At 09:29 PM 04/07/2007, you wrote:
>I think Bill's been very generous in letting us talk
about movies at
>all, so I'll not try his patience other than to say
HOSTEL got its
>rep not by being good but by making an awful lot of
money. That's my
>perception anyway.
I've sort of been wondering where Bill is these days. I've
had the sense lately that discussion has ranged further away
from the core topic of noir and hardboiled literature,
meaning books, than it used to before I'd get my slap on the
wrist in an off-list email from our maker.
>Hope you have some fun with Hard Man. I certainly had
fun writing it.
And I had fun reading it. It was good to meet up with Mum
again, especially as she's dead. She's a classic, and lingers
in the way that makes her so: in our hearts and minds. The
violently inept Baxter family had their moments as well. They
were the classic noir characters whose downfall began with
one bad decision- to imagine themselves as hard cases, tough
enough to put an end to the perceived, negative influence of
a real hard case over someone they cared for, when the
recognized authorities could not. There's plenty of that
going around, and it seldom works out well.
I too was repulsed by the violence in the cellar, and I admit
I was momentarily tempted to stop reading in order to
proclaim my personal refinement and ascribe all sorts of
inferior motivations to the author. However, in this case I
carried on, having read some of the author's earlier works,
and corresponded with him on this list. I do know from some
of that earlier correspondence that the author has no axe to
grind, no point to make, no motivation, conscious or
otherwise, to write what he does, other than to entertain his
readers. Nevertheless I came away with a sense that the real
Hard Man of the title was not any of the toughs inflicting
the violence in the book, but the victim who endured it. I'm
looking forward to reading what effect this will have on
Pearce in the next one.
BTW Allan I agree that violence is not necessarily physical,
and no less violent for it. Violence can be practiced at a
distance, indirectly through others and has been
institutionalized as such, usually making it easier to
practice. Tarantino's movies to me illustrate, intentionally
or otherwise, how violence is ritualized in culture,
especially the Kill Bills. Oh, and remember the character in
Pulp Fiction whose job it was to clean up after a massacre?
It was his job, removing the gore his recognized specialty.
Didn't he sound a lot like a high-school guidance counsellor,
or one of those psychologists they call in to provide grief
counselling after some violent incident, making sure everyone
gets through the trauma like it was an isolated accident,
putting the indirect victims of violence back on the highway
of life?
Did to me. Oh well. Better stop there or I'll be getting
another one of those off-list emails from Bill.
Best, Kerry
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The evil men do lives after them http://www.murderoutthere.com
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