Doug Bassett wrote:
> --- Bob Toomey <
btoomey@javanet.com> wrote:
>
> > Well, I suggested that Thompson's hilarious
"Fear
> > and Loathing in Las Vagas" should be included
in any list of modern
> > hardboiled books.
> But I don't agree with the above. FEAR AND LOATHING
is
> a great book, but I don't think it's a
hardboiled...
> I've never tried to define "hardboiled"
before..[b]ut
> I...would say the "hardboiled approach" usually
involves the following:
>
> -- A realistic presentation of the world. It can be
a
> sf or fantasy world, but it's got to be
realistically
> presented. (This opts out FEAR AND LOATHING and
any
> other book that deals with altered states
of
> consciousness).
Sorry for ellipsing you...but as someone who has been through
a number of the altered states that Thompson describes I can
say that it's as realistic and dead accurate as John McPhee's
description of tectonic plates in ASSEMBLING
CALIFORNIA.
>
> -- For lack of a better phrase, a
"Hemingway-esque"
> style or derived style. I can't see any way you
fit
> Proust into the tradition, for instance.
Or Jane Austen, L. Frank Baum, or P.G. Wodehouse. Extreme
misses are easy, close calls are the problem.
> -- An interest in the underworld or underside
of
> society.
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vagas" seems to fit this
requirement perfectly.
> -- Finally, a focus on an individual and how
he/she
> makes his/her way through this world.
One could hardly get a clearer or more memorable picture than
one finds in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vagas."
BobT
-- # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 11 Apr 2000 EDT