[SNIP]
> The reason
> I'm boring everybody with this is that I disagree
with those who would
> have Hammett and Chandler represent the entire
hardboiled genre. This
> is, at least in my view, a bad misrepresentation. The
"hardboiled genre"
> (or genres, to be more precise) as practiced in the
pulps had a lot of
> variety, both stylistically and ideologically - not
to mention the
> enormous range in quality.
To which ANONYMEINC@webtv.net (MARK SULLIVAN) replied:
> You are right, I do tend to be far better read in the
later hardboiled.
> So while I was wrong in positing a uniform ideology
among the first
> generation, you still seem to agree that all of these
writers exhibit
> ideology of one sort or another, whether it is one
man against society,
> one man working for society, a corrupt society which
corrupts all, a
> mixed up society continuall in flux, etc.
There is a tendency to lump a group of writers together---as
'the
hard-boiled school', or William Nolan's term, 'The Black Mask
Boys' or
Philip Durham's 'the Black Mask school'. Mario points out
there is a
range of types of writing under these umbrella terms:
differing
stylistically, ideologically, chronologically, and of course,
in terms
of quality.
(Or readability?---how many of the 'old school' are still
read/readable?
Carroll John Daly for example? He might not be widely read
anymore---or
that easy to find in print---but his writing was very popular
among
Black Mask readers in the 1920s and 30s---but perhaps that's
another
thread.)
While there are sound reasons for this type of grouping it
may be that
there are reasons to re-consider such broad categories; or
perhaps to
think chronologically of 'first wave' and 'second wave'
writers, etc.
Hammett and Chandler, for example are drawn on frequently to
evoke 'the
hardboiled' but there are reasons, as Mario suggests, why
these two are
less than representative: they're both pretty good for a
start!
I'd suggest Hammett is part of the 'first wave', along with
Daly,
emerging from the bouyant and flourishing decade of 1920s. By
the time
Chandler finds himself an ex-oil executive, Hammett has
passed his peak
and the twenties boom era has given way to the depression of
the 1930s.
Stylistically, the tough-guy detective story has been around
long enough
for Chandler to be able to parody the form. Paul Cain though
(I think
chronologically concurrent with Chandler) is a different
kettle of
fish. Looking to the post-war era, there's possibly a 'third
wave'
which might mark the turn to noir---eg Goodis,
Woolrich.
Just typing off the top of my head here---nothing really
thought out,
but perhaps there's some possibility for further
discussion/refinement,
or maybe the 'waves' idea is less useful for all it
obscures?
ED
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