In a message dated 7/18/2003 8:41:24 AM Eastern Standard
Time,
zspider@gte.net writes:
> The dominant political theme in hardboiled
literature is
> that fascism
> defeats
> anarchy.
Miker, I can see this in some cases, notably Spillane
perhaps, not sure aboutHammett or Chandler per se (I wouldn't
call it always fascism, but maybe that the pendulum swings
towards control when things get too wild and vice versa) but
not in all hard boiled cases. Examples would be Marlowe never
selling out, but always being cynical and sometimes depressed
even though he keeps fighting according to his moral code.
Hard to think of him as an agent of either anarchy or
fascism. The Continental Op seems to enjoy violence and
anarchy to a point, but in the end is loyal to his
organization. I wouldn't call his org or the powers he fights
fascist though. Corrupt and power hungry yes, if that's what
you mean.
In some HB literature the opposite seems to be the
case, chaos, anarchy and a purposeless universe combine to
defeat any attempts to impose order (by the detective or
anyone else). Or is that more in the noir genre?
Steven H.
PS in trying to reply I accidentally hit aol's stupid "report
spam" button, I sent aol a message advising them of the
mistake, let me know off list if any problems come of this. I
don't particularly think anything will, but I wanted to
apologize for the error.
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