Mark,
Re your comments below:
> why do we identify with these characters,
> these losers (I'm
> assuming most of us do, at least to some
extent)?
Because, to piggy-back off my comment to Mario, they are NOT
losers. They are heroes. And it is in the nature of audiences
to identify with the hero.
> And I'd say that over
> the decades, they are become even more the
losers,
> and often recognize
> themselves as such. Tanner, to use your example,
is
> pretty damn
> self-aware about his outsider status and the
great
> price he pays for it
> in loneliness. And he tossed away a legal career
on
> the inside to
> pursue this role.
That's not the same as being a loser. In the context of the
series, at least, it's displaying integrity. Maybe it
wouldn't be in real life, but it is in the context of the
story.
> I don't really know why we find this so
appealing.
> Perhaps we see
> ourselves as losers (even if we are not so
far
> outside or have more
> trappings of success) and wish we were as noble
as
> these characters. Or
> maybe we wish we had the balls (as presented in
the
> genre, could just as
> easily be seen as a failure of character in the
real
> world -- was
> Flitcraft a hero for pursuing a new life or a
coward
> for deserting his
> old one?) to walk away from all of our
> responsibilities and walk the
> lonely path. That lonely path can seem
appealing
> (in a self-pitying
> kind of way) during those moments when everyone
in
> your real life seems
> to represent nothing but obligation and/or
betrayal.
It's appealing because it's seen as heroic. "Walking the
lonely path" is seen, in the context of the story, NOT as a
way of "walking away fromn all our responsilities," but as
fulfilling them.
Oh, and as for Flitcraft, he is not only a coward for running
away from his responsibilties, but a dullard for not having
the insight or self-awareness to see that he's gotten into
exactly the same rut in his
"new" life.
The "fixer," to use Mario's term, DOESN'T avoid
responsibility. He grabs it by the horns. If he has to go
down those mean streets, he does, without becoming mean
himself. Flitcraft found the prospect of falling beams to
terrible to face, and, found another city where (he hoped)
the streets were less mean. In the process, he dishonorably
reneged on committments and responsibilities to his family.
That's why he's a coward.
Marlowe, Spade, the Op, Archer, etc., do their jobs, keep
their promises, uphold their committments, and, when this
steely resolve puts them in harm's way, they face danger
bravely. That's what heroes do.
It's appealing, Mark, because it's an attitude that seems to
audiences to display both moral and physical courage. And
that rare combination is a pretty good defintion of
heroism.
JIM DOHERTY
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