CHEMISTRY AND DENTISTRY AT BRISTLE: MORE FROM CRIMEFEST
After a brief but very pleasant lunch break it was back to the panels with Writing the Wrongs- Morality in Crime Fiction.
Yrsa Sigurdardottir, who was banded up, claimed the moral high ground as she had not murdered her orthodontist yet. I have some reservations abut the long term success of adult orthodontics but none about seeking out the books written by this very attractive young lady.
There was some crackling chemistry between the participants [Yrsa, Steve Mosby, Kevin Wignall, Laura Wilson and Jason Pinter] on this panel and they were obviously enjoying the process. The theory that crime writers were getting rid of their inner demons on the page and that is why they were all such nice people was an intriguing one.
Ian Rankin was interviewed by Peter Guttridge and predictably this was the best attended event of the day. Rebus, his music and his retirement were discussed and as when I have watched Rankin on television he was relaxed and very informative. The fact that he had no input to the Rebus TV series was no surprise as the few episodes I had watched did not match up to the standard of the books.
Although I can't talk as you will see my only photo of this interview seems to have been a signal for everyone to jump up and obscure the participants!
To be continued.......
posted by Uriah Robinson at 2:32 AM
4 Comments:
I've seen Ian Rankin in a free-for-all question-and-answer session -- in a pub in Toronto, if I remember rightly. He was without doubt one of the best interviewees I've ever come across -- hugely forthcoming, generous, funny. It is one of four interviews that have stuck in my mind over the years -- the others were with the great historian of ideas (and avid crime fiction reader) Jacques Barzun, legendary acting coach Uta Hagen, and the actor and poet (believe it or not) Robert Mitchum.
The 'inner demons' theory I've come across before, and I've never thought it true in general, though I think it certainly true that crime writers in general are nice people. Did any of the writers in the session say they do that? The only crime writers I can think of offhand whose inner demons are manifest on the page are Patricia Highsmith, Cornell Woolrich and James Ellroy, and I don't think their own mothers, about whom all three had very strange obsessions, would have described them as 'nice'. No one else ever has.
I think used that theory to explain jocularly why they were so nice as opposed to the appalling monsters they wrote about. Yrsa said she had written children's books and had to move on to something more meaty. Steve Mosby and Kevin Wignall clearly wrote about very nasty people.
I had not read any of these author's books which put me at a bit of a disadvantage but I think I got the general idea.
I hope that next year there will be more translated crime fiction and less thriller authors but that is just opinion of a few of us Euro Crime fans.
I just noticed all the white hair in that pic! Do you have to be retired to really appreciate crime fic?
I had the privilege of hearing Yrsa at the Hay festival, CrimeFest and then speaking to her and her hubbie in the bar at the Marriott hotel later. She's fab! Lovely humour - which also comes out in her novel Last Rituals.
There may be something to that theory about crime writers getting rid of their demons in the page. I've mentioned more than once how jovial the lot were that I met at NoirCon.
With respect to CFR's question about white hair and crime fiction, not all the white hair is on the fans, and one does not have to be retired to have it. Do you recall your observation when I linked to this NoirCon photo?
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
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