Mark,
Re your comment below:
> You are using the wrong word!
No, I'm not. I'm using precisely the word I mean to
use.
> I think you mean down
> to earth behavior
> instead you are saying conversational
language
> derived from the working
> class that doesn't have to follow the rules
of
> formal language.
I mean language. Behavior is exhibited by action, and action
is already covered by "tough." Language means the words
people use and the manner in which they use them. And it
doesn't have to be ungrammatical, it just has to be
straightforward and casual, the way regular people
talk.
> I don't see
> how you can define being hard boiled solely by
the
> language.
I don't define it solely by the language. I define by actions
and behavior ("tough") AND language
("colloquial").
However, I insist on language as being a component
(NOT the sole defining characteristic, but an essential
component) of hard-boiled crime fiction because language was,
and is, what sets the hard-boiled mystery apart from the rest
of the genre.
> Why not try
> defining hard boiled as being tough and having
a
> realistic attitude?
Because not all hard-boiled characters have a realistic
attitude, nor are they all realistic.
Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, for example, is a
shameless romantic. Mark Schorr's Red Diamond is totally
delusional. Jack Webb's Joe Friday is hopelessly idealistic.
As for realistic, when was the last time you ever heard of
the proprietor of a one-man private detective agency
tommy-gunning an entire ring of KGB agents to death? Does
that make ONE LONELY NIGHT less hard-boiled?
"Tough" and "colloquial" is how I define it because it's
simple, direct, uncomplicated, and covers the broadest
spectrum of hard-boiled crime fiction. Come up with something
more simple, more direct, and less exclusive, and I'll
embrace it.
JIM DOHERTY
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