Non-P: du Maurier?

[David Kilroy]

Also in re: Rebecca, been thinking about female archetypes in fiction a lot
lately. Predominantly Salomé-- b/c of the project currently cluttering my
desk --but also the folktale of Bluebeard.  'Twas due to Bluebeard that I
picked up Rebecca.  Again that thing with timeless themes.  We always
wonder what happened with the one before.  "Did it simply not work out, OR,
is my One True Love secretly a heinous bastard...?"  Appeals to the morbid
tendency.

The Birds I wound up reading on a lark.

On Fri, Nov 20, 2015 at 1:06 PM, David Kilroy <thesaintgodard at gmail.com>
wrote:

> @Mark:  Quite easy to parse the popularity.  The main character being
> unnamed & ambiguously enough described for readers to patch into; the
> mystery is one we've all experienced to some extent (stumbling through the
> life of one deceased, or the keepsakes of a lover's former love); and--
> like Melville's Pierre --it's a gothic that takes specific pains to mock
> the Manners Novel.  The first half, at least, regularly pokes at class
> hypocrisy.  Don't know if that thread will continue now that Rebecca's
> mystery is officially underway, but those traits combined makes it
> beautifully accessible.  Universal themes.  Timeless even.
>
> (Doesn't hurt that I am a total sap & hopeless romantic.)
>
> Oh, and the Birds was *damned* good.  The simplicity & specificity of the
> language, combined with the cadence & characterization made me wonder if it
> wasn't a formative influence on Cormac McCarthy.
>
> On Fri, Nov 20, 2015 at 8:11 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Rebecca lasts. Touches something universal ( Western anyway).
>> I know this about its publishing history. It was deemed nothing special
>> by its
>> Publisher but early readers, --booksellers,-- voted it a People's Choice
>> kind of
>> award. When popular could also mean good.
>> ( not putting down any others, in fact The Birds has surely become a
>> modern archetype, eh?)
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>> On Nov 20, 2015, at 6:35 AM, Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Jamaica Inn would complete the Hitchcock adaptation trilogy.
>>
>> On Friday, November 20, 2015, David Kilroy <thesaintgodard at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Have greatly enjoyed taking a stroll through Daphne du Maurier's
>>> shorts, The Birds and Don't Look Now. PARTICULARLY The Birds. Halfway
>>> thru Rebecca and frankly infatuated. Does P-list have any short story
>>> collections or further novels by the Dame they'd care to recommend?
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>>
>>
>
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