Thanks, Jiro!
Oh, and myshmysh, the question about summer reading is a bit
of a plug for
my web site. Sorry if you thought it was part of the
discussion. I'll
rework my signature file so it's more obvious. Sorry,
folks.
>And what about ambience? Can't a hardboiled novel also
be gloomy.
>Reference any of Thomas Cook's early novel that
featured a New York cop
>that quits to become an Atlanta private eye.
The Frank Clemons trilogy! I don't give a damn if they're
considered noir
or hardboiled, they're just excellent, powerful novels
everyone on this
list should read. Congrats on your excellent taste, Reed, and
thanks for
reminding me of them. With Cook's more recent successes, I
imagine these
will be back in print soon. When they are, maybe we should
think of reading
these.
>I don't think this is a tough distinction to make. The
HB features a
>tough hero. Mickey Spillane, Phillip Marlowe, Sam
Spade or Spenser.
>But the moral alignment is clear. The Noir novel
features an
>anti-hero. See 'Postman Always Rings Twice' or 'Double
Indemnity.' The
>moral alignment or the protagonist runs contrary to
the morals of
>society in general.
This is a pretty good definition, Kern, in fact, except that
I'm sure most
of us would question at times the moral alignment of Mike
Hammer (Kiss Me,
Deadly) or Spenser (say, Catskill Eagle), and Spade was
nothing if not
ambiguous when it came to morals. Marlowe, on the other hand,
was,
comparatively speaking, a boy scout. Then again, Murder, My
Sweet is
considered a film noir (and one of the best). But while a
work may be both
hardboiled and noir, I don't think the two are
synomynous.
>Has anyone else seen the mutilated version of Poodle
Springs that HBO
>put out? I had been looking forward with great
anticipation for a
>few months. I had to re-read the book to get the bad
taste out of my
>mouth. Why did they change Linda Loring's character?
Why screw up the
>plot? Oh, well, I hope Parker made some cash out of
it.
Well, we know Chandler won't see any of it....did anyone else
see the show?
Whether you liked what Parker did or not, he at least tried
to follow
Chandler's ideas. I wonder if the changes were script writer
Tom
Stoppard's, himself a mean man with a pen, or some
demographics consultant
or TV suit? Letterman called television them weasels, and he
was dead on...
**************************************************
Kevin Smith
It's summertime, and the living is cheesy...What are you
reading this summer?
Tell us in this month's P.I. Poll on The Thrilling Detective
Web Site
http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
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