T.Rex-n-effeckx Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 But the conversation soon veered into movies and TV, and dude has some strong opinions, staring with "Skyfall" which he says had some influence on his upcoming book. "...the book takes a theme I first got hip to thanks to 'Skyfall.' It’s f*cking brilliant and it’s the only profound James Bond movie," he said. "They’re usually boring and overlong; the books are boring and racist. The stories are shoddy and sloppily plotted. But 'Skyfall' is about the defence of the West, and that’s what the series is about." Turning to television, Ellroy somewhat surprisingly reveals he likes the format — just not the popular TV shows everyone loves. "I like the form, in fact I love the form. I watch TV shows at a friend’s house most Friday nights. I think 'Deadwood' and 'Mad Men' were intermittently quite wonderful, but often shoddy and veered into incoherence. I saw one or two episodes of 'The Wire' and thought it was bullsh*t. Bad writing. And I have no sympathy for the underclass," Ellroy said http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/james-ellroy-says-skyfall-is-f-cking-brilliant-and-profound-but-the-wire-is-bullsh-t-with-bad-writing-20140220 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaedmc Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 "And I have no sympathy for the underclass," Ellroy said That's more interesting than whatever he said about the Wire. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 I'm usually gung-ho to jump into a Skyfall argument cuz I really think that was the best Bond movie ever, but that's as far as I'm willing to go on this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Why do writers feel the need to troll the shit out of everyone constantly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raziel Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Ooooh, does someone have aspirations on being the new Rand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 And I have no sympathy for the underclass," Ellroy said Yikes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVileOne Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 That sounds like a misleading headline to me. To me he's just saying he really loved Skyfall and doesn't like The Wire in two completely separate conversations. He wasn't directly comparing the two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaedmc Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 What's even MORE interesting is how he got to talking about Skyfall: What can you tell us about your new project, the second LA Quartet? I’m about to finish the first volume, called Perfidia – my biggest book – which will be published in Britain this fall. The new quartet takes characters both fictional and real, major and minor, from the first quartet and the trilogy, but places them in LA during the Second World War. It’s the month of Pearl Harbor, 6-29 December 1941. It seamlessly takes the quartet and trilogy, adds four novels, and makes my oeuvre as a historical novelist one inextricable 11-novel whole. And although the story is very much about the injustice of the internment of the Japanese – most of them innocent – let me say, and this is very un-PC, the f*cking internment was not the Holocaust or the Soviet Gulag. Will people disagree with that? I don’t think they’d like my tone. But the book takes a theme I first got hip to thanks to Skyfall. It’s f*cking brilliant and it’s the only profound James Bond movie. They’re usually boring and overlong; the books are boring and racist. The stories are shoddy and sloppily plotted. But Skyfall is about the defence of the West, and that’s what the series is about. I also want to write an espionage trilogy set immediately after the Second World War called the Red Alert Trilogy. Churchill predicted the Iron Curtain and Soviet aggression, and thought we should go into Russia while they were weak after the Second World War. In hindsight, he was right. So he starts talking about Japanese internment camps(Piranesi is right, he's trolling me) and then uses Skyfall to get the fuck out of talking about it more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Domino_Not_Deuce Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 That sounds like a misleading headline to me. To me he's just saying he really loved Skyfall and doesn't like The Wire in two completely separate conversations. He wasn't directly comparing the two. That's not really the contentious statement here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcosLoura Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 He sounds like an awesome guy. Not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AxB Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Great writer, terrible person, no? But I'd have thought he had enough about him to know that pointing out someone else's (Ian Fleming's) racism doesn't automatically mean you can be as racist as you like because you 'know it's wrong'. Saying "I have no sympathy for the Underclass" with reference to The Wire is code for "James Ellroy doesn't care about Black People", right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 James Ellroy: batshit crazy from day one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 He and Orson Scott Card must love each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 he's right, though, The Wire fucking sucks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zheroen Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Great writer, terrible person, no? But I'd have thought he had enough about him to know that pointing out someone else's (Ian Fleming's) racism doesn't automatically mean you can be as racist as you like because you 'know it's wrong'. Saying "I have no sympathy for the Underclass" with reference to The Wire is code for "James Ellroy doesn't care about Black People", right? Sure, if you're retarded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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