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Re: RARA-AVIS: Hardboiled



I started my Hughes adventure w/ In a Lonely Place, and let's just say
she's more like Thompson than Chandler or Hammett, in that the center of
interest is the sociopath, not the dick. In fact, in this case, the dick
is the sociopath's old army buddy. I'm only halfway through. It's a Bit
staid, and doesn't have the same tough colloquial quality of my favorite
hardboiled . . . but I think she is doing something very impt. to the
Crime Fiction genre. I will explain that comment more when I finish.
Anyone else know/like/dislike Hughes' work?

======================                 ===================================
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

On Tue, 14 Jan 1997, William Denton wrote:

> 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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