--- jacquesdebierue <
jacquesdebierue@yahoo.com> wrote:
You can't really say that Spillane and
> Fleming represent the
> era. Not if "represent" means what it is supposed
to
> mean.
***************************************************** I'm not
saying they "represent" the era. I'm saying they left an
indelible impression on publishers. Their concepts of story
telling became the standard. They eliminated the difficult
task of creating a problem for the protagonist & reader
to solve. They replaced this with suspense and hence became
"thriller" writers. These were more interesting to large
numbers of readers who don't want the trouble of trying to
solve a mystery and enjoy the visceral descriptions of
violence and passion. I don't say this in judgement. I love
thrillers. But what Hammett and Chandler offered as
hardboiled writers was much less represented in new books by
1960. As you point out, those books that did hold to the
formula they championed were paperback originals. Nothing
wrong with that either. But it does say something about
publishing.
Patrick King
____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo!
Mobile. Try it now.
http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 01 May 2008 EDT