Crime, Conspiracies, Bond, & Bibles

Posted by J. Mark Bertrand
on Monday, December 11, 2006
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Literary novelists who write about crime
Sarah Weinman links to a review by John Williams of the latest Best American Mystery Stories anthology, and I like what it says. Williams explains what's missing from the book, and in the process talks about the blurring of lines between literary and crime:

...over the past couple of decades, the boundaries between crime and literary fiction have blurred. You can see the effects of this everywhere: the new Updike is a thriller, the Cormac McCarthy before last likewise. More importantly, there is a whole list of fine American writers who deal with the hard-knock world in which crime is a constant backdrop, and who marry love of language with love of plot and story: I'm thinking of Pete Dexter, Daniel Woodrell, William Gay and Richard Price, just for starters. Simply put, they're literary novelists who write about crime.

A literary novelist who writes about crime is exactly what I'd call myself at the moment. That's where my novel The Pattern of Wounds seems to fit on the shelf. I can't claim to be in the league of the authors Williams invokes, but I think it's fair to say there's a resemblance of sorts. Since I've had such a hard time figuring out how to talk about this book, reading something like this is quite encouraging.

A conspiracy afoot?
I subscribe to more than two hundred RSS feeds and counting. One of them comes from a site that debunks September 11 conspiracy theorists -- and by debunk I mean that it shamelessly mocks them in hilarious ways that consist primarily of just quoting them. Well, something happened last week and now just about all of my RSS feeds are displaying text from one conspiracy post. The titles are right, but the text underneath isn't. So, for example, I might see a title that suggests Lisa Samson is blogging about Paris Hilton, but underneath I discover the there's been a falling out between prominent "9/11 scholars."

This could be a technical glitch. Or it could be that everyone is blogging about the conspiracy at the same time, in the same words. But I can't help feeling that's what they want us to think. I'm not sure how this fits into the worldwide cover-up, but I'm certain it does. And the fact that it's happening only to me makes me wonder . . . am I getting too close? Have I unwittingly stumbled onto something they don't want me to know?

"Trueman. Carl Trueman."
The hardboiled church historian sees the new Bond flick and uses it as an occasion to lord it over the Welsh. Of course, Tom Jones did sing the theme song to Thunderball, which has to count for something.

Nelson in the news
Last week's Publisher's Weekly story on Thomas Nelson's new editorial standards caused a stir online -- and prompted this clarification from Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt. Now, The New Yorker features a piece that takes an inside look at Bible publishing, primarily through the eyes of Nelson employees. It's a good article, though there's plenty to be cynical about. Whenever I read about all the "choices" we have when it comes to buying Bibles, I can't help thinking, "Bibles, Bibles everywhere, and not a . . . what rhymes with drink?"

I don't mind the idea of Bibles being produced for niche groups -- though I'd rather see these accommodations made on the design level, not the translation level. But I'm losing hope that "people who care about quality and good design" will ever be recognized as a niche by publishers. So many projects seem to start with the idea of appealing to people who don't read the Bible, for whatever reason. I'd like to see at least one Bible designed for people who love the book and read it regularly, and don't like it to look bad or fall apart when actually used.

My idea? A made-to-measure Bible. Select your translation and layout, how you want it bound, how wide you want the margins to be, how many ribbons, and what back matter you'd like to include, and then the magic computer transmits your whims to the magic factory and your Bible arrives toot-sweet. The ability to do this might be a few years off, but that doesn't stop me from dreaming.