> In working through the stories in _Hard-Boiled_, a #
of folks have
> noted racial, gender, & class attitudes, some of
which would "not
> do" for today's detective protagonists. But these
attitudes are
> hardly unique to the pulps: early Edna Ferber is
eye-opening, as are
> many of the "boys' books," like _Penrod and
Sam_.
>
Right, although James Elroy in his LA series, in fact in most
of his
books, has many of these attitudes represented. I think he
maintains
enough moral distance from his characters that I see them as
being
products of their times and as flawed humans, just like we
all are
in some way.
> Always liked Chandler's worm's eye view of the rich.
More
> optimistic than Hemingway in finding occasional signs
of integrity,
> just as he found some decent cops too.
>
I'm always fascinated by what I see as a mid-Atlantic view
point in
Chandler - part American bad boy - part English public
school. I
think it contributed a complicated, outsider perspective to
his
viewpoint that made for morally complex fiction.
Hemingway was an interesting case in that regardless of
his
attitudes, he seemed to enjoy the high life. For many years,
it
wasn't paid for by book sales, but by rich wives.
> Am fascinated by John Cawelti's take on hard-boiled
as a form that
> confronts the real problems of the success ethic in
America. He
> went on to say that while the world of the
hard-boiled seems
> naturalistic, tending toward fatalism, the
protagonists act as if
> success were still available to the resourceful.
Believe it's in
> _Adventure, Mystery, and Romance_.
>
I find that fascinating as well. I need to read it. It
relates
to a lot of thinking and writing I've been doing.
In developing various characters of the criminal persusion,
I've
given them a point of view I've discussed at length with many
actual
individuals of the criminal variety.
It's a variation on the theme of "Society made me a
criminal." It would go like this: "I'm down by law, so the
only
thing left for me to do is crime - that's only fair."
The fairness argument sort of falls apart when you point out
it might
not be all that fair to eveyone else. But, there I go being
the wet
blanket, again.
I see the same attitudes expressed in criminals of the white
collar
class, as well. "Well, gosh... our first responsibility is to
make
profits. It wasn't my fault if we had to break the law to
make
profits. Society made me a criminal."
What I find telling about both these examples is the degree
to which
they consider success an entitlement, and any level of
impediment to
success an unfair imposition. They are at the same time the
problem
of the success ethic and the problem with the success
ethic.
Marxism certainly attacked the success ethic, problem or not,
but
the medicine turned out to be worse than the disease.
Looking at the genre as attacking the "real problems of
the
success ethic" on a more personal level is very provocative
and, for
me, very exciting. It explains a lot of the, sometimes
hidden, moral
fervor of hardboiled writing, and, as you have pointed out,
the
stubborn belief in possibilities that drives the
action.
One way I describe my last opus is: A story of second
chances in a morally compressed world.
------------------------------
Fred Willard
fwillard@mindspring.com
http://www.mindspring.com/~fwillard
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