I think you have great insight there, Kevin. Plus I always
prefer a rescue mission to a vengeance mission, in real life
and in fiction.
Joy, not doing much pleasure reading lately
Kevin Burton Smith wrote:
> I think some of it at least has to do with when you
read them, and
> where you sit politically. Not totally, of course,
but in a sorta
> general way.
>
> When I was doing an essay on Macdonald several years
ago, I heard
> from a lot of fans, and it turned out many of them
had read him in
> their early twenties or late teens. There's
something sorta paternal
> about Archer, the detective as father figure, I
think, that appeals
> to the adolescent or young adult mindset. All those
troubled kids in
> those stories, and it was always Archer, come
a-calling, who dug down
> deep and understood.
>
> And of course, Macdonald's heyday was the sixties
and seventies, an
> era chockful of young adult angst and father issues.
To question the
> status quo is, in a way, to rebel against your
father.
>
> You like to talk and question, to understand, read
Macdonald.
>
> Whereas Spillane's kill-'em-all mindset probably
finds more of a home
> with those who favor physical force as a solution to
almost any
> problem. Daddy knows best.
>
> You prefer to push around someone to prove the right
of your cause,
> you'd probably love Spillane. It plays right into
the might-is-right
> mythology.
>
> Of course, it's not all cut-and-dried -- it's just a
theory, and I
> haven't even had my coffee yet. Lots of people love
both authors, but
> rarely, I'm sure, for the same reasons.
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