I think we've shot this sucker about
a hundred and eleven times and it's still dead. Three major
problems with the defining we try to do or to evaluate are
that:
- Some categories are best understood
intuitively, with fuzzy definitional boundaries. The more you
try to nail them down, the less useful they become.
- Some of the "learned" theories
about what is pulp or hard-boiled or
noir
are nonsense and are better off being ignored. The Caine
Mutiny was pulp fiction? C'mon.
- By the time we've worked each case
over for a while, the category name has been so overchewed,
its lost its flavor, and its meaning. If everything is
"pulp," then nothing is, the same for hard-boiled, etc.
I start squirming when useful
category names get masticated into mush, or get twisted and
tortured until the original framework is no longer visible.
But that's just me. Maybe everyone else is having fun and
learning something.
Jim
Blue
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