Tuesday, March 2, 1999
Ellroy off the Record
Noted author of ‘L.A. Confidential’ to make his appearance at
UCLA,
promoting his latest works
By Lonnie Harris
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
James Ellroy coming to speak at UCLA seems like a natural fit.
After the success of the film version of his novel, "L.A.
Confidential," the crime novelist has the distinction of being
immediately recognizable as an authority on L.A. history and
culture. Ellroy, who will speak on campus at an event sponsored by
the English department this Wednesday, moves away from the L.A.
setting with his new books – "Crime Wave" and the autobiographical
"My Dark Places."
"I haven’t lived in L.A. for several years," Ellroy says. "After
my Los Angeles Quartet of books ("Black Dahlia," "L.A.
Confidential," "Big Nowhere" and "White Jazz"), I figured I’d done
everything I could do with Los Angeles history. Now I’ve moved on
to American history."
American crime history from 1958 to 1963 formed the basis for
Ellroy’s "American Tabloid," while the next several years are
covered in "Crime Wave." Ellroy is calling his new series of novels
the underworld USA trilogy.
"I became fascinated with crime after my mother was murdered in
1958," Ellroy says. "I love brooding on crime. I love thinking
about American history and L.A. history."
The subject of Ellroy’s talk for the English department,
however, will be anything but a stuffy lecture on Los Angeles
history. Though the author has been involved in several dry
historical projects dealing with the city (including a CD-ROM about
crime in Los Angeles soon to be released by the UCLA Film and
Television Archive), his personality is upbeat and outrageous. This
rather silly sensibility is generally on display during Ellroy’s
television appearances, especially on his recent trip to "Late
Night With Conan O’Brien."
"I try to meet the expectations of the audience," Ellroy says.
"Conan’s audience isn’t the most intelligent out there, so I try to
be funny and play to them."
When asked about his attitude toward his presentation to
prospective young writers at UCLA, Ellroy conceded that his primary
aim was financial.
"I’m on a book tour right now, so I’m trying to sell books,"
Ellroy admits. "I’ll talk about the books, do a little schtick, you
know. Hopefully, students and faculty will want to read what I’ve
written."
Perhaps the most famous of everything Ellroy has ever written
would be his best-seller "L.A. Confidential." "Confidential" was
the source material for Curtis Hanson’s award-winning 1997 film of
the same name. The saga of two generations of L.A. cops used
classic Ellroy narrative to reveal a labrynthine plot inhabited by
shadowy and mysterious characters.
The books he has written most recently are two of the more
interesting (and personal) books thus far in his career. "My Dark
Places," a memoir focusing on his mother’s death and its effect on
his development, touches some places his novels have never really
been before.
"It’s not as if the specific obsession with my mother’s murder
has dogged me, plagued me or cursed me," Ellroy told Worldguide
Interviews in 1997. "It mutated into other forms very early on,
chiefly a fascination with crime, crime fiction, psychosexual
behavior, kids’ crime books, adult crime books, the whole criminal
universe."
As for "Crime Wave," it picks up where "American Tabloid" left
off, covering crime from 1963 to 1968, or, as Ellroy summarizes it,
"the most horrible things that happened for those five years."
Though Ellroy obviously does a great deal of research on the
eras he writes about, he admits fully to making up the characters
and specific events.
"I don’t know any criminals," Ellroy told an interviewer in
1997. "I make this stuff up. I am conservative in temperament and
solidly on the side of authority. I don’t know any criminals."
SPEAKER: Ellroy will present a free lecture in 2160E Dickson on
Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Books will be available for
purchase at the event.Photos courtesy of Knopf
"American Tabloid" chronicles major events in the history of
crime from 1958 to 1963.
James Ellroy comes to UCLA to promote his latest novels and will
speak at Dickson Hall Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
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