Anthony
I don't think I argued that the things described in hb
fiction don't happen, just that they don't happen to many
people and even in big bad America they don't happen that
often - that's why they make the headlines. Your headlines
could apply equally to any day in the UK, too, by the way:
the trial of Dr. Harold Shipman finished a few months ago. He
was convicted of (I think) twenty murders, but is thought to
have finished off at least a hundred of his patients, some of
them in his surgery with others waiting outside his office.
But when was the last time you saw a newspaper report along
the lines of "All but three people in Atlanta not murdered
today" or
"Doctor is caring and compassionate professional"? There is a
tendency I think for the press to overplay the risks: a
report a few years ago noted that Americans are more likely
to die a violent death in the suburbs than in the city itself
- mostly in traffic accidents. So I just don't buy the idea
that hb fiction is any more realistic (for most people) than
the cozies, which aren't very - I still love reading it,
though. There might even be an advantage in scaring us
(Pravda of the Potomac may not be so far from the truth):
remember Chandler's point that "A tired scared man can't
afford ideals, he has to buy food for his family".
As for the English village: I live in one that has grown to a
suburb because people wanted that kind of life. A certain
number still behave as if it exists: we have a Bobby on the
beat, a vicar who walks up the road in his cassock to a
church where the bells ring on Sunday morning, a post office
where people go to gossip, and a drug problem at the local
school. Er, scratch that last bit.
None of this matters, of course: literature only really works
when you disregard questions of verisimilitude :)
Cheers Chris
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