><<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:
>>
While it would be a mistake to read too much into it, I
think
that it *does* hold true across the genre. The wealthy have
privilege to
which others cannot lay claim. The police are corrupt or, at
best,
ineffectual. Religon tends to be portrayed as a con, politics
as a cruel
joke on the public. These elements are as true of Spillane,
Daly , Nebel,
etc., as they are of more explicitly leftist writers like
Chandler, Hammett,
and MacDonald. I doubt that the question would even arise
except that the
term "class critique" has a communist connotation. If one was
to describe
the politics of hardboiled as "anti-status quo", I think that
there would be
widespread agreement.
James
James Michael Rogers
jetan@ionet.net
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