From: rattle@dontemailme.com   
      
   In article <4038EA05.2080409@texas.net>, firstinitiallastname@texas.net says...   
      
   >>>But, if you can get the "smell" of the time and   
   >>>place through research, you'll get the correct tone that will show   
   >>>thoughout your work.   
   >>   
   >> My point was, I don't know how anyone unfamiliar   
   >> with a place can get the "smell" of it without   
   >> actually visiting the area.   
      
   >It is difficult to richly describe an unfamilar landscape without   
   >visiting the place, but visiting tourista versions of "old west towns"   
   >will hardly provide anything but a look at objects and silly skits that   
   >are of little use to a writer.   
      
   Here is an example of a writer who knows his   
   landscape - he's writing about local terrain -   
   but who has "invented" something unlike what   
   he is describing. Cormac McCarthy, in CITIES   
   OF THE PLAIN, takes liberties with the   
   so-called ranch that his cowboys are working.   
   I can't imagine anyone taking issue with his   
   descriptions of the terrain UNLESS, like me,   
   you know the terrain about which he writes. For   
   some reason it detracted from the book for me.   
      
   By contrast, Tony Hillerman and Wm. McGarrity,   
   are my other examples. They both   
   write of terrain I'm familiar with in a way   
   that gives me no reason to question their   
   familiarity with it.   
   Larry McMurtry is another who I have no   
   quibble with when it comes to descriptive narrative.   
      
   If McCarthy had invented names for the "cities"   
   and the locale I would have found the novel   
   more likeable, in line with the fictional   
   accounts in the two preceding books of his   
   "border trilogy."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)