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Messier for Elmore
Posted: 19 July 2007 11:09 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 46 ]
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Whatcha up to now, Slater?

13 days since the Forty Lashes post.
Mr. Majestyc?
52 Pickup?
Swag?

Taking a break?

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Posted: 19 July 2007 05:17 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 47 ]
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Waiting for Swag
The Hypodermic still sits on my desk
A man on a mission
courageous
52 pick up had been the last in my first go through
reading it again in this order made very clear
continuities and progressions of Elmore’s storytelling.
seeing the first ten in two groups of five
5 southern Arizona 50’s social westerns
where he appears as a young man
5 locations varied building toward home
where he appears as an administrator
Hombres of various age and time
crime arrives for its own sake
in this eleventh novel
where 22 years of married life
reveal the true heart of a man
the woman still cannot help
swag is here
see ya

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Posted: 26 July 2007 11:00 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 48 ]
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Ok Scrum here are my notes on Mr. Majestyk
Mr. Majestyk 1971
Vincent Majestyk wants to get his melon crop in from the field and out to market so as to secure his place in the world but there are forces of evil arrayed against him that he must fight. Another Hombre type hero of direct action and few words, Vincent must be related to Walter Majestyk up in Geneva Beach Michigan, not sure how other than that they both stand up. The evil genius here is another Frank Renda, great great grandson of the evil genius warden of Five Shadows Prison Work Camp and Dutch’s first real organized crime type baddie, his girlfriend Wiley thinks he’s fun to watch but we have to think this psycho is just plain bad.
Written as a screenplay and then novelized the jury is still out if Charles Bronson was Majestyk or was Mr. Majestyk Charles Bronson. That Vincent is an ex con and veteran of a small but Great War somehow explains something here about the humanity of farm workers and visible minorities and seeing clearly the value of each instance of genius in a man. Here the knowing clearly the need to act in a manner that would not normally occur to one to act is based on an authority of experience and training, in real life skills, like killing and growing melons. No comedies here, all light moments are hollow and ultimately voided by the terror of certain death. The fact that these actions are in fact the proper course and that the end is a happy one speaks to the Hollywood element of the time. That is not to say the story is not a true one and beautifully written and a joy to read but to say the answer my friend is blowing in the wind.
52 pick up and swag to follow shortly

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Posted: 26 July 2007 07:53 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 49 ]
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son slater - 26 July 2007 03:00 PM

Here the knowing
clearly the need to act
in a manner that
would not normally
occur to one
to act
is based on
an authority
of experience and training,
in real life skills,
like killing
and growing melons.
No comedies here,
all light moments
are hollow
and ultimately voided
by the terror
of certain death.

That’s pretty deep, Son. 
Nicely done as always.

Majestyk, Moonshine,
Switch and watching the Women
When they come out to dance,
Finishes my own, messier
Messier.

Then it’s back to the western shorties, chasing the Tonto Woman and the Coyote.
Mr. Leonard will have a new one out by then when I’ll be ready for some Comfort.

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Posted: 30 July 2007 03:56 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 50 ]
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Djones abandons Messier shock horror

I got so much into the western books I skipped The Big Bounce & all the other stories up to Gunsights. Must be the odor of breechclout going to my head.

I’m going to read them all again pretty soon & then I’ll try to do something like discussing these works according to themes, maybe. Like ‘Spunky Women’, ‘Hostility of the Environment, & of course, ‘Breechclout vs. Long Underwear’. Stuff like that. Stay tuned.

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Posted: 02 August 2007 08:41 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 51 ]
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Breechclout will do it to you every time,
yet perhaps a new messier endeavor is born,
Western Elmore where all
the westerns including Get Shorty are read in order,
ah order,
so sweet,
poot weet
Did you read Valdez is Coming?
Did you Google Lanoria?

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Posted: 03 August 2007 07:53 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 52 ]
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Yeah, I read Valdez. I bracket it with Touch. Also an important source for Vincent Mora. You wanna hear about Get Shorty, huh? I’ll tell you all about Get Shorty. Comin soon on Pseud’s Corner.

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Posted: 04 August 2007 07:59 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 53 ]
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djones - 03 August 2007 11:53 AM

You wanna hear about Get Shorty, huh? I’ll tell you all about Get Shorty. Comin soon on Pseud’s Corner.

Looking forward to it. Could you do Be Cool, too?

