Re: RARA-AVIS: The Golden Age of American Crime Fiction

From: jacquesdebierue ( jacquesdebierue@yahoo.com)
Date: 01 May 2008


--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Patrick King <abrasax93@...> wrote:
<<Hammett was a fine story teller who brought atmosphere to his stories and complexity to his characters. Most of the hardboiled genre lost its plot complexity by the 1950s. By the time Ian Fleming and Mickey Spillane had added their indelible marks, the mystery element had all but vanished from hardboiled. But the originators of the form had the gift of deception down to a science.>>

I think it's exagerated to say that the hardboiled genre had lost its plot complexity and the mystery element by the fifties. Lots of fine Gold Medals have mystery and complexity. In fact, the fifties were a golden age of sorts -- mystery, noir, hardboiled, spy, adventure -- so many fine authors that I won't name because everyone here knows the score... You can't really say that Spillane and Fleming represent the era. Not if "represent" means what it is supposed to mean.

Best,

mrt



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