<<This is true. It's also true, though, that the moral
aspect to hardboiled fiction is predominant,>>
This may be true of the (essentially post-pulp) PI industry
that extends to the present era, but it is not true of the
pulps. The article cited dealt with so-called "pulp
fiction".
I think we should be careful about generalizing from Chandler
and his knight. Marlowe is not a typical pulp protagonist. He
is an educated man, he sees himself and what he does
ironically and his boss gave him a voice that is both a
paragon and a parody. I have reservations about painting
Marlowe as the quintessential pulp protagonist. As Jim has
pointed out, those pulps are full of gleeful crooks and
gleefully brutish anticrooks who are in essence no different
(just working on the other side). This is, at least for me,
is a large part of the attraction that the pulps still exert
(the other part is the impudent and original use of
language).
Best,
MrT
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