Bill Denton wrote:
>Mr. So, I noticed, runs a mailing list called
DetecToday, "Dedicated to
>the new wave of mystery writers (male or female,
mid-1980s -
>present)...What, if anything, have they decided over
there about
>hardboiled detectives in the 1980s? Where did they
come from? Where did
>they go?
We haven't come up with full-fledged theories, but I'll ask
and share the results here. Personally, I think hardboiled
detectives are still out there, but ideas of toughness have
changed. Characters are more three-dimensional. Violent
action needs better explanation.
>Was it in the late seventies/early eighties when the
split happened,
>people realized the contemporary hardboiled dick was
a fantasy, and they
>either had to modernize him or write historical
novels?
That sounds about right. TV has a lot to do with changing
views on private eyes/lone ops. Shows like "Magnum, "Simon
& Simon," and "Riptide," had a level of fantasy that
audiences wouldn't accept today. With access to Court TV and
forensic documentaries, viewers don't quite believe the
fantasy elements of shows like "Dellaventura" and "Vengeance
Unlimited." In the 80s, these shows might have had
three-season runs. In the late 90s, they didn't last a
season.
Robert Crais is a good example of the move from fantasy to
realism. Crais started Elvis Cole in 1987 as a first-person
PI with military and martial arts training, who read
Arthurian legend and collected Disney figurines. Today the
Cole books are multi-viewpoint thrillers with more emphasis
on police procedure.
One author who started and remained consistently real through
the 80s and 90s is Jeremiah Healy with John Francis Cuddy.
Healy does play his share of tricks with time, stretching two
years of story time over ten books. And I notice he hasn't
written a Cuddy since 1999.
For those who'd like to join DetecToday, the URL is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DetecToday
I also moderate CrimeSeen for discussion of TV/movies/radio
and their relationship to crime fiction: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CrimeSeen
Gerald
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