Kevin Smith (kvnsmith@colba.net)
Mon, 14 Jun 1999 08:15:29 -0400
>As I've said before ... I don't see any reason why a
genre cannot be "boys
>only" ... girls and boys don't only look different,
but they think different
>too and a big part of being hardboiled is the mindset
of the character ...
>an old school masculinity that a female writer can
emulate, but a female
>character can only pull it off in drag ... equality
is a nice thing when it
>comes to treatment, but to say a genre has to have
it's female or male
>equivalent is ludicrous.
>While a lady on the other hand is
>traditionally more valuable due to her child bearing
and chocolate chip
>cookie baking abilities (to name an extreme few for
brevity's sake).
Yep, guys in monasteries are the acknowledged experts when it
comes to women...everyone knows that.
Keep yourself pure, pilgrim.
And Mark brought up some great points on the scarcity of true
lone wolves these days, male or female. Where have they all
gone, indeed?
One of the threads in Grafton's work I find rather intriguing
is her constant struggle to remain a lone wolf, independent
of others. It's a neat spin on Archer lurking outside in the
shadows, looking through the window, wishing he could get in.
Millhone, on the other hand, is already in, through no fault
of her own, but wants out. The Grafton books are a refreshing
change from other current series featuring series P.I.'s (and
not just women gumshoes) who seem to have an obligatorily
overly-large and cloying cast of supporting characters.
Kinsey, at least, is one sister still doing it for
herself.
(Not that a large cast of characters is necessarily bad. It's
just that not every writer can make it work, and prevent it
from devolving into maskish melodrama. But writers as diverse
as Norbert Davis, Stephen J. Cannell and Rob Kantner have
shown a large supporting cast can work in a hardboiled
context).
(And another thought: two series that have developed strong
supporting characters have recently had novels where the
authors have attempted a sort of house-cleaning; perhaps an
acknowledgement that their books have wandered a bit far from
lone wolfery. I'm thinking of Lawrence Block's EVERYBODY DIES
and Robert Crais' LA REQUIEM, both very powerful books, both
which suggest a new approach to their respective series
characters are in the works.)
Some great points on Amos Walker, too. Estleman's eye is a
great character, cranky as hell, and one of the few true
loners. A real throwback, too, as Mark points out--pulp 90's
style. Hell, he even wears a fedora! A recent Estleman might
be an intertesting addition to the reading list.
Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
This month: Sci-Fi P.I.'s, and thrilling new detective
fiction by Chris Mills and Jack Curtin.
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