Sharon Villines (sharonvillines@prodigy.net)
Tue, 30 Nov 1999 13:22:28 -0500
>
>> One more question, and I'll shut up for a while.
Does hardboiled have
>> to be a PI story?
>
> No.
>
> Hardboiled was a form of fiction being written
nearly 75 years ago.
These are distinctions I have been struggling with in the
MacGuffin. Where I am with it at the moment is that most
detective fiction falls into two categories which are really
attitudes:
Classic or Traditional-- The social system is orderly and
benevolent and crime is the result of a violation of or a
break down in accepted codes of behavior. The good guys are
inside the social system.
Hardboiled or Mean Streets-- The social system is corrupt and
untrustworthy. Crime is the rule. The good guys are the ones
who are outside the social system.
These attitudes were clearer in the detective fiction written
before--when? The 1960s, 1970s?--but I think they still
exist.
A PI or an amateur sleuth or a law enforcement officer can
portrayed in either subgenre.
Unfortunately, Classic has come to be viewed as equal to the
cute cozies and Hardboiled, to "action", car chases and
physical injury.
If Hardboiled is limited to those works written in a specific
time period, what would you use to describe a contemporary
book with the same attitude?
Sharon.
-- Sharon Villines, Editor MacGuffin Guide to Detective Fiction http://www.macguffin.net MacGuffinL@onelist.com sharon@macguffin.net
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