On the subject of cozy mysteries I would say that Otto Penzler is half right. By and large they do suck, although I'm sure there are exceptions. But it's not because they're mostly written by women. It's because the formula encourages authors to make little variations like which state the small town setting is in and what kind of quaint business the amateur sleuth runs, while not taking creative chances anywhere else.
On the larger question of what to do with someone like Penzler, the obvious answer is "nothing." If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you believe that being an artist means you should never have to deal with people who disagree with you, you won't be a very good one.
Rosenfield notes that when Penzler was bounced from editing the Best American Mystery series he started his own anthology series that immediately outsold theirs. The man knows what he's doing. You want to keep people like that around.
2 comments:
It is the beginning of the end.
I'd have to agree about the cozies even though I can't recall having read one. The titles and the blurbs are quite enough to show how entirely formulaic most of them are. I do have a collection of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novels. Do you suppose they count even if they were first?
That was a fine article about Penzler, a man definitely worth knowing if one was lucky. I loved the bit about him succeeding with his own anthology series after getting the boot. Thank goodness for cranky old men, may they and their descendents prosper and multiply. Jordan Peterson is another of that ilk.
I especially liked this quote:
The writer Oliver Traldi quipped, “before you read about this man’s life, let’s precisely calibrate your sense of to what extent he was on the right side of history as conceived by readers of this absolute rag in the current year”.
I have an affection for Miss Marple as well. Whether they count as cozies is a good question. Of course going back to what we agree on, the subgenre tends to be pretty damn formulaic. Whether or not the Marple books are cozies, the formula hasn't been set yet and Agatha Christie is just doing her Christie thing.
Cranky old men are often those who have fallen out with the ruling faction. That makes them interesting and often valuable, especially when the ruling faction is...as it is now.
I can see where Traldi is coming from. The chattering classes divide and evaluate everyone on the basis of "are they on my side of the culture war." And it's getting so even obituaries and death notices are occasions for the same thing. Enough.
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