> Oh yes I read the Rebus novels and its great knowing Edinburgh well. It's
> like all those novels that used to be set in London,
Just off the cuff, Sally, as I've been thinking about this recently -- how
is it that it's possible to map Edinburgh onto London (RLS in Jekyle and
Hyde, Sawney Bean turned into Sweeney Todd, an all that) but nothing
comparable with regard to Glasgow?}
And why are all the best-kent Scottish Criminals from Edinburgh rather than
from Glasgow -- David Haggard, Deacon Brodie, you name it ...
I see this as an example of Acute Cultural Deprivation ...
:-((((
Robin
{Is Glasgow, like Dublin, too particular, and the Athens of the
North too Universal? And what about Dundee and Oor Wullie and The Broons?
The sweet particularity of lexis inscribed into popular culture ...
Or something?
R.}
> assuming the reader knows what is meant by driving down Queensferry Road
> or popping into the lanes behind George Street.
I have to say, My Private Edinburgh is Rose Street
<g>
R...
[One of the things which James Kelman's fictions do is exactly to *refuse to
particularise a particular geography of Glasgow, almost the opposite
direction of Ian Rankin.]
I'm not sure where I'd place Larnark here -- Alasdair Gray does refuse to
abide so many questions -- but for personal reasons (like Alasdair, having
grown up in the shadow of Whitehill Senior Secondary School, though not
having been a student there) I can't extract myself from the geography of
Duncan Thaw's life.
Odd that, but.
R.]
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