People don't write 'em like that anymore...McBain is like crime on prime time...personally I like both styles...duh. Hi, I'm Erika, have we met?
Seems like everyone's got a tale to tell.
Mal ,'Safe'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
erikaj - Feb 25, 2004 9:58:40 am PST #954 of 10002
Always Anti-fascist!
DavidS - Feb 25, 2004 11:11:52 am PST #955 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
It is a commonplace in certain quarters that Ed McBain was the model for Hillstreet Blues and consequently has had longstanding influence on all police dramas since.
Jesse - Feb 25, 2004 11:14:46 am PST #956 of 10002
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
I'm no literary historian, but who else has been doing procedurals like this for so long? I mean, maybe he wasn't the first, but he's had a damn big influence. Due to the awesomeness, of course.
DavidS - Feb 25, 2004 11:46:52 am PST #957 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I'm no literary historian, but who else has been doing procedurals like this for so long?
Nobody. But Joseph Wambaugh had a huge impact on crime fiction when he hit in the seventies. It was just so grounded in Wambaugh's experience as a cop.
erikaj - Feb 25, 2004 11:53:48 am PST #958 of 10002
Always Anti-fascist!
Whee, I'm like Hec at a hair gel convention...ok, not that excited, but... I still think of the small hours of the morning as the "Witching Hour" cause Wambaugh said that's when the liquor wears off and the nightmares start.Everything starts with the right attitude.Wambaugh writes, or did, anyway, true-crime, too. "Lines and Shadows" about the Border Patrol? Broke my heart. "The Onion Field" was great too...there's a movie of that one.
DavidS - Feb 25, 2004 12:42:10 pm PST #959 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
"The Onion Field" was great too...there's a movie of that one.
A great movie. The movie that made James Woods a star. Also best use of a bagpipe in a film ever.
Jesse - Feb 25, 2004 12:48:55 pm PST #960 of 10002
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
I don't think I've read any Wambaugh, and I'm not sure why not. I love a good procedural.
DavidS - Feb 25, 2004 12:53:52 pm PST #961 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I don't think I've read any Wambaugh, and I'm not sure why not. I love a good procedural.
Well, because he's not so much about police procedurals. He was a cop for some twenty years, and he wrote novels about that. So there's crime solving but it's often just about crime and cops' lives.
Jesse - Feb 25, 2004 12:57:43 pm PST #962 of 10002
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
Hmm. I should still check him out. I enjoy the crime and the cops. When I set off on my project to read the "classics," I didn't get as far as the 70s, so I really should.
DavidS - Feb 25, 2004 1:02:01 pm PST #963 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Hmm. I should still check him out. I enjoy the crime and the cops. When I set off on my project to read the "classics," I didn't get as far as the 70s, so I really should.
Go into a used bookstore and you should see a big rack of 'em cheap. They were best sellers. You'd like The Onion Field, The Choirboys, The Blue Knight, The New Centurions, The Black Marble.