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RARA-AVIS: Hardboiled Canadians 

On Fri, 17 Jan 1997, Etienne Borgers wrote:

: Not being Canadian myself I however agree: there is a lot of
: differences in the social organization, Law and Police between this
: country and the USA.  This was felt even during my only two trips to
: Canada.  But where the above statement is sliding off is when it
: implies that all HB is only between Law, Police, Outlaws and
: PI. Wrong!! deadly wrong...
: 
: It' about violence in the society( physically or by vicious
: institutions of uncontrolled power... whatever is the power: money,
: politics, abuse of official position... etc) It's true that in a
: certain way and sometimes, HB is showing a quest for justice...  I
: doubt that Canadians, even obedient to their Law, are not attracted
: by justice. At least some of them are. Or should be!

Most of how people outside Canada see us is pretty true (aside from
the weather, it's not winter all year long).  We're a fairly peaceful
society, incredibly so when compared to the U.S.  It's been said that
Americans respect power, but Canadians respect authority.  And there's
the different ways we deal with police: Americans would say, "Get your
goddamn hands off me, pig!" while a Canadian would say, "Isn't there
some way we can work this out, constable?"

Until perhaps recently, as we've become more Americanized, any
hardboiled story set in Canada just wouldn't feel right to anyone who
knew the place.  We've been pretty happy with the way the police
handle things and rarely resort to hiring a private eye.  We've been
quite deferential to authority.  This is changing, though.  Maybe
hardboiled, truly Canadian stories will start showing up soon.

: I should say that in the 90's world, open expression of violence(not
: always physical) can be found mostly in: the emerging powers of the
: Far East, in the worldwide problem of uncontrolled immigration
: waves, the failure of the West to keep his economic development and
: life standard in his own territory.

Interesting.  One place where you could have a lone knight tilting
against corruption would involve multi-national corporations.  They
wield a hell of a lot of power, more than any corrupt city boss or
gangster.  I could see the wife of a murdered man going to a dick, and
he stumbles across a big plot to ship arms somewhere or hide the fact
that they've lost eighteen pounds of plutonium, and had to kill an
employee who was going to squeal.  Lots of room for shadowy intrigues
and labyrinthine plots there.  


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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