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Re: RARA-AVIS: Hardboiled
On Tue, 14 Jan 1997, michael david sharp wrote:
: 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?
Geez, I don't think being hardboiled entails being a sociopath. :) My
memories of VI are a little vague, but I remember her as being kind of
... wimpy, which is not a good indicator of how minutes you're
boiled. I went by the library today and got out one of the VI
stories, from a couple years ago, and I'll read it and see how I like
her, and how tough she is.
: 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).
That's a bit of a technical question, I think. If you had an Op story
narrated by an innocent child he looked after/was burdened with, would
it be hardboiled? I think you'd have to say it was, but acknowledge
the differences. What kind of detectives does Hughes use? Her name
came up a number of times on the checklist of hardboiled titles I
typed in, but I don't know a thing about her. Is there one I should
start off with?
Bill
--
William Denton : buff@vex.net <-- Please note new address.
Toronto, Canada <-- I'm not at io.org any more.
http://www.vex.net/~buff/ Caveat lector.
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