-----Thanks for bringing this up James. I'm in my sixties and first read the Nero Wolfe series over 40 years ago, but I never considered Rex Stout "...the virtual definition of cozy mystery...". True the novels are not hardboiled like Chandler and Hammett, but they are not on the same cozy level as the little old lady detectives. Why? Mainly because of the narrator, Archie Goodwin. He's not a private detective but he often acts like one and can be hardboiled at times, as the subject of this thread indicates.
I recently reread all the Raymond Chandler novels and all the Ross Macdonald novels about Lew Archer. This discussion about Archie has me thinking it's time to reread the Nero Wolfe novels also. I don't think these novels are off topic on this site at all.
-------Walker Martin.
--- On Mon, 11/8/10, James Michael Rogers <jeddak5@cox.net> wrote:
From: James Michael Rogers <jeddak5@cox.net>
Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: archie goodwin: torturer?
To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, November 8, 2010, 11:11 AM
Apologies for being a purist, but if we get to discuss Zero Wolfe as HB then
I will have no compunction as to discussing the tough roots of Miss Marple.
I dunno how young you guys are but when I wuz a kid, Rex Stout was the
virtual definition of cozy mystery, what with his poxy live-in chef and his
orchid room and his mannered time-outs to suffocate the rader in the above.
I liked those books at one time.....not much, but a bit.....but they make
even a Mike Hammer or a Brett Halliday look like pretty realistic fiction.
I do think that one could have a valuable discussion as to the very vivid
torture scene in Golden Spiders. I believe it totally misconstrues tough.
Hammett and Chandler wouldn't have let their protagonists do it, though they
would have let the reader know that their protagonists could, should The Op
or Marlowe choose to go that low. But then the Op would have been
indistinguishable from his antagonists.
James
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark R. Harris" <brokerharris@gmail.com>
To: <rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, November 08, 2010 08:57
Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: archie goodwin: torturer?
>I can hack it. Where Nero and Archie lead, I shall faithfully follow!
>
> Patrick
>
> On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 11:31 PM, Craig Clarke
> <craigsbookclub@yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> > "Some Buried Caesar" is interesting for taking place entirely
>>
>> > outside Wolfe's famous brownstone, which actually made me feel a little
>> > homesick!
>>
>> If that bothers then definitely steer clear of "The Black Mountain,"
>> where
>> Wolfe
>> actually goes back to his homeland of Montenegro.
>>
>> Craig Clarke
>> Somebody Dies--Book Review of Crime, Horror, and Western Fiction
>> http://somebodydies.blogspot.com/
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Mark R. Harris
> BCM Language Center
> 7F Jungwoo B/D
> 73-62 Yongho-dong
> Changwon, Kyungnam
> Republic of Korea 641-748
> mark_r_harris@yahoo.com
> brokerharris@gmail.com
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
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>
>
>
>
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