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Posted: 04 August 2007 10:26 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 54 ]
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I’ll give you a hint: Be Cool is an integral part of Get Shorty‘s structure.

Oh yeah, I thought of a really very vitally important Frank in modern storytelling: Frank Fink, possibly the most important Frank in all fiction, if you don’t include Francis of Assisi. Everyone knows Frank Fink…. don’t they?

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Posted: 06 August 2007 02:50 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 55 ]
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Yeah, I read Valdez. I bracket it with Touch

What is this bracket and how does it relate to the Messier in question
We have avoided discussing the importance of Valdez here
I think few really see it as the complete work of art it is.
In my first read through I thought Valdez a forerunner of Majestyk
Now I see clearly the relation as Majestyk a descendant of Valdez and Kirby Fry

The Lanoria was deposited on a surface of older sediments that sloped to the north. Facies and sequences show that the Lanoria filled this basin to the north and established a relatively flat shelf. The exposures do not allow an inference as to whether tectonic forcing created the pattern of sequences, however, the evidence is strong for tectonic influence on deposition and the sequence stratigraphy. The tidal influence suggests a restricted embayment setting for the Lanoria. We therefore infer an aulacogen as the tectonic setting. Additionally, the Lanoria outcrop forms part of a band of similar Mesoproterozoic siliciclastic outcrops that extend from westernmost Texas to northern Arizona.(SEELEY, John M., Department of Geological Sciences, Univ of Texas at El Paso)

Bob Valdez is trying to get by in the world doing his job,
being a good person,
having to confront an uncaring power on his own,
by himself, the underdog.
Simply written moving story of the heart of people involved in forces larger than themselves,
holding on to who they are and what they believe in.
Again the focus is on the skills of living in a hard land amongst cruel folk.
Here our hero is pitted against ruthless cattle baron, Frank Tanner,
whose thoughtless pursuits are costly to the innocent and guilty,
a force of nature it seems to his victims,
Roberto finds his own true self and true love
as he stands against Tanner in a final showdown
that bears the unique mark of a youthful Elmore Leonard.
Love interest is Erin Gay another troubled women,
fresh from killing her drunken abusive husband
now trapped in an inequitable relationship with the baron Tanner.
An R.L.Davis appears as the nasty spineless self involved henchman,
an interesting device in the balance of power and judgment
the usual cast of Beaudry and DeSpain play their roles as dignified towns folk.
The Horse breaker Diego (Dig) Luz reappears as well,
this time as a settled family man who aids our hero at every turn,
enough similarities to relate to the earlier Phil Sundeen foreman of Law at Randado 1954.
This is the kind of character development I have come to enjoy in Ducth’s work.
A point worth pursuing perhaps is the evolution of this story from its beginning as short stories,
from 1954 The Hanging of Bobby Valdez (Saint with a Six Gun) and
1961 Only Good Ones (Western Roundup, WWA, Macmillan)
to the novel 1970
then the movie treatment with Burt Lancaster.1971
Could Russell Crowe play Roberto Eladio Valdez?

Lochiel’s post office was established August 23, 1880 and was discontinued September 30, 1911 sequentially under three names Luttrell, owner of a smelter, La Noria, and then Lochiel, named for the hometown of the ranchers from Scotland. There were two smelters, three saloons, a butcher, bakery, livery stables, five stores, a boardinghouse, and Pancho Villa. Yes, this was a favorite place for Pancho to rustle cattle into Mexico. Lochiel is also the spot where the first European went west of the Rockies, Fray Marcos de Niza on April 12, 1539. - GT Arizona Ghost Towns

The Catholic symbology at play in Law and Valdez is striking and the conversations with St.Fransis’ orbs out of this world

ST262 - San Rafael State Park and More
We will visit the mining camps of Duquesne and Washington Camp, then on to Lochiel, originally called “La Noria” or “water wheel” - the Arizona/Mexican border crossing that was closed in 1978. On the way we will stop at the monument to Fray Marcos de Niza, who entered Arizona in 1540. Then, we’ll visit San Rafael State Park and tour the ranch where Oklahoma was filmed. Warning, this tour has many miles of Arizona back road driving. If you have an aversion to riding on back roads, this tour is not for you - but if you like history and you enjoy beautiful countryside, join us!
Dick Paige, experienced leader (Pima Community College"s Arizona Tours)

Explain bracket please.

