Chris asked:
"Sure, I agree. But that still doesn't explain why
hard-boiled writing is considered more realistic than the
cozies."
Well, because Chandler said so:
"Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit
it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse; and with the
means at hand, not with hand-wrought duelling pistolsss,
curare, and tropical fish."
The difference isn't whether or not the society within the
book exists or existed, but how the society deals with the
murder and its aftermath. Hardboiled gives the impression of
being about more than a simple puzzle, of murder and crime
making lasting impressions.
Of course, Chandler also wrote:
". . . but you must not take a polemic piece of writing like
my own article from Atlantic [The Simple Art of Murder, from
which the above quote was pulled] too literally. I could have
written a piece of propaganda in favor of the English
dertective story just as easily. All polemic writing is
over-stated. The instant you admit that both sides in a
controversy may be right, you have thrown away your whole
argument."
By the way, Chris, I liked the Catholic/Protestant analogy,
seemed very apt to me.
Mark
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