Re: RARA-AVIS: Class consciousness in hard boiled

Fred Willard (rainwill@mindspring.com)
Thu, 31 Jul 1997 15:44:27 +0000 On 31 Jul 97 at 0:14, Bill Hagen wrote:

> In working through the stories in _Hard-Boiled_, a # of folks have
> noted racial, gender, & class attitudes, some of which would "not
> do" for today's detective protagonists. But these attitudes are
> hardly unique to the pulps: early Edna Ferber is eye-opening, as are
> many of the "boys' books," like _Penrod and Sam_.
>
Right, although James Elroy in his LA series, in fact in most of his
books, has many of these attitudes represented. I think he maintains
enough moral distance from his characters that I see them as being
products of their times and as flawed humans, just like we all are
in some way.

> Always liked Chandler's worm's eye view of the rich. More
> optimistic than Hemingway in finding occasional signs of integrity,
> just as he found some decent cops too.
>
I'm always fascinated by what I see as a mid-Atlantic view point in
Chandler - part American bad boy - part English public school. I
think it contributed a complicated, outsider perspective to his
viewpoint that made for morally complex fiction.

Hemingway was an interesting case in that regardless of his
attitudes, he seemed to enjoy the high life. For many years, it
wasn't paid for by book sales, but by rich wives.

> Am fascinated by John Cawelti's take on hard-boiled as a form that
> confronts the real problems of the success ethic in America. He
> went on to say that while the world of the hard-boiled seems
> naturalistic, tending toward fatalism, the protagonists act as if
> success were still available to the resourceful. Believe it's in
> _Adventure, Mystery, and Romance_.
>

I find that fascinating as well. I need to read it. It relates
to a lot of thinking and writing I've been doing.

In developing various characters of the criminal persusion, I've
given them a point of view I've discussed at length with many actual
individuals of the criminal variety.

It's a variation on the theme of "Society made me a
criminal." It would go like this: "I'm down by law, so the only
thing left for me to do is crime - that's only fair."

The fairness argument sort of falls apart when you point out it might
not be all that fair to eveyone else. But, there I go being the wet
blanket, again.

I see the same attitudes expressed in criminals of the white collar
class, as well. "Well, gosh... our first responsibility is to make
profits. It wasn't my fault if we had to break the law to make
profits. Society made me a criminal."

What I find telling about both these examples is the degree to which
they consider success an entitlement, and any level of impediment to
success an unfair imposition. They are at the same time the problem
of the success ethic and the problem with the success ethic.

Marxism certainly attacked the success ethic, problem or not, but
the medicine turned out to be worse than the disease.

Looking at the genre as attacking the "real problems of the
success ethic" on a more personal level is very provocative and, for
me, very exciting. It explains a lot of the, sometimes hidden, moral
fervor of hardboiled writing, and, as you have pointed out, the
stubborn belief in possibilities that drives the action.

One way I describe my last opus is: A story of second
chances in a morally compressed world.

------------------------------
Fred Willard
fwillard@mindspring.com
http://www.mindspring.com/~fwillard
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