I think I mentioned this before: that I suspect the Lone Wolf
mythology seems to have exhausted itself. That we have seen
too many Lone Wolves over the past 35 years (since the
assassination of JFK by a Lone Zealot.) Too often the heroic
figure of the Lone Wolf has been swamped by the Lone Zealot,
all those sociopaths / psychopaths with a gun and three names
(Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wayne Gacy(?), etc.)
American readers are frightened by the Lone Wolf. Too often
the Psychopath at the End of the Street -- the quiet guy who
lived all alone and never bothered anybody -- has the same
look.
So what's hot? Oprah's book club seems to ONLY feature
Cinderella stories -- against all odds a suburban woman
discovers how to empower herself. (Without speed or Prozac!
Which is a real fantasy!) I mention this because
storytelling's relationship to its audience is to bring a
semblance Order to frightening feelings of Overwhelming Chaos
knocking at the door.
I know how everyone on rara-avis thinks of Sue Grafton, but
in Publishers Weekly two years ago she said, "Fantasy is the
Great Equalizer." And I think that's what Pronzini might be
getting at.
Look at the White Male PI story. It's vanishing from the
charts. Who takes his place? The Lady Dick. Consider at any
given time who feels most out of place in the greater
culture. In the 1920s (and later the 1940s), the soldier boy
comes back from war and finds Society corrupt, so he goes to
war against it.
With the GI Bill of Rights, real equity begins. And now we
have nostalgic PI books written by male college grads who
miss adventure in their lives. But it's only their fantasy
about the Good Old Days, when Men were Men and Women were
Femme Fatales, and most of them are not familiar with the
mean streets, but more likely only find themselves in
suburban jobs where they're surrounded by corporate cubicles
of other cloistered eunuchs.
Meanwhile the Lady Dicks aren't nostalgic. Like suffragettes
a century ago, they're out there on the streets. (Consider
the feminist agenda to "Take Back the Streets." A meritorious
agenda, if I ever heard one, and I wish them all the luck in
the world at that Labor of Sisyphus!)
Read some of Lady Dicks (Elizabeth Cosin, for one, who is
obviously living in a hard-boiled wonderland and loving it.
Her Lady Dick not only beats up the bad guys, but has
conquered Cancer! You want balls? She's got 'em. Ignore the
cat.) They are working their "clews" through their
labyrinths, killing the Minotaur-monsters, and having the
time of their lives throwing themselves under the Wheels of
Life. (to mix a few metaphors.)
Lehane and Crais have found niches for themselves in the book
shelves. Lehane has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative
Writing. His allegiances are to technique, not the genre.
Crais is mining the Dual Personality vein: Elvis Cole &
Joe Pike are the prototypical suburban fantasy, where Road
Rage is the natural expression of the Jeckyl-Hyde personality
disorder. Rucka? He is the boss of an organization, and does
what all bosses would do if they didn't delegate their
authority.
Hey, a dysfunctional hero is okay -- as long as you're in
therapy. And how many male writers have created the
dysfunctional-in-therapy hero? (Is Matt Scudder your final
answer?) Can you see Mike Hammer taking Anger Management
Classes at the local community college?
A suggestion: see who the enemy is in the most recent
successful hard-boiled books. See who the enemy is. That
tells you who "the Other" is. (As in, Us against Them and
their "Otherness.") That's what the audience perceives as the
enemy. Who are Boston Terran's "heroes" fighting?
Look back at Hammett, Chandler, Macdonald, McDonald, et all.
Visualize who was reading those books. Who were their
enemies? Are those enemies still around? If America is the
only suburban nation in the world, then who are the current
enemies of the suburbs? The audience that fears those enemies
is there now.
If you write it, they will come.
Do Fantasy Figures disappear completely, never to reappear?
No, like King Arthur they are in hibernation, waiting the
nation to call them forth to battle once more. I suspect --
suspect! -- that the Hard-Boiled Lone Wolf is waiting in the
wings for the appearance of an appropriately evil
enemy.
Right now the Hard-Boiled Hero looks like a candidate for a
Spousal Abuse Seminar.
On other notes: I read Brown's Requiem, too, when it came
out. I couldn't finish it for its sophomoric blather. Ellroy
has leapfrogged beyond that stage. I am curious what he
writes, but I want to stay far away from his circle. Like the
Lone Wolf, he could easily metamorphose into a Lone Zealot
with a Gun.
Also, I said all I discovered about Calle Ocho. I wish I knew
more.
Back to lurking
Frederick Zackel
-- # 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 May 2000 EDT