Hi! Obviously I know nothing about this book, and to tell you
the truth I'm not really sure if I understand what you're
saying here, but this passage did catch my eye and got me to
thinking. Here's a couple of ideas: whether you agree or
disagree I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.
There's actually two versions of the "hardboiled outlook".
The first is the one you seem to be describing below, which I
would rephrase as "the world sucks but I am pure. I can lead
you through it." This is the "Chandler" outlook and it's very
famous. Most people, when they think about hardboiled
fiction, are thinking about stuff like this.
The second one is "the world sucks and I am part of its
awfulness. I can take you on a tour through it." To make
things easy, call this the "Thompson" outlook.
(The protagonists of most of Thompson's books are sociopaths
of one sort or another.) It's a difficult outlook to pull off
-- when it doesn't work you get something like a travelogue,
a picture of a grimy subculture that might be interesting but
never really involves you. (I think a lot of Iceberg Slim's
stuff falls into this catagory.) When it does work, though,
some very strange things start to happen. You start having
empathetic responses to characters who, if they actually
existed, you'd be repulsed or horrified by. Try Thompson's
KILLER INSIDE ME or POP. 1280 or Goodis's STREET OF NO RETURN
for examples of this.
So I don't think it's always necessary for a hb book to
provide a moral quotient. "Morality" implies
"judgement" and there's nothing wrong with that, but
sometimes a writer wants you instead to understand.
Just my thoughts.
doug
---
FavresIT@aol.com wrote:
>
> In my own little "hard-boiled" definition this
sect
> of mystery fiction is
> indeed always full of corruption but must have
at
> least one player whose
> travel through the story lends a "moral
quotient".
> If that's not there then I
> think the book has little or nothing to add
to
> hard-boiled. Face it, this
> male dominated part of Mystery can piss off
Miss
> Marple most of the time with
> it's treatment of the Femme. So what I do read
I
> want to be good.
>
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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