Re: RARA-AVIS: Chemical Dependence and Hard-Boiledness (was:
rikke & hanne Kesten (rbkhbk@bcn.net)
Mon, 17 Aug 1998 09:58:38 -0300
On the thread of Alcoholic P.I.s, don't forget that in the
late
Thirties and Forties when hard-boiled was being invented the
substance
of choice for self-abuse was alcohol. Prohibition had just
ended,
everyone was openly abusing alcohol legally. Then, during WW 2,
heavy
drinking (escape from everyday worries) was prevalant in the
social
scene. Post-WW2 the bar, dance hall or swank club was the place
spend an
evening and get "plastered." Also, returning vets were avidly
catching
up on lost time. These new businessmen are the guys who created
the
three-martini lunch.
Ray Milland appeared as an alcoholic and won great acclaim in
LOST
WEKEND, considered an extremely realistic and shocking film in
its day.
Pot wasn't common on the social scene at all in those times,
had a
very negative connotation, very different from the latent
good
guy/strong guy of hard-boiled. Musicians used pot. So did
Blacks. But
it didn't really penetrate the culture until the early Sixties.
Until
then it wasn't a recreational drug -- it was some dark, evil,
negative
substance that wasn't mentioned or used in "good"
society.
--steve kesten
Mark Sullivan wrote:
>
> Many PIs in the last decade or two have started to
use drugs (or at
> least finally admit to inhaling). Off the top of my
head I can think of
> Crumley's heroes, G.M. Ford's wonderful Leo Waterman,
Dan Cormany's Dan
> Kruger, who shares a joint with a young runaway he
was hired to find,
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