foxbrick <
foxbrick@yahoo.com> wrote:
<<
Well, none of this is so much leftist as Pomo, or
common of the most marginalized of society...the Miserabilist
Mike Hammer. The Angry Boho Hammer. But not much of an
Anarchist (way too into hierarchy for that) nor Leninist (who
are Real Big on family and puritanism, in most instances),
nor certainly not too Social-Democratic (just way too
messy).
It's all a bit like saying Ted Nugent's a lefty cause he has
hippy hair.
But, yeah, the Burke novels do have lots of evil white guys.
Including Burke, the hero.
>>
The politics of noir or hard-boiled is a big
tangled issue, I think. I mean, look at it: the genre is
usually classified simplistically as an outsider (the P.I.)
working within a corrupt social (the rich guys in power, like
General Sternwood in THE BIG SLEEP, various characters from
Lew Archer novels) and political (the cops in THE MALTESE
FALCON, any politician from RED HARVEST) culture. On the face
of it, in many cases the PI (or the PI proxy, like Burke)
looks like a white male conservative (seeking answers that
will restore order, with "order" usually assumed to be a
conservative trope) wrestling for a liberal social justice
ethic (overcoming corruption, secret crimes, wrongs to the
psychic/economic/social fabric of a
person/family/city/organization). That's all rather general
and simplistic, and doesn't even apply across the board to
all HB or noir, but I think dissecting the political ...
what's the word...essence(?) of the genre(s) could carry a
discussion thread for
years.
- Duane Spurlock
The Pulp Rack
New: "'We Die In Glory!' A Look at
the Air-War Pulps" by Dale Walker at this URL:
http://pulprack.com/arch/2006/01/we_die_in_glory.html
(includes some cover scans!)
www.pulprack.com
--------------------------------- Yahoo! Photos
Ring in the New Year with Photo Calendars. Add photos,
events, holidays, whatever.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 12 Jan 2006 EST