George wrote:
>Spenser: "I just read this book
>by a guy who thinks that guys like us are
suppressing
>homoerotic impulses." Hawk: "And doing a good job
of
>it, too." (Please understand that these are
not
>intended to be direct quotes.) I've always found
that
>particular exchange pretty funny, as well as
packed
>full of subtext.
Yeah, that's something I think some people miss in the books.
I think on the surface, yes, Susan and Hawk (and even
Spenser, to a certain extent) may be racial stereotypes, but
dig a little and the subversion that is the subtext becomes
clear. The ditzy, frigid, money-grubbing Jewess (isn't that
the way that stereotype goes?) becomes the educated
professional/hot tamale/drinking buddy, and the dumb but
street smart black thug becomes a savvy articulate and
sophisticated, uh, professional criminal, closer to James
Bond than Bad Bad Leroy Brown.
The racial/sexual/whatever banter plays up the stereotypes,
but only for the much greater fun of poking honking big holes
right through them.
They may go down real easy, but the Spenser novels, or at
least the best of them, challenge conventional or at least
commonly accepted thoughts on race, gender, sexuality, love
and yes, even morality. For quick dumb reads, they're
actually pretty smart.
--
Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.thrillingdetective.com
This issue, the Private Eye Goes Global. Plus Thrilling Detective Web Fiction from John Swan, D.L. Browne and Steve Kaye. -- # 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/ .
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