I believe it was in the spring, '97 Journal of Popular
Culture. (Sorry
but I don't remember the author or the title.) The article
dealt with the
differences between mysteries, detctive stories and crime
stories. A
mystery was defined in terms we recognize with Agatha
Christie: murder
intrudes into an ordered society, the mystery must be solved
so that order
can be restored. As such, it is Modernism. The detective
story
presupposes that society is violent, that crimes are
inevitable and
ubiquitious, and the solving of this particular murder does
NOT change
the status quo. The detective is mobile: that's the key. In a
mobile
society that is constantly changing, the detective's quest is
the
pathway-- the connect-the-dots, if you will--that shows the
reader how
murder links the society's most disparate elements. As such,
the
detective story is PostModern. The crime story is, the author
disclaims,
is just that, a crime story, and s/he brushes it aside.
Now, the hardboiled story, as moi sees it, is the story of
individual
ethics (situational ethics?) in a violent world. Consider how
many of the
Golden Age PIs were ex-soldiers from WWI, where they (like
every
doughboys) had been LIED TO by the nobler virtues of duty,
loyalty, honor,
etc., none of which stood a chance in front of a machine gun.
(Read Paul
Fussell, for examples.) In fact, read the first half-dozen
Saint
stories; he was dead-set against the arms manufacturers who
fed the war
machine; he favored swashbuckling, mano y mano duels,
etc.
The hardboiled story is a ROMANCE in the Arthurian manner.
The modern
word "free-lancer" has its roots in the age of chivalry. A
free-lancer
did not pledge loyalty to any liege. He operated by his own
personal code
of honor. He is a VOICE of morality & ethics; he speaks
only for himself.
Chandler's classic opener at the Sternwood manor IS the
definitive magic
ground (where all romances begin.) Sam Spade is a blonde
satan, a white
witch, a merlin, the trickster up against Death itself.
Spillane is a 7th
Day Adventist, I believe; surely, Mike Hammer is the Hammer
of God against
the Ungodly.
Class critiques are a favorite of academics; that doesn't
make them right.
As for dickless dicks, well, is the "lone wolf mentality"
(which is a
basic premise of the hardboiled) a "lone wolf mythology?" Has
the
mythology itself become obsolete? If we look at the wackos
who slaughter
at post offices and in school yard--the people who know them
describe them
as classic lone wolves. "He was such a good boy, so quiet; he
kept to
himself." Can our society trust the lone white male prowling
the night,
steeped as he is in his lone wolf Code of Honor?
Most of the female PIs do have extended families around them.
Support
groups, if you like. Are they more mentally well? And what
losses does
their efforts inflict upon the PI mythos? What is
gained?
What price must be paid in order to keep our precious
mythologies?
Vaya con dios
Frederick Zackel
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