Jim,
I think you're right that he's just not my taste. For
instance, miker recently pointed out how many of Chandler's
murderers were women, but that never bothered me. Similarly,
I'm a big fan of noir films with femmes fatales (whether or
not they get away with it), a depiction many find sexist, if
not outright misogynist. So it can't just be Hammer's
dispatching of female killers that bothers me, a dismissal
that has even less validity now that you've proven that
Spillane believes in sexual equality when it comes to
villainy.
I think it's probably telling that my favorite Mike Hammer
film is Kiss Me Deadly, the one Spillane hated because Hammer
is shown as far from heroic, basically using Velda to run
badger games. Also kind of enjoyed Stacey Keach's Hammer, but
mostly for the spoofiness. While I do recognize the bits of
tongue in cheek humor in the few novels of his I've read, the
proud brutishness overwhelmed it for me.
Maybe it was because I read them in college that the
anti-intellectualism particularly offended the intellectual I
was then
(somewhat ostentatiously) trying to become. I like to think
I've outgrown at least some of that snobbiness.
And with that mind, maybe I'll try him again. Which Hammer
book do you
(or anyone else) recommend as his best?
Mark
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~--> Something is new at Yahoo!
Groups. Check out the enhanced email design.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/SISQkA/gOaOAA/yQLSAA/kqIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 09 Jul 2006 EDT