Dick,
Re your comment below:
> I don't believe language is a crucial part of
being
> hardboiled since, in
> literature at least, it's about attitude and
action,
> not talk. Nor do I
> think that blue-collar ethos is a necessity.
There's
> a long line of
> British clubmen -- from Bulldog Drummond to
James
> Bond -- who have their
> hardboiled moments. That goes for cricketer
A.J.
> Raffles as well.
> Lawyers like Perry Mason or Steve
Martini's
> character (name momentarily
> escapes me) have at least a touch of the
hardboiled
> in them. Ditto FBI
> and CIA heroes and villains. I don't get one
blue
> collar vibe from the
> chess-playing poetic Marlowe. That goes double
when
> it comes to Spencer
> and Elvis Cole. In his last novel, Spillane had
the
> former common man
> Mike Hammer discussing his fondness for the
symphony
> and chowing down at
> The Four Seasons. Going back to Holmes, if
getting
> out the needle and
> shooting up after a tough case isn't hardboiled
then
> what are we talking
> about?
Maybe the term "blue-collar" was the wrong one to use, but
there is certainly a colloquial, "common man" attitude
thatset, and still sets, the hard-boiled crime novel apart
from the "traditional classic" style mystery.
What set Hammett and Chandler and even a compartative hack
like Carrol John Daly apart was precisely their use of
language, so to say that language isn't crucial is simply to
ignore the obvious.
Shooting up after ahrd case isn't hard-boiled, or even tough.
Actually it's weak, but that's another argument. Weaning
oneself off the addiction, on the other hand, IS tough. But
it's not necessarily hard-boiled, because hard-boiled,
particularly in literature, is as much about attitude and
language, about attitude expressed thorugh language, as it is
about action.
That's why Holmes isn't hard-boiled, for all his toughness,
and Hammer is, for all his love of classical music.
JIM DOHERTY
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