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Posted: 07 August 2007 03:23 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 56 ]
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This bracket business: everyone knows that Elmore does amusing & even likeable bad guys. We fans know that at heart he’s an old-fashioned black-hat/white-hat storyteller. But if you look closely you’ll see from time to time he tries to do an absolute hero; not someone doing their job, however excessively, not someone “Living in a hard land amongst cruel people”(good phrase, that). A pure altruist, someone seeking Absolute Good. Juvie in Touch is the obvious one. But I think Elmore’s first try at the pure altruist was Valdez. He’s looking for justice for the Indin woman, & will go to any lengths to get it. And I believe the same thing is part of the makeup of Vincent Mora in Glitz. His interest in Ir-ees isn’t sexual. He genuinely wants what’s best for her because for some reason he’s drawn to her. When she is killed, again, he goes to extreme lengths to get justice for her; & in the meantime helps the café owner with the fucked-up hand. See?

R.L. Davis’ story’s good, isn’t it? I think maybe the same kind of thing could’ve been made of Newton Hoon had he not been expidited so summarily.

Nobody’s shown any interest in Frank Fink. Don’t you see how important he is to the civilised world as we know it?

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Posted: 07 August 2007 05:22 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 57 ]
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hey ddog
this black hat white hat
doesn’t really fly
I think
unless
it is tossed
into the air
in celebration
of reality
this bracket thing sounds like a cheap dohickey
to say or do anything that one has a desire to do
the greatness of being human expressable
related to purity of concepts
as the music of the spheres
believing as we do
no cardboard cutouts in any of the work
real people dealing with real shit

52 Pick-Up 1974
He could not get used to going to the girl’s apartment

The Wild West is behind Dutch, back in Detroit with another one of his working class heroes, hard nosed entrepreneur, owner of Ranco Mfg., veteren fighter pilot, Henry Mitchell.  Mitch to his friends and his wife Barbara, another slim, fit, good looking 40 something woman of strong character and love for her man, similar to the couples in The Switch, Killshot and others where the tension of husband and wife is part of the crime plot at hand, here Barbara forgives Mitch his indiscretions with “Cini”, Cynthia Taylor, a peep show model in the sleaziest joint ever seen in an Elmore Leonard novel, and tries to help him as the noose is tightened by the three stooges of crime, fat Leo Frank, greasy long haired Alan Raimy and ice cool brother Bobby Shy, we will see these characters again in later Leonard stories, with new names more or less but these are the guys who think up the weird shit that criminal minds are famous for and who work harder for the money they don’t get than the working stiff heroes who do. Ice cold and blazing hot all at the same time.

This was the last book on the list of Elmore Leonard’s work
I have been able to read, Touch was the first
all credit goes to the Toronto Public Library that
delivered the whole list to my local branch,
now I am working back over the titles
rereading them all for the pleasure of doing so and
the unique experience of knowing the totality of the work,
hoping to derive some tribute worthy of the man and his times.
The Elmore Review
A jazz ensemble with skits and music
Peopled by characters in shades from Detroit and Palm Beach, black suits, ties and flowered shorts.
djones there is a part for you
what could it be?

There was a Frank Fink
in a PK Dick novel called
the man in the high tower
that had some of this extra worldly stuff
or was his name
frank frink
hmmmmm

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Posted: 07 August 2007 07:44 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 58 ]
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I’ll play guitar. Not one of those fat Gibsons you usually see in jazz combos though: I’ll bring my Tele & Jazzmaster if I break a string (or if one is stolen to garrotte someone with).

Frank Fink changed his name in The Man in the high CASTLE to Frink because the Germans & Japs won the war. Then, with the aid of the i-ching, he made a piece of jewelry that created a different reality, & that reality happens to be the one in which we live, where Krauts & Japs lost the war. So you see how important a Frank he is.

Black hat/white hat: I mean that before Tishamingo, EL never let a major criminal get away with it or the cops get foxed. Brackets are these things: (  [ { ] ) }. They come in many shapes & are flexible.

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Posted: 07 August 2007 10:34 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 59 ]
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You guys are a riot.  Keep it going. 

Son, you kinda lost me when you talked about finishng the list.  Granted, the library probably won’t have every book in Elmore’s stable, so does that mean you are now rereading from your own personal collection, keeping the messier alive?  Surely you’re not going to stop in the mid-70s and start over again.  Or am I missing something?  (wouldn’t be the first time)

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Posted: 08 August 2007 04:17 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 60 ]
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It’s Summer. The bum doesn’t have to hang out in the Public Library to keep warm.

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