I think it's interesting, but fails at some points. I don't
think Dos Passos and Dreiser had much to do with the
hardboiled novel - I'd nominate some other proletariat
writers, such as Michael Gold
(JEWS WITHOUT MONEY).
George:
> Also, are Goodis and Willeford's heroes
really
> psychotic?
One might say that about some of Willeford's heroes (just
think of the stomach punching scene in THE WOMAN CHASER), but
not about Goodis's. She also makes the rather odd connection
between Spillane and Willeford and Goodis - what do they have
in common? It's also odd that in her system only Cooper
represents the Western hero - later Western books surely have
much more in common with the hardboiled novel. Cooper doesn't
yet have the idea of the lone hero, he emerges later.
I should put the lines of "Rise of the paperback" and "Crime
novels/thrillers" under the same label (or whatever), since I
think most of the fifties' paperbacks could be included in
the line that stems from James M. Cain. Dorothy Hughes does
have psychotic heroes, why isn't she in with Willeford and
Goodis?
> I am very curious about her definition of hardboiled
and
> noir (but aren't we all, always,
endlessly).
Her selections of contemporary noir novel are not very
interesting. And her seventies could and should have lots of
other folks, too, such as Arthur Lyons, Marcia Muller, Roger
L. Simon, etc. It seems now that only Crumley kept the
hardboiled genre alive. (I know that it's not necessary to
include all of these in the same paper, but the omissions
make it seem strange.)
But all in all nice to know someone else is thinking about
these matters, and not just us.
Juri http://pulpetti.blogspot.com
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