> I'm from the "I can't define it but I know it when I
see it" school.
> If the writer's philosophy is basically hard-boiled,
doesn't that
> color his writing? And, conversely, if the writer is
of a "cozier" mind
> won't his characters lack the bite of hard-boiled
style?
> In my mind, that quote certifies Kafka as a very
hard-boiled thinker.
No. It's not about personal philosophy. It's about the text.
Chandler would have to be excluded under your definition
because if you scratch the HB surface, he's a Romantic.
Remember the problems of biographical criticism. What a
writer thinks, what a writer says, and what a writer does are
all separate from the writing. I'm not one of the "author is
dead" school (popular about 10-15 years ago), but think there
are certainly people with cozy mindsets who know how to write
fiction well enough that they end up with a hardboiled
character. There are writers who are open to the
possibilities beyond their own temperments. Elmore Leonard?
Jim Thompson? Ross Macdonald?
-- # 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 : 21 Apr 2000 EDT