This exchange between Jon Carroll and mystery writer, Ross Macdonald (real name, Kenneth Millar), originally appeared in
Esquire Magazine in June of 1972:
The reporter said: “It seems that people who read a great many mystery stories are subject to a kind of social hazing. It seems to be considered a mild vice, like smoking cigars or speaking too loudly.”
“I think,” said Millar, settling into his chair, “that there are serious reasons for it. The mystery novel deals with subjects that are untouched in the kind of sensitive and stiff middle-class society you’re talking about—death, crime and other forms of evil. The subject is evil; all mystery novels are about evil. Evil has traditionally not been talked about very much. I really think the roots of the mystery novel go back to the medieval fabliau, which deliberately dealt with taboo subjects. I think it’s significant that very early dramas were known as mysteries. They dealt in a more human way than the Scriptures or church services with sacred subjects and matters of good and evil. Now, of course, what used to be taboo is more or less taken for granted. But a certain aura of evil hangs around the form—the same kind of aura that, for a different reason, hangs around sex writing.”
Awkward silence. The reporter then said: “Another link between sex writing and thriller writing is that they are both popular arts.”
Millar leaned forward, sighting an easy opening. “Very much so. That’s the primary reason that I’m a mystery writer. I have a very strong feeling that it’s the duty of a writer, or at least of this particular writer, to write popular fiction. Ideally, a community tends to communicate with itself through its fiction, and this communication tends to break down if there are Mandarin novels written for Mandarins and lowbrow novels written for lowbrows, and so on. My aim from the beginning has been to write novels that can be read by all kinds of people.”
I collect many things, and the work of Kenneth Millar/Ross Macdonald is among them. Within that collection, I collect both lowbrow and highbrow items by a writer who worked in a genre considered populist and low brow and elevated it to what could be considered literature; I collect his lowly paperbacks with illustrated covers, but also his handwritten manuscripts and letters.
Some of you may have read this link before (I’ve shared it in the past). Several years ago, I designed a Ross Macdonald coffee table book that had text made from interviews my late friend, Paul Nelson (of Bob Dylan and New York Dolls fame) did with Ross Macdonald the Spring and Summer of 1976; the book featured over 1,300 items from my personal Ross Macdonald collection. Here’s an interview I did with the Library of America shortly after the book’s release:
It’s All One Case: The Illustrated Ross Macdonald Archives (Fantagraphics, 2016) A major new entry into the critical literature on crime novelist Ross Macdonald arrives this fall with the release of It’s All One Case: The Illustrated Ross Macdonald Archives from Fantagraphic Books. Editor Kevin...
www.loa.org
There are many combinations of lowbrow and highbrow (to varying degrees) within my interests. I collect toys, but often strive for ones in their original packaging; I collect LPs by popular musicians, but this includes rare test pressings and acetates; I collect comic books, but also original art; I love a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon in the summer, but usually prefer craft beer by microbreweries; I’m able to enjoy a humble table wine, but love Vintage Port and Madeira. I love White Castle hamburgers, but a wine paired meal at Le Bernardin is much appreciated and savoured. I’m at home watching cheesy action movies, but happy to discuss symbolism and allusions in a Fellini film for hours. I love
Jidaigeki Samurai and Yakuza movies, but also collect the original Japanese theatrical movie posters for them.
I grew up with Big Daddy Roth Hot Rod stickers and Art Spiegelman’s cardboard Wacky Packages for Topps from 1967. Lowbrow is in my DNA, and highbrow grew from within that.
