a.n.smith (ansmith@netdoor.com)
Sun, 7 Nov 1999 16:52:13 -0600
>That is the sort of thing that makes
>a character 3-dimensional, not necessarily a softy.
This guy was about as
>hard-boiled as you can get and still be a real
person, but relationships
>and loyalty are probably the most important things in
his life. You don't
>have to be a loner to be tough, and you don't have to
be sentimental to
>be human.
Yes. All good, Katie. 3 dimensional is good. I was talking
about character depth in my post, about allowing the life of
the detective to be something other than a pamphlet of PC
catchphrases. People are weird, and do weird things, and
think bad thoughts and good ones, and characters in fiction
should, too, without the "moralizing" of current bestselling
PI series, which only happens when creating super-characters
instead of ones that reflect the everyday joe. And that's
more interesting than loner wise guys OR the oversensitive
folk. The detective has problems? Good. Don't solve them,
writers. And sometimes (like Pelecanos' Stefanos) make them
get worse, too.
Neil Smith
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