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April 14, 2008

BOND MEETS MAIGRET

Librarian's Place alerts us to this wonderfully entertaining account of a conversation betwen Georges Simenon and Ian Fleming discussing the business of writing thrillers.

'My friends think my writing isn't literature and therefore deserves no sympathy at all,' Fleming said.

'Thrillers may not be Literature with a capital L, but it is possible to write thrillers designed to be read as Literature. Practitioners in this vein have included such people as Edgar Allan Poe, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Eric Ambler, Graham Greene, and of course, Simenon. I see nothing shameful in aiming as high as these."

Posted by TEV at 12:54 PM in Litlinks |

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