Jim Doherty writes:
I'll allow that Holmes (and, for that matter, war vet Watson)
are tough men. But they're not hard-boiled because toughness
isn't all there is to it.
"Hard-boiled" means tough AND colloquial. It implies a
certain "blue-collar" ethos that Holmes and Watson, staid
Victorian gentlemen that they are, simply don't have.
In other words, though they may walk the walk, they don't
talk the talk. And, to be hardboiled, talking the talk is
almost as important as walking the walk.
__________________________________________________
I don't believe language is a crucial part of being
hardboiled since, in literature at least, it's about attitude
and action, not talk. Nor do I think that blue-collar ethos
is a necessity. There's a long line of British clubmen --
from Bulldog Drummond to James Bond -- who have their
hardboiled moments. That goes for cricketer A.J. Raffles as
well. Lawyers like Perry Mason or Steve Martini's character
(name momentarily escapes me) have at least a touch of the
hardboiled in them. Ditto FBI and CIA heroes and villains. I
don't get one blue collar vibe from the chess-playing poetic
Marlowe. That goes double when it comes to Spencer and Elvis
Cole. In his last novel, Spillane had the former common man
Mike Hammer discussing his fondness for the symphony and
chowing down at The Four Seasons. Going back to Holmes, if
getting out the needle and shooting up after a tough case
isn't hardboiled then what are we talking about?
Dick Lochte
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