James Ellroy appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs this week. The premise of the venerable show (its been going since 1942) is that you are cast away on a desert island with only 8 records. You then talk about what 8 records (or pieces of music) you would pick, what they mean to you, and of course we get to hear snippets from all of them. You are also allowed one book on the island and you talk about that too. Ellroy's choices were surprising: really heavy on the Beethoven and Bruckner, nothing from North America. And for his book he went for Don Dellilo's Libra. I thought Libra was a great novel and will always remember that beautiful scene of Lee Harvey Oswald riding the subway in New York, at the front of the very first car looking out into the dark tunnels; Libra makes it clear that Oswald indeed shot JFK and was the lone gunman. Interestingly Ellroy's most important work The Underworld Trilogy takes the opposite tack and has the unlikely premise that Oswald was an utter patsy and that JFK was killed by Hoover and the Mafia. Anyway you can hear Ellroy explain himself (and for three more days you can listen to the entire programme) here. The pic is of Ellroy talking to Stu Neville at the great No Alibis bookshop in Belfast (Ellroy is the lanky, bald one). I've written about Ellroy a couple of times, most recently here.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
James Ellroy On Desert Island Discs
James Ellroy appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs this week. The premise of the venerable show (its been going since 1942) is that you are cast away on a desert island with only 8 records. You then talk about what 8 records (or pieces of music) you would pick, what they mean to you, and of course we get to hear snippets from all of them. You are also allowed one book on the island and you talk about that too. Ellroy's choices were surprising: really heavy on the Beethoven and Bruckner, nothing from North America. And for his book he went for Don Dellilo's Libra. I thought Libra was a great novel and will always remember that beautiful scene of Lee Harvey Oswald riding the subway in New York, at the front of the very first car looking out into the dark tunnels; Libra makes it clear that Oswald indeed shot JFK and was the lone gunman. Interestingly Ellroy's most important work The Underworld Trilogy takes the opposite tack and has the unlikely premise that Oswald was an utter patsy and that JFK was killed by Hoover and the Mafia. Anyway you can hear Ellroy explain himself (and for three more days you can listen to the entire programme) here. The pic is of Ellroy talking to Stu Neville at the great No Alibis bookshop in Belfast (Ellroy is the lanky, bald one). I've written about Ellroy a couple of times, most recently here.
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35 comments:
"... the entire American Underworld trilogy can be read as an apocalyptic parable about the rise of fascism."
Great line, Adrian, a great description of the books.
And what weird timing, I'm reading Ellroy right now.
And I'm also spending a lot of time these days wondering about "truth" and perception and all that. Ellroy certainly used all that conspiracy-theory stuff to tell great stories and he mixed his characters in with real people so well.
So what effect does it have when everyone has their own truth?
Well, John, either Ellroy or Delillo has to be truer to the actual facts, I suppose. It was Oswald alone or Oswald not alone and the truth of that doesn't change because of what we believe about it. Unless the universe is a lot weirder than we've been led to believe it is.
Talking about reading synchronicity, I've just finished the part of Cloud Atlas that's about the imagined future corpocracy and turn on the news last night to hear that the supremed court has ruled that the corporation, as a fictional person, has unlimited campaign spending powers. So, as Keith Olbermann rightly said it's all over here. Or will be soon. I feel like I'm living in the last days of the Roman Republic.
supremed court was a typo, but I kind of like it.
You're the first person who didn't say the last days of the Roman Empire - thanks for that.
Every once in awhile I get it right. Not that often, though.
I remeember going to a reading by Ellroy and expecting jazz, if music came up at all. I was surprised by his reverence for Beethoven.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com
John
Although (spoiler alert) Hoover does finally die in the end. If he's a tenth as bad as Ellroy portrays him the FBI should not be woring in the Jay Edgar Hoover building.
Seana
Its worrying but the Democrats should be able to pass a new law that is more narrowly defined and doesnt fall foul of the 1st Amendment. That is if they can do anything.
I think Ellroy does a great job of setting the mood of the time. All those guys trying to stop the tide of change and control things, keep the status quo. It's like guys in another part of the world right now...
The Desert Island interview was good, too. I liked the part about how he kept his job as a caddy for years after he started publishing books.
By the way, Adrian, your trilogy is available as e-books in Canada now from the new Indigo service, Kobo.
Peter
And there was that book White Jazz...Apparently when he read in Australia he was accompanied by a bongo player.
John
Andy Kaufman kept working as a busboy even after Taxi became a hit. Although I think that might have been some kind of crazy performance art rather than insecurity.
Ellroy invoked Beethoven with awe and, if you can believe it, humility.
Form what little I know of Andy Kauffman's career, his comedy was so advanced it had long passed the need to be funny.
================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Talking of Hoover, the Washington Post has a feature on his friendship with radio identity Paul Harvey (also on CBS website). Feel your skin crawl as the article outlines the pair's chummy relationship and Harvey's eagerness to betray to Joseph McCarthy those he assumed to be Communists. But what I thought was interesting was that the author, Joe Stephens, felt the need to explain who McCarthy was. Is that usual in the US?
dpougher, I don't know if setting the stage is all that common in U.S. history, but if it isn't, it should be. Unfortunately. I say that confidently, as a more or less typical American citizen.
