I'm certainly with Kevin (re Fables...) in his reaction to
the blurb I posted for Priscilla L. Walton and Manina Jones'
_Detective Agency: Women Rewriting the Hard-Boiled Tradition_
(U. Calif. Press, 1999).
I always hope the book recommended in such theory-clotted
language is better than the review...,but there is some logic
to guilt by association.
One aspect of the review intrigues me. Quoting first
"...[women writers have reimagined the hard-boiled novel,
challenging not only the patriarchal culture that defines
these fictional worlds" etc., with particlar mention of
Paretsky, Grafton, and Muller.
Now, the particular authors mentioned have been discussed and
mostly dismissed in this forum. I see no need to debate their
de-/merits again. But couldn't it be argued that these
three--adding Stabenow, Cornwell, McCrumb perhaps--"open the
door" to the world of hard-boiled for a lot of new readers?
We all read something lighter, pulpish, or less "pure" before
we came to the good stuff.
Secondly, like 'em or not, haven't the women writers (and the
whole cultural outlook) somehow "changed the rules" of the
genre? Or at least changed the perspective on society? By the
latter question, I mean even if the novels we read continue
the attitudes of certain decades (30s-50s) toward race and
gender, there is a difference (or maybe we're just
different). Sexism or racism in older novels by Spillane and
newer novels by Ellroy set in the same period just don't read
the same way.
It's lunchtime. I'll leave the thread dangling there. It's
wonderful to be through grading papers for another academic
year, and be able to dip into the pile of RA recommended
books.
Bill Hagen
billha@ionet.net
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