I was reading a western story today which reminded me of the
Defective Detective thread here. The story, called "The Sound
of Gunfire," by John O'Reilly, originally appeared in FAMOUS
WESTERN in 1949 and was reprinted in the excellent 1952 Scott
Meredith anthology, BAR 1 ROUNDUP.
The main character is a deadly gunfighter who goes around
righting wrongs, but is -- wait for it -- blind!
Well, not really, since the author treats blindness as a
super-power. Supposedly the gunfighter's other senses have
been so magnified that he actually functions better than any
sighted person (kind of like Daredevil in the old west). He
doesn't use a cane, has no trouble travelling alone by horse,
and is able to come into an unfamiliar town and walk right
into up to the saloon and the sheriff's office without
directions. (I'll give him the saloon on sound and smell, but
the sheriff's office?) The "logical," Holmesian explanations
of his abilities are ridiculous and while well-written, the
story was so ludicrous that I couldn't finish it. It makes a
good anecdote, though.
Another off-trail defective detective can be found in the
1998 over-the-top Hong Kong gangster film HEROES NEVER DIE,
in which Lau Ching Wan plays a paraplegic avenger in a
wheelchair, whom the bad guys are unaccountably terrified of!
There's a hilarious scene where he chases a car through
traffic on his wooden go-cart.
________________
Kent Johnson San Francisco
kjohnson@slip.net
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