Mark Sullivan wrote: I stand by my claim that a lot of recent
hardboiled heroes are losers, and they know it. It's hard to
think of (early) Matt Scudder as anything but. Maybe it just
makes it more dramatic when a drunk like
(again early) Scudder rises to the occasion and becomes
heroic, but I think it's because hardboiled is increasingly
addressing the psychopathology of the loner hero.
********* I think it is true that many hardboiled heroes are
losers. It probably calls for some qualification. He is a
loser in life, but not in his job. In his job he might get
hell kicked out of him, he might alienate his client, he
might not even have a client, but make no mistake about it,
he almost always gets the job done.
The loser in life thing has been long standing. I don't know
if it was here or just something I read, but it was noted
that the qualities that make a good detective often leave
them with a bleak social life. Look at Marlowe. I've only
read THE LONG GOODBYE and THE BIG SLEEP, but he doesn't have
much of a social life in either of them, and it doesn't
appear that this is just because it's not mentioned. He's a
loner. And he's got such high ideals that very few people are
good enough to be his friend, either. He despises almost
everybody. He doesn't like the crooks, the rich people, and
he shows equal contempt for the average Joe just getting by
with his 9-to-5 job, his family, and his modest house.
More than anything this is a literary ploy. Detectives went
from having zero social life to having a bad social life.
Tension is good. Happiness is boring. Recounting the last few
detective novels I've read, they didn't have much money, they
weren't es- pecially happy, and they had few friends. Paco
Taibo, Steve Ham- ilton, Loren Estelman, Dick Lochte, Peter
Corris. There was one that had a great and happy home life
and it absolutely shocked me. That was at the beginning of
McGivern's BIG HEAT. I should have known what was gonna
happen, shouldn't I?
As a quick footnote, another reason it's good for the
hardboiled guy to be a loser is because it's a crummy
stinking world out there, and if you are succeeding then
there's a big chance you are a scumbag. Note that I am
talking about literary reasoning here, and not real life.
Last time I checked there was a differ- ence.
miker
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