Anders Engwall (Anders.Engwall@uab.ericsson.se)
Fri, 17 Sep 1999 08:53:45 +0200
Juri Nummelin:
> I find Spillane rather loathsome author
who
> has more racist and fascist attitudes than almost
any other writer.
Indeed. When i first read "I, the Jury" I was appalled.
Blatant racism, sexism, homophobia and even advocacy of a
police state -- I could hardly believe anyone could write
such things. And as has been pointed out already, Spillane
obviously has/had an enormous sexual hangup. And the
hypocricy! It's almost comical the way Hammer spends the
novel drooling over virtually every female in the book
(nymphos the lot of them, of course), yet when he spots some
people entering a strip joint, he sneers "Look at them
freaks!" or something to that effect.
> But he
> writes (wrote? I've heard there's no punch anymore)
quite well.
I'm not sure about that. I thought "I, the Jury" was
clumsily, almost amateurishly, written. Add to that
Spillane's absurd attitude to almost everything, and I have
to rate it as one of the worst novels I've ever read,
regardless of genre. In sense it is fascinating for this very
reason; it is interesting to know just how bad literature can
be. I must admit, however, that the last few lines are very
cool.
The other Spillane novels I've read are pretty bad, too.
"Kiss Me, Deadly" is somewhat better than "I, the Jury"; the
writing has improved and there is less bigotry, but it is
still completely stupid and simply no good. Aldrich's movie
is vastly superior. Then there's "Day of the Guns", the first
Tiger Mann novel, which I found to be just plain
ridicilous.
Is there really such a thing as a good Mickey Spillane
novel?
/ Anders
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