Mark Sullivan wrote:
Didn't all of these authors base their takes on America on
secondary, usually fictional sources, never having visited
the real thing? And doesn't that seem to imply that America
is considered the natural setting for hardboiled/noir? I'm
not sure where I'm going with this beyond noting the trend,
but I think it says something about the idea of America and
mythmaking.
**************** A great idea, Mark! We've just about beat
definitions into the ground. Let's talk about origins.
The origin of hardboiled is American. There was a
considerable delay before it became common in other
countries. I think by definition we've just about decided
that noir fiction originated in the States, too, although for
film I've seen Germany mentioned.
Australian hardboiled came about for an interesting reason.
Tariffs after WWII (I think that's the timeframe) were so
high on paperbacks that nobody would buy them, so the
Australians started homecooking it. It was meant to replace
the American flavor so the novels had American locales. There
were some exceptions. Bant Singer is one of them. Some of the
authors writing Australian hardboiled were actually American
expatriots.
miker
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