L.A. Confidential and the Personality Behind It

Likely to come up pretty regularly here in the future, I'm sure, are the ways that I think James Ellroy is cool and how I could see aspects of his personality successfully commodified (if the other aspects weren't so anti-modern and anti-popular culture).  Since I started to sporadically read the LA Quartet last summer with The Black Dahlia, I've been gripped by Ellroy's writing style and genre.  At some point while I was reading my favorite so far, The Big Nowhere, I found both transcribed (The Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 201) and video ("James Ellroy's Feast of Death") interviews with this author and became all the more fascinated.

The guy has a totally sad (a murdered mom + womanizing alcoholic father) and creepy (voyeuristic, breaking and entering, etc.) background, and while he might have practically leveled out to the point that he poses no exceptional threat to society he is still one of the more charismatic and crazy (and vulgar) speakers I've heard.  I'm sure that it's by and large a meticulously planned act, but his attitude, stated politics, closed-mindedness toward contemporary writers and popular culture, and shocking/highly quotable statements rival his books in terms of entertainment.  Just the way he reads aloud his own writing is bizarre, intense, and emphasized in a manner that the reading voice in my head can't replicate.

Somewhere I read The Big Nowhere referred to as "sprawling," a description that captures both it and L.A. Confidential.  The (joking?) word on White Jazz is that Ellroy's manuscript was cut to a third of its original length when he went back and excised all the verbs.  I'm sure this is in some frighteningly large part true, as I've heard descriptions of the minimalist, word-economical shifts Ellroy has made over his career and he seems just crazy/gifted enough to systematically hack through his own draft and end up with something that works.  On that point, I've seen White Jazz referred to as one of his masterpieces in addition to The Big Nowhere (incidentally, the two books in the LA Quartet that haven't been rehashed into a major film).  I needn't read anymore to know that The Big Nowhere is a special book, and I'm excited to (slowly and distractedly, I'm afraid) work through White Jazz.

Anyway, after a very long and unintentional foray into the personality that is James Ellroy, let's segue into the short chat about the incarnations of L.A. Confidential that I originally set out to write...

[Above: Here is a rough depiction of the time and place where I go when I'm reading an Ellroy book.  The setting is deceptively simple, go out into the world and the personalities are complicated: twisted, corrupt, violent, and greedy.  At any given time, it's a beautiful, exciting, often chilling and believably well-constructed place.] 

L.A. Confidential versus "L.A. Confidential"

One of the greatest things I've ever heard come out of another human being's mouth is James Ellroy's "final comment" on "L.A. Confidential," the movie.  It's a recount of his discussion with old ladies at a video store, topics ranging from Kevin Spacey's sexuality to the masterful storytelling in the film.  His reaction to finding out the ladies weren't inspired to buy the book after watching the movie was so rude that he almost certainly didn't (but, then again, very possibly did) say it.  But just to have, first, thought to say it, and next, claimed to say it in an interview that introduces him to tons of potentially new readers shows some public image cajones. 

He refers to the movie as a "salutary adaptation" to his "wonderful novel."  [It's worth noting that, while I've seen the interview enough times to probably quote the entirety of his statement, I endorse finding "James Ellroy's Feast of Death" on Netflix Instant or YouTube (1st hit on the search: james ellroy la confidential) and watching it.  The quote is the very beginning of the documentary, which has subsequent ups (more eye-opening quotes) and downs (it deals with his mother's death, which is of course sad, but also Elizabeth Short's murder in a lot more detail than many would find interesting without prior knowledge).]  And in my opinion, the movie really is awesome.  I was inspired to read L.A. Confidential when I watched "L.A. Confidential" for the third or fourth time, but only just now finished the book because I challenged myself to start at the beginning of the Quartet (no regrets).  However, when he calls it an "adaptation" Ellroy must have missed one of his major *emphasis* cues, because the movie was an ADAPTATION in every capital/italic sense of the word.  The names haven't changed, but some big ones just don't carry over.  So many side stories and characters get lost in the movie, not to mention years of chronology.  I tend, like many, to unwittingly view the film story as the "correct" version if I read a book after the fact (and vice-versa, of course), but the differences between the film and book (plus the fact that they're both excellent independently of each other) were substantial enough that I could truly enjoy the separate stories, identities, and moods of each.  Not surprisingly, the movie augmented the more glitzy, simplified, Hollywood aspects of the book, leaving to Ellroy's work much more of the underworld darkness, character development, and subplots that are a tight fit in a 500-page book and simply impossible to capture in a 100-minute movie. 

Bottom line:  The film and book versions of L.A. Confidential are both excellent, I recommend them both in no particular order.  I don't think that it is vital to start from the beginning of the LA Quartet to enjoy this third book, but I think it's worth it - especially when you get The Big Nowhere for your effort.  I think after a shorter "breather" book I'll be ready to jump into White Jazz.