Arts What a Big Dog Is Good For
As Bradley Steinbacher attempted to interview James Ellroy last week about the release of the big-screen version of his book The Black Dahlia, this nugget floated to the top:
ELLROY: One of the things I’ve come to realize is you’ve got to get a woman with a dog. I got divorced recently, and I had a deep, dark, obsessive thing with a woman in San Francisco. But I want the new woman, whoever she is, to have a dog.STEINBACHER: Any type of dog in particular?
ELLROY: A big-ass, good-looking dog. Like an Akita or a pit bull, so when the woman’s out of the bed you can curl up with the dog, talk to the dog about the woman.
STEINBACHER Not one of those tiny dogs people carry around?
ELLROY: No. I want a pit. A pit that uses some nigger voice. Says, “Hey Ellroy, let’s get some bitches.” A big dog.
The conversation was somewhat surreal—Steinbacher couldn’t keep Ellroy on topic—and the interview didn’t make it into the paper, but it’s online here.
That's awesome.
If you've read Ellroy's books, you know he's a master at generating aggressive rapid-fire male voices. He's a genius at Alpha-types tearing into each other. Sounds like those voices occupy a large part of his psyche as well as his novels.