and those who write in order to create a world...Tulkinghornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12380273659057130770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896069787782846811.post-44744703514533356322010-07-07T12:05:41.963-07:002010-07-07T12:05:41.963-07:00You are much less cynical about such things as I.....You are much less cynical about such things as I.... Although there is a wonderful resonance with your non-cynical reading of Price's comment in the Amazon lit-blog, Omnivoracious: A comment by Brit fantasy wunderkind Mark Charan Newton, who has structured his new novel as a mystery:<br /><br />The detective opens the reader's eye to another world with great ease. In my case, Jeryd was a perfect guide to the city of Villjamur. With him, the reader can explore those places off the beaten track, can explore the factors which really make the city tick – just like a detective would in real-world fiction. As Henning Mankell's superb, morose detective Wallander maps out a particularly bleak Sweden, Jeryd can--and must--interact with the community, with local characters and high-ranking politicians, and he permits the reader quick access to them, too.Tulkinghornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12380273659057130770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896069787782846811.post-74055249602682363012010-07-07T11:16:14.680-07:002010-07-07T11:16:14.680-07:00Taken with RB's comments I took this to sugges...Taken with RB's comments I took this to suggest that there's no distinctive gift involved in writing mysteries; that a good "mainstream" writer who pays attention can do it as well or better than the specialists.David Chutehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05606470667042155559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896069787782846811.post-21530204331564977202010-07-06T16:45:06.403-07:002010-07-06T16:45:06.403-07:00Ah, but that was in 2003....
I suspect that after...Ah, but that was in 2003....<br /><br />I suspect that after his successful collaborations with David Simon, George Pelecanos, and Dennis Lehane on The Wire (as well as making a zillion bucks on Lush Life) he can finesse the difference between crime fiction and mysteries a bit better. <br /><br />Interesting how, over the intervening seven years, Price's genre comments have gone from seeming unremarkably self-serving to seeming naive and snobbish.Tulkinghornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12380273659057130770noreply@blogger.com