RARA-AVIS: Re: Walter Mosley and bad-ass sidekicks

From: mtthwsjnc (mtthwsjnc@yahoo.com)
Date: 02 Sep 2008

  • Next message: DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net: "Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Walter Mosley and bad-ass sidekicks"

    --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Michael Jeter"
    <michael.damian.jeter@...> wrote:

    Wasn't Hawk a mercenary soldier/soldier-of-fortune? Didn't they meet in Vietnam? I thought that was his context, anyway, not that he was psychotic or sociopathic. Hawk doesn't throw up when he kills somebody, like Spenser does...
    >
    > Why do people ascribe amorality/immorality/psychotic labels to Hawk?
    >
    > Hawk shows up, I belive, in the third book.
    >
    > MDJ
    >
    > On Mon, Sep 1, 2008 at 10:25 AM, <DJ-Anonyme@...> wrote:
    > > As has been mentioned, Parker popularized the amoral/immoral
    sidekick
    > > that does the violent acts that give the more upright knight
    pause. And
    > > since Spenser/Hawk, it's become a genre standard. A few that come
    to
    > > mind:
    >
    > > moral/psycho zebra pairing before Hawk entered the Spenser series
    (I
    > > forget, in which book did Hawk first appear?),
    > >
    > > Then there is Crais's Joe Pike. Can be far more lethal and
    expedient
    > > than Elvis Cole, specially in the earlier books where he's more
    of a
    > > cipher, but there is never any hint of immorality. In fact, most
    of his
    > > kicking ass seems to come from a moral certainty. Of course, Hawk
    has
    > > his code, too, bringing it full circle.
    > >
    > >
    >



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