Reading and Language 30 Apr 2005 05:23 pm
A sexist fool flaps his gums.
Just when you think the troglodytes must have finally died off:
“The women who write [cozies] stop the action to go shopping, create a recipe, or take care of cats,” he says. “Cozies are not serious literature. They don’t deserve to win. Men take [writing] more seriously as art. Men labor over a book to make it literature. There are wonderful exceptions, of course—P.D. James, Ruth Rendell.”
The “he” of “he says” is Otto Penzler (”Who?”), described as the dean of mystery-writing in America (”Oh.”), quoted here in a slightly incoherent article about perceived sexist bias in the Edgars.
Hurree of Kitabkhana gleefully rewrites a scene from The Long Goodbye to fit Penzler’s idea of women’s writing.
“The first time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of The Dancers, so drunk that he had gotten all the ingredients to Miss Stella’s Mystery Cake mixed up. The secret ingredient is tomato, lots of it. I knew that. But then I knew that the tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable. Terry Lennox didn’t.
There’s more. It’s pretty good fun.
on 30 Apr 2005 at 5:40 pm 1.Canyonwren said …
“Cozies”?
WTF?
on 30 Apr 2005 at 9:28 pm 2.Cam Sculpin said …
Oh! Not like tea cozies. “Cozy” mysteries are the opposite of hardboiled. Often there’s an amateur sleuth (typically older and female) solving crimes that usually leave nobody all that upset. They tend to be low on graphic violence and high on eccentric characters and humor. A happy (or at least satisfying) ending is almost guaranteed.
Quality varies from gimmicky piffle (The Chocolate Cat Quilt Murders) to such classic stuff as Gaudy Night.
on 30 Apr 2005 at 10:56 pm 3.Canyonwren said …
Ah, yes I recognize the type. I pondered that, but couldn’t get away from the tea cozy image. The cat mysteries, the old lady mysteries, the librarian-as-hero mysteries would probably all fit into there. Hmm. It’s still a vaguely condescending term. And for the record, Miss Marple and Mrs. Pollifax rock! I’ve been reading Mrs. Pollifax books since I was a kid.