Re: RARA-AVIS: dickless realities?

Mario Taboada (matrxtech@sprintmail.com)
Thu, 11 Jun 1998 21:29:25 +0000 Mark Sullivan:

<<Hardboiled was conceived as a class critique,
asserting the value of the everyday man as he exposes the corruption of
the more moneyed class (criminal and allegedly legit); Hammett went to
jail for his politics. Spillane's politics on the other side of the
spectrum are even more unavoidable.>>

The beginnings (and the golden era) of the hardboiled genre do not
support such a thesis. Let's look at the Black Mask boys:

Hammett - yes, devastating criticism of the rich and the powerful.

Gardner - it's not at all clear that he asserts the value of the
everyday man. He mainly aims to entertain.

Daly - Race Williams values money - as long as he's paid, he will do his
job (including shooting on suspicion, to kill).

Paul Cain - emphasis on violent crime and corruption in the underworld,
no good guys (everyday or otherwise) to be seen anywhere.

Norbert Davis - His hardboiled stories don't favor the everyday man -
rather, he is generally sarcastic and rather short on social commentary.
His comic stories make fun of the genre itself, in particular of the
P.I., again without a clear social statement.

Nebel - Cardigan is essentially a brute. If he does have a social
conscience, it is of the Reader's Digest variety. He serves the rich
earnestly when they are nice (or if there's a cute girl involved).

Raoul Whitfield - An adventure writer and father of the noir genre,
sometimes close to Hammett, sometimes very distant. His position on the
everyday man versus the powerful is unclear, at least to me. Those Jo
Gar stories are rather cryptic - and endlessly fascinating.

Raymond Chandler - biting social commentary and constant ridiculing of
the rich and powerful; he is the writer that best fits the thesis.

I could go on and on, and no clearer picture would emerge. The reason
I'm boring everybody with this is that I disagree with those who would
have Hammett and Chandler represent the entire hardboiled genre. This
is, at least in my view, a bad misrepresentation. The "hardboiled genre"
(or genres, to be more precise) as practiced in the pulps had a lot of
variety, both stylistically and ideologically - not to mention the
enormous range in quality.

Off the pulpit and back to work, or to watch the fireflies in the fog at
night, an always inspiring act. No crime in the mountains.

Regards,

Mario Taboada
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