Re: RARA-AVIS: those dirty Jap spies

Joseph M. Johnston (johnston@netreach.net)
Wed, 15 Jul 1998 11:20:45 -0400 I am going to post a real comment about Mike Hammer to justifiey this post for Bill,
but want to make sure it is clear that the only thing I
said which was on the post below is what I left unsnipped. Since my sig
was there I didn't want any confusion.

In terms of the hard-boiled character: It is clear that most are loners,
somewhat living apart from the mainstream. Until this little discourse, it
had never occurred to me that the loner hardboiled private detective can
live on either side of the political spectrum, but seems to be in either tail of
the bell-shaped curve. For non-stat types, this simply means that starting at
the middle of the curve which is the mean scores (everything is translated
into numbers) 45% going each was is considered normal variation and it is
the 5% at each extreme which is exceptional or beyond chance.

The loner hardboiled private detective is clarly in that 5%, but it never
occurred to me that the 5% could go either way. The classic semi-Marxian,
class struggle job holder revealing the weaknesses of the capitalist society is
on one extreme. This would be many of Hammett's characters. But
actually, Mike Hammer is just as disenfranchised by his status in the
opposite 5%. While I haven't read a Hammer book in quite a while, he
feels frustration at the too-often compromising nature of society. He feels
like his actions are made necessary by a corrupted society.

I'd be interested in seeing a list of characters categorized by whither they fit
the Hammer mold (on the right) or the mold on the left. Unfortunately,
when you deal with these extremes, there is far too much that is quite the
same.

That's JohnsTon with a T, son.....

On 14 Jul 98, at 13:48, rikke & hanne Kesten wrote:

> Re: Joe Johnson's earlier post, it's not unwarranted to look at all
John: > While this accusation may or
> may not be true, you are partying on anti- > American conjecture. > >
> ========================================================= > Joseph M.
> Johnston, Ph.D. johnston@netreach.net # # To unsubscribe, say
> "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the
> list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.
>

=========================================================
Joseph M. Johnston, Ph.D. johnston@netreach.net
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