I agree. Viability has also been mentioned as one of the reasons why
there aren't many PI novels in Spanish-language crime fiction. In the
real world, the PI seems powerless against certain types of crime and
corruption cases. This was especially true in cettain Latin American
societies, where the PI would have to investigate against the
backdrop of the dictatorships of the '70s and other forces operating
with impunity.
-Gonzalo B.
--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "jacquesdebierue"
<jacquesdebierue@...> wrote:
>
> --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Michael Sharp <msharp@> wrote:
> >
> > TLG is my favorite novel. Ever. Of All Time.
> >
> > Here is my theory of the detective novel, which will be cursorily
> > dismissed by most of you all, perhaps for good reason, but I
still
> > believe it: With this novel, Chandler wrote the detective novel
out of
> > existence. He killed it.
>
> Another requiem was Howard Browne's _A Taste of Ashes_. And yet
> another was James Crumley's _The Last Good Kiss_. Too many burials
for
> the same thing, no? Maybe it wasn't all that dead... I do agree in
> spirit with your basic premise, but being optimistic, I don't think
a
> form or even a formula is ever a straightjacket or an impediment to
> writing great stuff. Yes, Beethoven killed the symphony and the
string
> quartet and the classical sonata, but it didn't prevent others from
> taking up those forms again and again, running the risk of
unfavorable
> comparison. Eventually, music had to change, and it did so
> drastically. The forms do survive, but so transformed that they no
> longer recall the originals.
>
> One problem with the lone wolf PI is that he is not very viable,
> perhaps already was not viable in 1953. And the form cannot survive
on
> pure nostalgia. Connelly, with his cops and other agents, or with
the
> Lincoln lawyer, can give the reader a sense of contemporary reality.
> He couldn't do it with a classic PI in a dingy office with bottle in
> the drawer and fly stains on the window (and the hummingbird
circling
> around and the lawn mowers humming).
>
> Best,
>
> mrt
>
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