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Re: RARA-AVIS: Hardboiled (was Locale)
There has been much discussion in this thread to date,
and I think it's unnecessary to list all the 'non-urban' titles that have
been listed so far --- though a couple of titles to add might be Hammett's
short story, 'The Golden Horsehoe', where most of the action is set out of
San Francisco, in Tijuana; and also 'Nightmare Town', which takes place in
a
small desert town called Izzard.
But there seems to be a consensus that many things that contribute to
whether a
story is 'hard boiled' or not do not need to be present---that is to say,
'urban location'
can be an element of 'hardboiled', but the absense/presence of this element
is not
sufficent to include/exclude a particular narrative from the category
'hardboiled'.
This though is a pretty standard idea about genre (which derives, I
believe, from Todorov):
there may be certain generic elements present in a particular example of a
given genre,
but the presence/absence of these as individual elements does not determine
whether a
particular text is or is not of a given genre. Moreover, genre is a
dynamic category: if it weren't, all genres would be static and unchanging.
This is probably useful in thinking about hardboled: it is a dynamic which
is not determined by the inclusion or exclusion of particular aspects,
but rather by the way in which *some* of a *possible group* of aspects are
combined.
[Anyone know what, if anything, Cawelti has to say on this? --- maybe
someone should mail him the 'flyer' for thelist ;-)]
The urban setting may be thought of as being one possible element in
hard-boiled writing.
It is (almost?) de-rigeur though in *film noir*. And there has been a
tendency to use the terms
'noir' and 'hard boiled' almost interchangably. Perhaps there is a
distinction to be made between the two, and this may be something we should
now turn our attention to.
BTW, does anyone recall the quote --- I think it was Malcolm McLaren when
he was manager of
The New York Dolls, so that must make it early-mid 1970s --- 'Rock and
Roll is an attitude'. I think this is useful in thinking about hardboiled:
there is 'an attitude' in hardboiled writing which does not depend upon
devices such as setting, narrator etc.
Eddie Duggan
----------------------------------------------
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or a Woody?
(All the UK shops are out of stock until March!) If you can let me have
any details (shop name,
phone number), please communicate through private email.
Thanks.
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