Does anyone know of crime novels in which the machinations of
corporate crime as opposed to "underworld" or "mafia" crime
is the source of suffering and despair. I know that Chandler,
Hammet, Westlake, McGivern, Goodis, Wolfert describe
political and mob bosses who are too powerful to reach, or so
much in control of a city that their confederates include
editors, bankers, police chiefs, etc. But these are of human
scale, who are flawed, and sometime hindered by anger, greed,
lust, etc. Even Michael Corleone carries guilt at some level;
even the devilish Noah Cross in _Chinatown_ is a human sized
power monger obsessed with ultimate power, therefore
incest.
But what about the impersonal, mechanistic force that the
corporation represents, the kind that is flawless because
inhuman and superhuman. It is reponsible for mega-death
(pollution, cancer from cigarettes, deaths from unsafe autos,
bought-and-paid-for politicans who prevent reform of the
abuses caused by accounting, insurance, credit card, or
pharmaceutical businesses)? Are there noir crime novels which
depict the results of corporate power? I know non crime genre
works do so, even _The Grapes of Wrath_ (1939). The
foreclosing bank is described as an enemy no dispossed farmer
can deal with, even by shooting its minions. _Fight Club_
comes close in describing the need of corporate employees to
assert their humanity by pain, identity swapping, and acts of
terrorism against the system and even innocent individuals
whose lives have been homogenized and emasculated the
sterility of office, mall, and "sanatized" entertainment.
Perhaps this is a subject too abstract for the crime or
mystery genre, but it seems to me to be a chief cause of
man-made, criminal suffering world wide.
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