Well, geez. I love to cook, and I think cooking and HB are
tenuously related at best, but I've loved these comments
(many tongue-in-cheek) so much I have to chime in. Besides,
I've just cooked a fresh pot of coffee.
Kevin makes an excellent point:
>prominent in later books, as Spenser becomes more
domesticated (which
>isn't necessarily the same as going soft).
>From: George Upper <
gcupper3@yahoo.com>
>Interestingly, re Parker, Spenser never seems to
bake.
>baking does seem more overtly feminine.
I think what George is referring to is the image of the
housewife whipping up something for the oven, dressed in
apron, a la 1950s era suburbia. And he's right on the
money.
George makes another good point, and I think this underscores
our under-the-surface understanding of stereotypes. Men are
brutal cavemen, women maintain the household. Men make their
way in the world, women make babies. Women get into trouble,
men fight danger. It's not (always) true
(haha), but it bubbles uncomfortably the surface in much of
out popular art.
>And re competency, Carroll John Daly stressed in
many
>of his stories the illiteracy of his protagonist,
as
>if that somehow proved masculinity or toughness.
It
>seems to me that Marlowe, on the other hand, was
often
>reading; Spenser, of course, read
constantly.
But here, I disagree. Spenser QUOTES a lot, but I don't
recall his ever actually reading a book. I've just read three
recent Spensers in a row, and he watches football on TV, but
doesn't read. Marlowe, on the other hand, READS. That's why
Chandler is a more careful writer than Parker, and a better
one. He follows that grad school dictum: "Show, don't
tell."
>From: Mario Taboada <
matrxtech@yahoo.com>
><<There's nothing remotely feminine about
baking a frozen
>Swanson's Hungry Man TV dinner.>>
I love it! I'm going to have a manly dinner tonight, in honor
of this suggestion! Love those little baked cherry pie
"desserts."
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