Adrian, Barnie Frank seems to think it may be possible to contain the opportunities for overextended influence by statute. But personally, I'm skeptical that Congress can get this or anything else of value done. I think too many of them, and it doesn't apparently even take that many, are too beholden to special interests to get that done.
I really just find it boggling that one decision by one branch of government can be so far reaching and so invisible to so many. As bad as Bush's decision to go into Iraq was, at least it was out in the open where everyone could see it. This seems more like something slipped into our collective drinks.
This seems more like something slipped into our collective drinks.
I salute your grim verbal flair, madam. We've been slipped a collective Mickey Finn.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Seana
"Woring in the J Edgar Hoover building" - I wonder if the missing letter was a K or an H.
They could alwsys do an FDR and say OK we're going to make the Supreme Court a court of 11 Judges. Nothing in the Constitution about the number 9. You could do that by executive order. That would learn them.
And then the Supreme Court could form its own cricket eleven. Or a soccer team, which, if I referred its games, I would give Antonin Scalia a yellow card as soon as I saw him sucking in air and getting ready to hold forth.
Dpougher
Yeah I agree with Seana, its VERY sad that we need reminding of this stuff but we do need it. The teaching of history everywhere is in decline. I remember having to memorise big chunks of things in school. No one does that anymore.
Peter
I am no fan of Scalia. HOWEVER he did do one of the great dissents of all time in PGA v Martin:
"I am sure that the Framers of the Constitution, aware of the 1457 edict of King James II of Scotland prohibiting golf because it interfered with the practice of archery, fully expected that sooner or later the paths of golf and government, the law and the links, would once again cross, and that the judges of this august Court would some day have to wrestle with that age-old jurisprudential question, for which their years of study in the law have so well prepared them: Is someone riding around a golf course from shot to shot really a golfer?"
Equally I am sure the Framers thought that it was fine for say Exxon to cut thirty minutes TV commericals endorsing particular candidates.
Peter, thanks for the compliment, but grim is the word I would accent in that sentence.
Adrian, yeah, I sort of read that as "worrying", but your choices are better.
I like your thinking about bulking out the court. The problem is that I doubt we have the collective will to do it. We don't actually seem to have the collective will to do anything right now. The very small ray of light is that a lot of people with public voices seem to have gotten right on this. I'm impressed by Alan Grayson's getting a petition together immediately and then introducing a bunch of bills in the house, and now getting Conyers on board. I've been impressed with Grayson already. He seems like someone who came to Washington to get something done, not just calculate the risks. Funny thing is, it will probably help him politically too.
Watching the Haiti telethon right now. Seeing that a hundred celebs are manning and womaning the phones and putting on a show to get people on board makes me think that maybe the capital should be moved to Hollywood. And I'm not someone who is hugely moved by celebrity in general, but at least they are getting something done. Senators and Reps might want to take a page or two out of their book.
I hope the other justices give Scalia wedgies and steal his lunch money, the &(*&% showoff.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Seana
Its amazing how little they seem to get done, controlling both houses of congress and the Presidency. I dont know if its laziness or incompetence or just a lack of will.
Peter
Scalia's laughing now. He's the intellectual leader of the group of 5 who seem to be writing all the opinions. He's clever but he's on the wrong side of history on so many issues.
Laughing? More like a superior chuckle in Scalia's case, I'd say. I've never known any justice except him to project much of a personality through the excerpts of decisions reported in the press, and his personality is obnoxious. Check out the number of times he'll write "It is clear that ... " or belittle the possibility that anyone could disagree with him.
Re his leadership, Samuel Alito as been called Scalito, and I think someone once said something like when Clarence Thomas moves his mouth, Scalia speaks.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I think it's a simple lack of spine masquerading as political savvy.
I also think it's arrogant of the Original Intenters to think they have some kind of inside track on where the Framers envisioned this country going. They are ingenious rereaders though.
Peter
You should listen to the oral arguments at the SC some time. Clarence Thomas NEVER opens his mouth.
Seana
Its a total lack of backbone I agree. What a sad pathetic bunch. I'm not thinking Hillary would have done a better job.
No, I don't either. I actually think Obama could do a better job. His problem seems to be philosophical rather than having to do with courage. I think the idea of coercing people rather than persuading them by superior argument goes against his grain. Sometimes, though, a little browbeating is called for. And sometimes, when everyone is acting out of fear and self-interest, a little more than that is called for.
Seana
What about Hillary as Pres and Obama as VP and Bill as a sort of persuader/enforcer? That could have been good.
Hey at least we didnt end up with John Edwards or Sarah Palin.
I remember some news stories a while back about Thomas suffering from some sort of paralyzing fear of speaking in public. Balderdash!
The man may spend four decades on the court, and he'll be remembered for nothing other than what he said during his confirmation hearings.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Bill as schmoozer in that Third Trium -- er, vir -- ate that you propose to haul the Democrats through their current angst and paralysis.
Ironically for a discussion about lack of leadership, my v-word is capit.
Zadie Smith wrote a very good piece about Obama written just after his election, which is included in her new essay collection. She praises him for his literary gifts, which, coming from her, is high praise indeed. She speaks of his true ability to hear and capture many different kinds of voices authentically. What she worries about though, even at the time, is whether a writer can really be a political leader as a president is obviously required to be, because basically at some point you have to stop being so damned receptive. She's hoping it's possible, but I think she may have been on to something, unfortunately.
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