First of all, wasn't this original posting intended to be
somewhat humorous?
Second of all, while I sort of agree that the PI novel should
keep up with the times, it's also true that I could care less
how "real" private investigators do their work. I'm
interested in the story and the hardboiled mood. To the
extent that modern PI practices aid the story and the mood,
they should be included. To the extent that they detract from
the story and mood, they should be departed from.
--- Kevin Burton Smith <
kvnsmith@colba.net> wrote:
> HB detectives don't use cellphones? What
crap!
>
> One of the most unrealistic and annoying trends
of
> the entire P.I.
> genre in the last few decades was the pathetic
and
> totally
> unrealistic way many writers still try to pretend
it
> was 1942, or
> maybe 1953. Finally, it's starting to
change.
>
> Sure, Marlowe didn't use a cell phone. The Op
didn't
> pull a mug shot
> off a fax machine. Hammer didn't prowl the
on-line
> databases tracing
> down leads. But they all would have, if they
could.
> They used the
> technology of their times. For a private
> investigator to not use a
> cellphone during, say, a lengthy stakeout,
or
> computers and the
> internet to manage their business and do research
in
> this day and
> age, is about as believable as a talking
cat
> narrating a murder, or a
> plucky caterer regularly taking on the mob
or
> crazed serial killers.
As Vladamir Nabokov (and many others) have pointed out, all
fiction is fantasy. In my opinion the goal is not to be
"truthful" or "believable" so much as it is to be
"persuasive".
>
>
> But part of the genre's on-going appeal has
always
> been its ability
> to evoke its times, to dig in and peel back
the
> cover and let us look
> at the works. But you can't learn much about
the
> present if the
> author's denying that it exists.
Yeah, I sort of agree with this, although there are different
levels of truth and evocation. In my opinion, for instance,
there's a lot of truth in Crumley's LAST GOOD KISS, a book I
absolutely love though I admit it's a crazy, exaggerated
story in many ways. What's "true" about it, though, are the
old painful truths of the human heart.
Just my two cents.
doug
>
>
>
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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