Just when you thought it was gone for good -- more thriller blogging

I had previously complained about the ads for James Patterson's books using the word 'unputdownable.' I would not have thought they could get worse, but they have.

The latest has Patterson say directly to the camera "New York has never had a great detective hero until Michael Bennett in Tick Tock."

This is a strange comment for a couple of reasons. First, New York has had its share of memorable fictional detectives from Nero Wolfe and Mike Hammer to Bernie Rhodenbarr and Matthew Scudder. The last two are the creations of Lawrence Block, whom Stephen King named the only writer who come close to replacing John D. MacDonald (a quote that still embarrasses Block). Block, who is still putting out books in his seventies, has received wide critical acclaim, particularly for his pitch-black Scudder novels and is one of those writers other writers tend to single out for praise.

Which, in a way, brings us to the second odd point: Patterson's suggestion that he's the man to fill in the gap. Patterson is not one of those writers other writers tend to praise while critics have mostly ranged from the brutal to the Lincolnesque.*

Perhaps Patterson is using this ad as a chance to slap down some of his critics (including Block's admirer, Stephen King).

Or of course this could just be a way of selling more books.





* "People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like."

Times change

A few years ago (more than a few, now that I think about it), a sociology professor told me that, back in the Sixties, Texas Instruments would accept any Ph.D. as qualification to work there, regardless of what area the degree was in. I never had a chance to ask someone from TI about this but I recently came across a kind of confirmation in a crime novel of all places.

The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep, was Lawrence Block's first attempt at a continuing character and, unlike his other series, this and the books that followed are now mainly well-written period pieces of the mid-Sixties. The books are an odd mix of Ambler and Fleming centered around Even Tanner, an eccentric radical-at-large who actively supports every fringe group he can find ranging from left-wing separatists to a society dedicated to returning the House of Stuart to the British Throne.

To support this unusual lifestyle, Tanner supports himself writing theses for anyone with a few hundred to spare (the story behind that career choice would take too long to recount here). Most of his clients are business types looking to build their resumes. As he puts it:

Industry considers a bachelor's degree indispensable, and, by a curious extension, regards master's and doctorates as a way of separating the men from the boys. I don't understand this. Why should a Ph.D. awarded for an extended essay on color symbolism in the poetry of Pushkin have anything to do with a man's competence to develop a sales promotion campaign for a manufacturer of ladies underwear?

It would be nice to have some numbers to back up the anecdotes, but can you imagine anyone today saying, even in a work of fiction, that the way to get ahead in business is to get a doctorate in Russian literature?

(for a point of comparison, check out this post from YoungFemaleScientist)

"Research is a joy"

I tried to shoehorn this quote into a post I'm working on. I couldn't make it fit but I couldn't bring myself to throw it away either. So here it is.

The source is Lawrence Block's early novel, The Thief who Couldn't Sleep. The narrator is (among other things) a professional thesis writer working on a dissertation about Turkish prosecution of Armenians.

It was pleasant work. Research is a joy, especially when one is not burdened by an excessive reverence for the truth. By inventing an occasional source and injecting an occasional spurious footnote, one softens the harsh curves in the royal road of scholarship.