<< But does hardboiled fiction have to come from huge,
crime-ridden urban
centres in the U.S.? Seems to me it only takes one violent
antagonist to
get things going.
Think of stuff like Lansdale's Savage Season, Dickey's
Deliverance or
Robert Parker's Wilderness. All rural, all full of
nastiness.
>>
I'd be interested in taking up this topic and hearing what
other people have
to say. One might ask the question of flim noir too--where
the urban
landscape (slick streets, concrete buildings, etc.) makes a
big visual
difference. A few random thoughts. The city has more chance
for
anonymity--for the loner to get lost, disappear (think how
Woolrich's stuff
depends on this factor). Capital accumulates to a more
grandiose degree in the
city, which allows more easily for people like the Sternwoods
et al. Country/
small town crime novels frequently seem to have a different
ethos (e.g., Mario
Balzac knows everyone); perhaps they are a sort on
anti-bucolic--things are
corrupt, not lovely, in the country. Finally, the more
traditional hard-
boiled seems to be about the violence of society/social
forces/individuals.
Something like _Deliverance_ is also about nature--perhaps
that is more in the
gothic tradition too. Thoughts?
Doug
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