Mark B. wrote
> > I meant that American customs and laws are
foreign to you. I realize you
>> have learnt a lot through your reading. and
watching of American movies, but
>> you won't have the same background of someone
born in the US or Canada. I
>> want to emphasize I'm not I am not saying France
and Finland are the same.
And Juri wrote:
>OK, I got it all wrong. France is a bit exotic me,
but then again so
>is America
>- - I've just learnt about it.
What? Didn't Columbus mention it?
>But do you imply that Albert's Stone Angel
series
>doesn't work well for other than Americans or
Canadians?
Relax, I don't think that's what Mark was saying at all. But
any foreign country, or even a new city, or even, sometimes,
a different part of town, can be exotic. I think it's part of
the vicarious thrill of hard-boiled fiction-- to take us
somewhere not necessarily nice, and let us figure a way home.
After all, most of us don't go down very mean streets on a
day to day basis, even Americans, and despite the occasional
outburst of macho posturing, most of us are smart enough not
to want to.
Oh, and one quibble. Americans and Canadians are not
interchangeable. American customs and laws are pretty foreign
and exotic to me, too, and I'm Canadian. The guns, elected
judges, yahoo lawsuits, capital punishment, four million
varieties of junk food I've never heard of, the political
system, mattress sales to celebrate presidents' birthdays, no
universal public health care, their definition of an
Anglo--hell, they're all different.
Not necessarily better, or worse. Just different. But like
the beer ad says, "My name is Joe, and I'm Canadian."
But I find hard-boiled books set outside the U.S. really
intriguing, the way an originally very American idiom has
been adapted and retooled to fit every country in the world.
Sometimes it's an easy fit, and sometimes it requires major
retooling, but overall, generally, whether the book is good
or bad, the result is usually very interesting, and often
fascinating.
Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
An A&E Mystery.com Site of the Week, but don't let that
discourage you.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 11 May 2000 EDT