tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post5731650224119367145..comments2024-03-28T10:31:55.774-07:00Comments on The Passing Tramp: Acedia: The Noonday Devil (1951), by Ursula CurtissThe Passing Tramphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-27099575149822853352016-09-18T09:34:35.498-07:002016-09-18T09:34:35.498-07:00I think Jacques Barzun does the same thing when he...I think Jacques Barzun does the same thing when he praises women for not writing in a "feminine" manner, by which word he essentially means irrational! I think a lot of these attitudes were of their time. Of course I myself still don't like what I see as too much "mush"--i.e. the romance element. It's a problem I can have with Mignon Eberhart, for example. But I've gotten to like HIBK, for example.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-43808233373307277052016-09-17T05:52:28.043-07:002016-09-17T05:52:28.043-07:00Symons was not the only one to be skeptical of &qu...Symons was not the only one to be skeptical of "women's authors" and certainly not the most hostile. I happen to own a near complete collection of the French editions of EQMM and AHMM, and the attitude of reviewers to female writers (except those lucky ones that "wrote like men") oscillated between mild condescension and open contempt. It may have played a part in the relative paucity of local female crime writers back in the day (once again the few exceptions were lauded for "writing like men") Xavierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05702919450638993709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-78466992753045112542016-08-28T01:18:46.142-07:002016-08-28T01:18:46.142-07:00I like it too! She's one of my fave authors.I like it too! She's one of my fave authors.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-39301531417372106192016-08-28T01:18:05.366-07:002016-08-28T01:18:05.366-07:00Thanks for the mention, definitely not OT for me! ...Thanks for the mention, definitely not OT for me! The author's connection through her husband to Bataan makes the novel even more interesting, I think.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-92052762428556649832016-08-27T20:23:21.103-07:002016-08-27T20:23:21.103-07:00Somewhat OT, but several of the last remaining Bat...Somewhat OT, but several of the last remaining Bataan survivors live in and around Las Cruces, NM (They were members of a reserve coastal artillery regiment activated and sent to the Philippines just before the war). The ROTC unit at the University there hosts an endurance race every March, the Bataan Memorial Death March. Shayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16527241089629026268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-48240106466560661072016-08-25T09:41:43.439-07:002016-08-25T09:41:43.439-07:00I remember reading this, and really liked it - I r...I remember reading this, and really liked it - I read a few by her, and her mother, and a few others I put in the same category. But then that's a category I really like...Clothes In Bookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14680610242823846662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-30497234663133869102016-08-19T12:45:39.263-07:002016-08-19T12:45:39.263-07:00Oh, yes, he definitely liked some of the Fifties d...Oh, yes, he definitely liked some of the Fifties domestic suspense. I just always feel I must be a poor example of a man, because I always liked these mid-century "women's novels" better than the "men's novels," particularly if by the latter we might stuff like Spillane.<br /><br />But, you know, Symons wasn't alone, certainly, in his attitudes. Anthony Boucher often castigated women HIBK writers. In fact he praised domestic suspense in part because he thought it was far less "hokey" than HIBK. The fact that he singled out Curtiss as a "women's author" to praise is notable I think.<br /><br />I actually agree with Symons that the domestic suspense form put constraints on writers. There are still a lot of domestic suspense novels from the period that have the type of "happily ever after" ending where the heroine gets nicely married off to the last eligible male left standing, a la Mignon Eberhart. Domestic suspense often doesn't go as far as noir, which I why I oppose using the term noir to refer broadly to domestic suspense. Though I think Noonday Devil has notable noirish aspects.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-8126318677752761012016-08-19T08:12:20.745-07:002016-08-19T08:12:20.745-07:00This seems very much in line with the only Curtiss...This seems very much in line with the only Curtiss book I have read, THE DEADLY CLIMATE. Poor Symons, destined to get smacked around for decades to come :) Even if we don;t agree with his personal preferences, I think it is entirely fair to say that the domestic stuff was aimed at a female readership just as Symons says it was, don't you think? In the same way that Spillane's stuff from the same era was aimed at a male readership? Symons is even more dismissive of the latter, in fact ...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com