>As for the film or book being "politically correct",
huh? Nature may come
>off pretty well, if harsh, but people are presented in
all their petty,
>stupid, cowardly, viscious, cruel, violent (and just
occasionally, brave
>and noble and honourable) glory. It's the reason
Johnson heads off into the
[snip]
>The books and film were all produced twenty-five or so
years ago, long
>before "politically correct" was generally used;
certainly long before it
>became commonly used, as an accusatory, albeit
nebulous and essentially
>meaningless buzzword that sounds like the speaker is
saying something, but
>isn't. Tell that fellow to get a life.
The myth of the "noble savage" is indeed far older than any
concept of
"political correctness." I believe the Tahiti-seeking lads
(Van Gogh and
Gaugin?) were in search of just such a Yeti. I'm fairly sure
this
Romantic idea predates them by at least a century.
If I may, might I suggest that the Crow did not march
single-file, one
by one, politely, into the liver-eating maw of Johnston? If
anything,
the Crow were a smidgen more ignoble than a Robert Redford
showcase
would dare convey -- even in the Dark Ages of the 1970s. On
the other
hand, to the Crows' credit, they must have become civilized
somehow; I
haven't heard of a Crow raiding party in quite some
time.
I can think of several analogs to the Crow -- the principal
one being
the modern-day gang. Gangs and gang-warfare are perhaps an
overlooked
fertile field for the modern hard-boiled writer. I can only
conjure to
mind Lehane's pathetic and unreal "A Drink Before the War" as
an example
of hard-boiled writing that incorporates such gang-based
murder. Sure,
there are modern and historical examples (Croats, Serbs,
Tutsis, Hutus,
Hashishim ["Assassins"]) of Crow-like behavior, but where is
the
"Outfit" or "Syndicate" in this in mix? They don't exist, for
there is a
good deal more individualism in modern mafiosi, and modern
hard-boiled
writing, than the old-time versions. The modern "wise guy" is
looking to
sell his pals out with a plea bargain at the drop of a hat.
Omerta has
gone by the boards. Witness Sammy "The Bull" Gravano's
propagandistic
autobiography as an example. Maybe this stuff sells in
the
English-speaking world's democracies because we average folk
see
ourselves much more as individuals than as members of a group
that would
willingly march, one after another, into, say, the WWI
machine-gun nest
for "valor" or, for the gangster, "respect."
I might further suggest that community-engined murder is a
good deal
more frightening and realistic than much of the lone-nut
"psycho" junk
that is getting published.
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