Am I the only person that finds Cooper unreadable? Every time
I've tried to read something of his I've never been able to
finish it.
On 5/29/07, Jess Nevins <
jjnevins@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: Michael Robison <
miker_zspider@yahoo.com<miker_zspider%40yahoo.com>
> >
> >
> >I've been looking back at the roots of the
hardboiled
> >genre in America, Ring Lardner, Twain, Bret
Harte, and
> >London. It was only a matter of time before I
made it
> >to Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. There
might be
> >earlier American works that foreshadow the
hardboiled
> >genre, but I haven't found it yet.
>
> >soul being a stoic killer. The quote was
inspired by
> >Cooper's writing. Cooper's style was overwrought
and
> >his technical expertise questionable, but
he
> >established a model for a tough American
character
> >that still survives today.
>
> I think Twain said it well: "'Deerslayer' is
just
> simply a literary delirium tremens."
>
> Cooper's counterpart, and another influence on
the
> American hardboiled tradition, is Robert
Montgomery
> Bird's "Nick of the Woods" (1837). "Nick," which
has
> never gone out of print, was very popular
for
> many years in the 19th century--at least the
equal
> of "Last of the Mohicans." Bird wrote it as
a
> response to what he saw as the radically
pro-
> native message of Cooper's fiction. The
main
> character is Nathan Slaughter, who after the
death
> of his family during a Shawnee attack
becomes
> the Indian Killer "Nick of the Woods."
>
> If Hawkeye was the proto-Marlowe, Nick is
the
> proto-Mike Hammer: just as hard, just as
> unbalanced, just as merciless. They were
both
> influential as opposing character types
in
> the magazine fiction of the 19th century,
which
> is another major influence on hardboiled
fiction
> of the 20th.
>
> jess
>
>
>
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