Usually I teach that "popular culture is traditional middle
class culture in a carnival atmosphere." By the same token,
popular fiction puts traditional middle class culture on
trial in a carnival setting. (Surprisingly enough, those
traditional middle class values are acquited.) The
Supermarket Tabloid World, if you like. I don't think there
should be any surprise that one of Ellroy's best sellers was
called American Tabloid. I don't think anybody should be
surprised its successes popped it out of "the crime genre"
into "pop fiction." Like the medieval world, our consumer
society puts its values on trial to see if we should still
hold onto them. Jon Benet Ramsey, or OJ, or the Nanny Trial,
Elian Gonsalez, or Alien Abduction get front page coverage
because we all want to step inside the curtain and see the
Freak Show. The American Media searches for that Freak Show
point-of-view for tonight's Primetime News. "Hard-boiled" is
an attitude an individual has toward that Freak Show, while
"Noir" means you're a prisoner of it. You want hard-boiled:
Rose Kennedy buried Jimmy Hoffa in the Hyannisport Rose
Garden after he got away with whacking two of her sons and
one of their mistresses (you know which one; she sang "Happy
Birthday, Mister President.") Hoffa's only target was RFK,
for the 1950s Kevauver
(spelling?) hearings. But, hey, Bobby kept going after
Hoffa.
Or do I sound too much like Ellroy? (You should hear my
theories on DiMaggio!)
Frederick Zackel
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