[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: RARA-AVIS: Hardboiled
I'd better introduce myself before I start babbling. I am Lynn Allen, staff
training coordinator at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville,
Georgia. I have been reading mysteries since I learned to read back in 1957.
(Started out with the Hardy Boys and Trixie Belden). I am relatively new to
the hardboiled genre. I have been reading Kinsey Millhone, and she does seem
kind of soft to me...she gets too personally involved with the people she
encounters during a case. What do you folks think about Walter Mosely's Easy
Rawlins? (He sometimes gets personally involved, but he's no sucker.. thank
God) And the Chester Himes detectives?
Lynn
>Bill--
>
>Does Hardboiled Fiction require a Hardboiled Detective? Well, that's not
>a fair question, bec. the answer is obviously "no" (see nearly every
>Thompson novel). I have never read any V.I. mysteries (saw that awful
>movie w/ Kathleen Turner, though), but I wonder whether the fact that the
>Continental Op could kick her ass makes the novel she appears in
>necessarily NOT Hardboiled. I guess what I'm saying is, the distinction
>between V.I. novels and the Hardboiled genre needs to be made more
>clearly. Is the detective too conscientious? Too concerned about social
>mores? Does she actually care about other human beings besides herself?
>Does she fail properly to enjoy brutalizing other human beings? What
>makes her not hardboiled? And, could a novel or story theoretically be
>hardboiled if its detective is not? I've been reading Dorothy Hughes and
>trying to figure out her relation to the genre. For the most part I can't
>read modern crime fiction (with some Very noteworthy exceptions).
>
>Michael
>
>====================== ===================================
>Michael D. Sharp "I'm a white male, age 18-49.
>msharp@umich.edu EVERYONE listens to me, no mat-
>Department of English ter how dumb my suggestions are."
>University of Michigan --Homer J. Simpson
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
L. Lynn Allen
Training Coordinator
Human Resources Department
Georgia College & State University
Milledgeville, GA 31061
Office: 912-453-5596 Fax: 912-454-0491
http://members.tripod.com/~Lauralynn/lynnlair.htm
"We're going to have the best-educated American people in the
world."
--Former Vice President Dan Quayle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
# RARA-AVIS: To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis"
# to majordomo@icomm.ca
[Archives] | [RARA-AVIS]