Tuesday, October 10, 2006

The Promise and Pulping of Crime

I confess, I hadn’t heard until today about Literature Matters, a twice-yearly Webzine associated with the British Arts Council. Yet the spring edition is devotedly exclusively to crime fiction, with articles written by some of the biggest British names in the biz. P.D. James, for instance, writes about “The Moral Dimension of the Crime Novel,” while Denise Mina comments on “The Politics of Writing Crime” and Simon Brett remarks on the evolution of British mystery literature in “The Long Shadow of Agatha Christie.” For his part, Guardian crime columnist Maxim Jakubowski applauds the great influx of “foreign” novelists (meaning those from European nations beyond the British Isles) into the genre, in “Crime Without Frontiers.” All well worth reading.

(Hat tip to Euro Crime.)

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Meanwhile, the literary journal Mississippi Review (a University of Southern Mississippi publication) devotes its fall issue to “postmodern pulp.” On his blog, Crimedog One, Anthony Smith, who also introduces the Review’s latest edition, defines postmodern pulp stories as being “explotaitive [sic], tawdry, and taboo,” but also “operating in the realm of self-awareness.” Hmm. It must’ve been tough to pick tales that fit such a definition. Likely, the editors couldn’t know what “postmodern pulp” was until they saw it. Ten yarns have been assembled here, including works by Ray Banks (“The Last Kayfabe”), Craig McDonald (“Sheriff Andy Goes to Hell”), Paula Bomer (“Breasts”), and Nick Mamatas (“The Bloodied Woman”).

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