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Re: RARA-AVIS: Hardboiled Canadians



William Denton wrote:
> 
> 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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A la Peter Newman and his _The Canadian Revolution_, if he's right, then 
there is a sea-change, (please excuse the buzz-word), in Canadian 
attitudes and we will perhaps see the appearance of the hardboiled, 
gritty, knife-edge, U.S.-style private eye not simply operating in 
Canada, but being truly Canadian.  Frankly, I hope it never happens.  I'm 
not anti-American, (after all, my mother was a 13th-generation American 
and my namesake is my mother's paternal grandfather who fought for the 
6th Maryland Volunteers in the Army of the United States, was captured at 
Second Manassas, (sorry, Bull Run), and starved to death in 
Andersonville), but I like the difference represented by Canada.
And, despite anything I may have been interpreted to say, I will go to my 
grave rejoicing in the innovations to the genre bestowed by Hammett, 
Chandler, Ross Macdonald, and all and sundry who have followed along 
behind them and in some cases outstripped them.  My only criterion is 
that it be good writing.  We should never forget Chandler's Law.
David Skene-Melvin
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