[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: RARA-AVIS: Locale/ COUNTRY HB?
>AnnyMiddon@aol.com wrote:
>>
>> I've been thinking about common elements in hardboiled fiction, and found
>> myself wondering whether an urban environment is a requirement of the genre.
>> My definition of "urban" would include some suburban locales; it seems to me
>> that suburbs of older cities are often more urban than the heart of newer
>> cities.
>>
>> But what about small towns, farming communities, backcountry? To be sure, a
>> place like the desert outside Las Vegas is a good spot to get rid of a body
>> or hold a "questioning" session without worry about interruptions. But can a
>> hardboiled novel take place entirely in a nonurban setting?
>>
>> I couldn't think of any examples where it has, but admittedly I'm not that
>> well-read in the genre.
>>
>> Anny
>> AnnyMiddon@aol.com
>
>
>Yeah, it's a cliche to place the hardboiled genre on the "mean streets"
>of the city, but if you think about it for a minute, there are plenty of
>hardboiled and noir novels about lonely motels, juke joints, road
>houses, small towns and country clubs on the "mean dirt roads" of the
>country. Just this moment I can think of _The postman always rings
>twice_, W.L. Heath's _Violent Saturday_, Manning Lee Stokes' _The
>crooked circle_
[snipped]....
> This just goes to prove that hardboiled
>lit is a complex genre that more often than not succeedes in avoiding
>most of the preconceptions and cliches associated with most other genre
>writing.
>
>Jim Stephenson
>
I totally agree with Jim Stephenson about the complexity of the HB and
Noir genre : it is not wise to try to confine it in rules and must have for
the plot, characters or whatever...
As for location, HB and Noir novels found already many settings in small
towns, villages, rural environments....
In fact the question of Anny Middon is interesting but could lead to
misrepresentation of HB, as some followers already pointed at.
HB on its beginning was describing mostly urban environments and took PIs or
lonesome heroes in the cities for the right fight...
All this came from the typical situation of violence and corruption
happening MAINLY in big cities (that was 1920 to 1945 - roughly).
A lot of classics from the period and later are based on these elements,
helping to propagate to the readers of the 90s a twisted view of what is or
'must be' a HB novel.
Remember that the very well known classic authors have a vast public, even
amongst scholars, so more is said and known about them than about writers
not so well known by the general public (evident but essential).
Very soon however a lot of writers realized that violence and corruption
could be found anywhere, even with extreme levels in 'confine' places, and
the tendency accelerated in the fifties{ and after} to set the actions
outside the cities...
In fact HB is not just a recipe of a few ingredients, it's more an attitude
and a rather pessimistic view of the social links in our societies.
Just think about the following examples where settings are not urban:
James Cain: several good novels in rural areas or small towns
Jim Thomson: Pop. 1280- classic of classics- in a very small town
(as well as other novels located in small towns of
Texas)
Erskine Caldwell: mostly rural - most of his writing is really Noir/HB
William P Mc Givern,
and others: classical setup of the small towns terrorized by corrupted
sheriffs or policemen and the violent fight of a visitor or a member of the
community to get it right. So common it's now a cliche' ...
James Crumley- modern author using plots happening in open country, small
towns, Montana, American highways...
e.g. The Mexican Tree Duck -
you will find a review of the book and some notes about Crumley's bio in my
site: Hard-Boiled Mysteries
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384/crumley/crumley.html
And many others, not always with PIs or policemen/detectives as central
characters either.
E.Borgers
-
# RARA-AVIS: To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis"
# to majordomo@icomm.ca
[Archives] | [RARA-AVIS]