tony hillerman’s murderous terrain
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Tony Hillerman’s Murderous Terrain: Landscape, Location, and Setting in Crime & Mystery Writing
A Look through the Tony Hillerman PortalPresentation by Diana FilarMA from UNM; PhD Student at Brandeis University
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Crime Writing as GenreIt is “more difficult (comparatively) to combine a credible puzzle with a setting which comes alive, an underlying theme and distinguished writing” – PD James
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Hillerman and Mystery
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Hillerman’s mystery writing process – directly connected to the landscape
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The Mystery Man
With Sue Grafton
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“
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It used to be that I got two kinds of readers…mystery fans and desert rats. Now I've got a few desert rats and mystery readers and a lot of people who say, ‘I don't usually read mysteries.’
Tony Hillerman in Boston Globe Magazine
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Importance of Landscape/Setting to Mystery Writing
For Hillerman, terrain becomes central to the plot; the mystery and events could not take place anywhere else
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Can we imagine Agatha Christie’s bestselling And Then There Were None taking place anywhere but an island?
Lundy Island off the Devon Coast of Engliand
Can we imagine any of Stephen King’s novels outside of Castle Rock, Maine?
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Similarly, we can’t imagine Tony Hillerman’s Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mysteries taking place anywhere but the American Southwest
Several books have been written about Hillerman’s connection to the Southwest: The Spell of New Mexico (ed. by Hillerman) Talking Mysteries (Hillerman and Bulow) Tony Hillerman’s Navajoland (Linford) Tony Hillerman’s Landscape: on the Road with
an American Legend (Anne Hillerman) Literature & Landscape : Writers of the
Southwest (Haines) Hillerman Country (Tony and Barney Hillerman –
photos)
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“If You Go: Read: Author Tony Hillerman suggests that you do some homework before traveling to Navajo Country… ‘You miss a lot if you don’t go having some knowledge of the cultures and the mythologies’” (Star Tribune, 1992)
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Travel to Hillerman Country
From The San Diego Union Tribune, 1999
From Rocky Mountain News, 1994
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Laurence Linford and Tony Hillerman
“Hillerman has firmly attached his heroes (and often his villains) to the land that is Navajo Country, and his readers get glimpses of the barren desert, the high mountains and the villages and towns that intersperse with one another throughout the Four Corners region. Conversations with avid Hillerman readers have made it clear to me that this is one of the special traits that attract so many fans to his books” –Linford in his Proposal for Tony Hillerman’s Navajoland, eventually published in 2001.
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Encyclopedia on eHillerman
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Listening Woman
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Manuscript Viewer on eHillerman
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Page 1 of Listening Woman
Includes the landscape/setting terms: San Francisco Peaks
Moenkopi plateauHopi villages (Shongopovi & Second
Mesa)Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park
Nokaito BenchHogan
Dust devil
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Mapping Function on eHillerman
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In Hillerman’s novels, landscape travels as the narrative progresses. For Listening Woman, specifically:
In the first chapter Listening Woman leans into a
crevasse to hear what type of healing she should perform on Hosteen Tso
The landscape is important to where the murder takes place, how her role is established in the mystery
Couldn’t happen anywhere else
As the mystery builds… Later, Leaphorn is stuck in a
crevasse escaping from one of the suspects/possible culprits
The slot canyons become central to the development of clues and the ultimate solving of the mystery:
“Leaphorn found himself in the crevasse, scrambling frantically upward over the boulder and brush…” (217). The action that ensues couldn’t have happened anywhere else. We know this is the southwest.
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Landscape VS. Human Environment
In Listening Woman, the landscape becomes important to solving the mystery
“Runoff water had drained down it, debris had tumbled into it, and an assortment of cactus, creosote bush, rabitt brush and weeds had taken root amid the boulders. It had two advantages – it offered a hiding place and was too steep for the dog to climb. Its disadvantage overrode both of these. It was a trap” (219).
But human made environments become important as well “Window Rock called and asked
the captain why you weren’t over there helping out with the Boy Scouts. When will you be in?”
“We’re coming down on Navajo Route 1 west of Tsegi..Be in Tuba City in about an hour” (15-16)
The eHillerman portal Encyclopedia contains more than just landscape terms, because weapons and criminal accessories just as significant in mystery as setting
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Intersections: Setting, Landscape, Culture
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Works Citedhttps://www.randomhouse.com/features/pdjames/mysterywriting.htmlhttp://fictionwriting.about.com/od/genrefiction/tp/mysteryrules.htmhttp://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/vandine.htmhttp://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/the-how-of-where-the-importance-of-setting-in-your-fictionhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/17/philip-hensher-importance-place-fictionhttp://writersrelief.com/blog/2012/06/literary-locations-settings/Listening Woman by Tony HillermanThe Dark Wind by Tony HillermanThe Spell of New Mexico ed. by Hillerman)Talking Mysteries with Tony Hillerman and Ernie BulowTony Hillerman’s Navajoland by Laurance LinfordTony Hillerman’s Landscape: on the Road with an American Legend by Anne Hillerman and Don StrelHillerman Country by Tony and Barney HillermanEhillerman.unm.eduCSWR/DISC archives