A Quote by Donald E. Westlake
Westlake is allusive, indirect, referential, a bit rococo, Stark strips his sentences down to the necessary information.
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I wouldn't care to speculate about what it is in Westlake's psyche that makes him so good at writing about Parker, much less what it is that makes me like the Parker novels so much. Suffice it to say that Stark/Westlake is the cleanest of all noir novelists, a styleless stylist who gets to the point with stupendous economy, hustling you down the path of plot so briskly that you have to read his books a second time to appreciate the elegance and sober wit with which they are written.
Poets in our civilization, as it exists at present, must be difficult...The poet must become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to force, to dislocate if necessary, language into its meaning.
A few hours after the news broke about the death of crime writer Donald E. Westlake, a newspaper asked me to write a tribute. In short order I did so, calling attention to his decades-long career, both under his own name and that of his primary alter ego, Richard Stark, who introduced the unsentimental antihero-heister Parker to the literary canon.
It is only now and then, in a jungle, or amidst the towering white menace of a burnt or burning Australian forest, that Nature strips the moral veils from vegetation and we apprehend its stark ferocity.
Oooh!" Bill squealed. "Very rococo." "So, I'm really doing this? I'm just going to go down there and pretend--" (Luce) "No pretending." Bill shook his head. "Own it. Own that cleavage, girl, you know you want to.
Mothers send strips to daughters to make a point. Daughters smack strips down on the breakfast table to make a point. My own mom sometimes cuts a strip out and sends it to me to make sure I understand her.
You see, for me [art]'s not one of life's ornaments, rococo relaxation to be greeted affably after a day of hard work; I'm inverted on this : for me it's my very breath, the one thing necessary, and all else is excretion and a latrine.
To avoid a future of war, crime, and bankruptcy, the individual must begin to plan his own destiny, and the best source for the necessary information comes down to us through the writings of the ancients. The greatest knowledge of all time should be available ... in a book that would be a monument, not merely a coffin.
I'm just worn down and weary of bands whose lyrics are cryptic and self-referential.
However, a Jedi who only fights in self defense and draws his lightsaber only to defend the innocent or to strike down his foe as quickly and painlessly as possible, that's what the lightsaber is for. That's what a Jedi is supposed to be. That's how it's supposed to go down. It's not supposed to be pretty or flashy. It's simply a necessary move. And that's it. Only the most necessary moves survive into the original Star Wars trilogy.
As I considered Parker and his absurdist reflection in the Westlake-authored 'Dortmunder' novels, I wrote, 'His natural ability to observe human behavior and to follow an idea, no matter how bizarre, through to its proper, rightful finish echoed the vision of an architect.'
I think that an artist is a bit like a computer. He receives information from the world around him and from his past and from his own experiences. And it all goes into the brain.
Even when I do really big pieces, I do them strips by strips - so you have to paste, you have to involve people. It's a whole process. And I like that. For me, that's where the artwork is.
I think in daily newspapers, the way comic strips are treated, it's as if newspaper publishers are going out of their way to kill the medium. They're printing the comics so small that most strips are just talking heads, and if you look back at the glory days of comic strips, you can see that they were showcases for some of the best pop art ever to come out.
Solid information is necessary, but insufficient. We also need to present that information in ways that are inspiring and accessible. That's where stories come in.
Learn to live more in the Self. Come down a little bit to eat and talk as necessary.
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