I, obviously, spend way too much time thinking about these things--but I feel like Lansdale's a writer who's about to shift from being "old guard" to being "vanguard," as if he's always been perceived as a different sort of writer than the writer he really is.
Beneath the surface, he was a little bit ahead of his time and he might be one of those ones who's just lucky enough to have culture suddenly catch up to his sensibilities.
A contemporary genius (Ligotti, for example, or Aickman, despite their being radically different writers) can create brilliant work without ever hitching a ride on the strange beast that is pop culture--but Lansdale strikes me as fourteen to twenty-six months away from doing that weird Jack Ketcham move, where a whole lot of people are suddenly re-reading old work and finding new satisfaction. (Maybe inspired by tv, film, or comics, for example.)
I haven't read him recently, but I feel like Lansdale's old material's full of themes and ideas that are going to leap back to the forefront and we'll be hearing his name again, lots, soon...and not just because some shuttle Columbia debris landed in his yard...
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Lansdale
Date: 2011-10-02 08:48 pm (UTC)Beneath the surface, he was a little bit ahead of his time and he might be one of those ones who's just lucky enough to have culture suddenly catch up to his sensibilities.
A contemporary genius (Ligotti, for example, or Aickman, despite their being radically different writers) can create brilliant work without ever hitching a ride on the strange beast that is pop culture--but Lansdale strikes me as fourteen to twenty-six months away from doing that weird Jack Ketcham move, where a whole lot of people are suddenly re-reading old work and finding new satisfaction. (Maybe inspired by tv, film, or comics, for example.)
I haven't read him recently, but I feel like Lansdale's old material's full of themes and ideas that are going to leap back to the forefront and we'll be hearing his name again, lots, soon...and not just because some shuttle Columbia debris landed in his yard...