Mario wrote:
"Sughrue? Milodragovich? Dave Brandstetter? Amos Walker?
Nameless? Marshall Tanner? Stefanos? Clete Purcell? Kearny
and associates?
"None of these guys strikes me as particularly heroic... most
of them are tough, but they are not admirable people or
idealistic people."
While I'll grant you that none of the above is particularly
idealistic, I'm not so ready to buy that none is admirable.
Putting aside Clete, Crumley's heroes and, maybe, Nick, the
rest are professionals in the best sense of that word. They
have such a strong work effort that their identities and
self-worth are nearly completely tied to their jobs, usually
to the great detriment of any personal life.
And while anti-heroes may be far more prevelant these days
(although the Parker series is 40 years old), it is nothing
new. I'll leave aside the ends-justifies-the-means attitude
of Race Williams or Mike Hammer; I can see how some might
find them heroic in the traditional sense. I think most would
agree that Marlowe pretty much embodied the admirable and
idealistic side PI hero, but there has always been an
alternative. For instance, Sam Spade was pretty much amoral.
He was screwing his partner's wife. He was more than ready to
set up a, relative, innocent
(Wilmer) for murder. And even if you believe Spade was not
sincere about that frame-up, was just turning everyone
against each other, Spade was not surprised, even expected it
to provoke him to murder (again Wilmer). Finally, Spade was
so defined by his job that he sent the woman he loved up the
river, not because it was the right thing to do, but because
it would have been bad for business if he didn't. How
admirable or idealistic was that?
Mark
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