In a message dated 9/9/01 12:45:49 PM,
gcupper3@yahoo.com writes:
<< I think much (note that I am not saying *all*, so
please don't jump on me with exceptions) detective fiction
involves class-crossing, so to speak. The PI invited up to
the millionaire's mansion a la Marlowe and Sternwood has been
repeated by most writers in the genre, hack or not, to some
degree (one of the good early Parker's in my opinion, is THE
JUDAS GOAT, in which Spenser does just this). >>
I think George and others on this
list who've taken the same position are right about class
crossing, though I believe the hard-boiled PI is a poor
candidate for "grail knight" since he never really signs on
to anyone's agenda but his own. From Hammett on down we have
countless rich and powerful clients who hire the PI and live
to rue the day they did so.
The hard-boiled protagonist is
classless in that he or she belong to no one and no group.
Many, but certainly not all, share a determination to help or
protect some "little guy," and to bring down someone who uses
wealth and power corruptly, but the battle has little or
nothing to do with class.
Jim
Blue
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 10 Sep 2001 EDT