Juri Nummelin wrote:
> Hardboiled literature is proletarian, has always
been that -
> the pulps were for the working men (women? I don't
know). Hence the
> racism in early HB, the rich had the privilege to
have a tolerant view
> towards minorities and women. So the goddam S.S. Van
Dines seem more
> liberal than most of the pulps.
In the earlier discussion, hardboiled vs. cozy, this part of
the equasion didn't come up. Maybe it was implied. The cozy
is middle class, taking place in a stable world. Murder is an
aberation. The detective solves the murder and restores
stability. HB is lower to lower middle class, taking place in
an unstable world. Murder and exploitation are the norm. The
detective may solve the puzzle, but the world remains
unstable. I expect most of us on this list find this a more
accurate picture of society. But racism is pervasive in both
hardboiled and cozies, especially antisemitism. S.S. Van
Dine, and to some extent his acolyte Ellery Queen, were
exceptions (but it must be said that not being overtly racist
does not mean being liberal; Van Dine and Queen were
essentially conservative; Rex Stout, who acknowledged and
dealt with racism directly, was a liberal -- and there's got
to be a way out of these parenthesis). Ah, better. For some
really instructive reading, try Richard Wright's NATIVE SON,
a hardboiled proletarian crime novel -- don't tell the lit.
teachers this, they'll freak -- told from a black
perspective.
BobT
-- # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 28 Jan 2000 EST