| Each of the following authors wrote (or write) mysteries
that
| contain most of the elements of a cozy: a minimum of
violence, sex,
| and social relevance; the solution is arrived at by
ratiocination or
| intuition rather than forensics and police procedure (or
beating a
| confession out of someone); the murderer is indeed
exposed and order
| restored at the end; the hero/ine is honorable and the
other
| characters (often including the murderer) are well
mannered and
| well-bred (except, of course, the servants); the setting
is a closed
| community of some sort, such as a village, university,
stately
| home. Desirable, but not essential: a writing style
graced by wit
| and literary allusion.
This seems like a pretty good definition. Here's a
cut-and-paste job of
some comments Eddie Duggan, Bill Hagen and James Doherty made
about
hardboiled and noir, with some of my own tossed in:
Hardboiled:
- involves a detective, private investigator, reporter or
somenoe
similar as the protagonist in a criminal investigation
- backdrop of institutionalized corruption
- protagonist is tough and cynical
- language is colloquial
- involves sex and violence
- protagonist becomes deeply involved in the crime's
aftermath--
he doesn't sit in his armchair, he goes out and shakes
things up
Classic examples: Dashiell Hamett, Raymond Chandler, James M.
Cain
Noir:
- features criminals or victims as protagonists, people who
can't
control themselves (psychologically) or, finally, what
happens to
them.
- atmosphere of paranoia and insecurity
- need not centre on the solution to a crime, but usually
involves a
crime.
- often ends dismally
Classic examples: Jim Thompson, Cornell Woolrich, David
Goodis
Does this seem like a good start at laying out a few points
that would
give us something like the cozy definition?
Bill
-- William Denton <URL:http://www.vex.net/~buff/> Toronto, Ontario, Canada Note I'm now at pobox.com. 2:31AM up 5 days, 12:39, 15 users, load averages: 1.81, 1.90, 1.99
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