Doug Bassett wrote:
>
> I strongly disagree with the notion that
a
> hardboiled/horror marriage is impossible. In my
life
> I've stumbled across all sorts of
hardboiled
> marriages: hb westerns, hb SF tales, hb
poetry
> (Bukowski), hb memoirs (Burrough's JUNKY), etc.
Since
> "hardboiled" is a perspective, a way of looking at
the
> world, it can be applied, I think, to any
literary
> genre. Why not hardboiled horror?
I'm not saying the hardboiled/horror marriage is impossible,
just rarely successful. The HB attitude goes very nicely with
westerns, which were the precursor of HB, as well as with SF
and comedy, all sorts of genres, because they're not
antithetical to HB. But the goals of horror are completely
different from the goals of hardboiled. Hardboiled is
grounded in a skeptical, cynical, unsentimental view of the
world. Horror is the polar opposite -- romantic, sentimental,
emotional. So if the story is successful as HB, it undercuts
the horror, and vice versa. There are exceptions, like Joe R.
Landsale's hilarious and disgusting
"On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks,"
which manages to be a hardboiled western SF horror comedy,
all in one twisted package. But most of the attempts to mix
and match HB and horror fail.
> One obvious indication that such a marriage might
be
> successful is the large number of people who like
both
> genres. This suggests, to me at least, that people
are
> responding to something similar in both. Another
is
> the many, many writers who've tried to blend the
two
> genres already.
First, and again, HB isn't a genre, damn it, it's an
attitude, an attack. Second, I like Gilbert & Sullivan,
and Louis Jordan's jump blues, but I don't see much being
accomplished by trying to blend the two, just because I
happen to like both styles of music.
> I quite agree with you, though, that recent
attempts
> to blend the two have been unsuccessful. That
doesn't
> mean that it's not worth trying, especially if
you're
> interested in horror (a genre that, in my opinion,
has
> managed to back itself into an aesthetic dead-end).
It
> may mean redefining the nature of "horror" in
horror
> fiction, but, well, the genre could use the
jumpstart.
I'm not sure horror has reached an aesthetic dead end. I do
think it's been oversold and most of it is the usual
imitative crap (Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap)
being put out by untalented hacks to make a quick buck from
an unsophisticated audience. Same as with SF and the endless
movie and TV tie-ins that groan on the shelves; same as with
the endless bloated fantasy trilogies; etc. That doesn't mean
good, innovative work isn't being done. It's just that one
gets tired of pulling on the hip boots and wading in there
looking for it. Just pray that HB doesn't suddenly become
popular...
BobT
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