Thanks for the kind words. Yes, I was trying to very
generally describe the difference between a
"hardboiled" and "noir" outlook. I hope whoever posted that
original message was helped a little by what I said.
On a competely different note, I finally caught up with
Estleman's Amos Walker. I read SUGARTOWN and while I enjoyed
it, I agree with the criticisms I read here that Walker's
anachronistic. It's not the manner in which Walker does his
job that bothers me -- as I've said here before, those kind
of surface details don't interest me much -- so much as the
plot's overly reminiscent of other hardboiled stories. There
is, for example, a "drug the detective" section straight out
of FAREWELL MY LOVELY.
To draw an analogy: every now and then you'll stumble across
a rock band that specializes in playing in a 1960's garage
style, or a 1950's rockabilly style. These bands can be very
good, but there's no getting past the fact that you're
listening to a mannered replica of a better original. That's
sort of what I feel about Walker
doug
--- John & Carrie <
johncarrie@sprynet.com> wrote:
> Doug Bassett said:
>
> > 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.)
>
> Nice post, Doug. I think you may have set
a
> difference between Hardboiled
> and noir? Was that your intent? If it was, I
think
> you're right on the
> money.
>
> Tribe
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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