Hi,
Long time lurker here kicked out of the shadows by the "what
makes hardboiled?" debate. Probably not the best place for a
delurker to start, and I'm a bit late, but...
I look at "hardboiled" as a past participle more than an
adjective. If a character is hardboiled it is because of the
way their life has gone up to then. Something (or some
things) happened to them that removed their innocence and
idealism etc and "hardboiled" them. Maybe it's not a specific
event. Not every novel with a hardboiled character can go
into backstory about how the hardboiling came about. Maybe
life itself is what did it. I think the diction and the
attitude and and way a guy walks are all just the effects of
the hardboiling he got somewhere along the line.
While I'm at it, is it just a character who is hardboiled? Is
it not the whole atmosphere of the novel that supports his or
her hardboiledness? If everyone runs around singing and
giving each other flowers it's going to be difficult for this
hardboiled guy to look credible. There's gotta be a streak of
hardboiledness through the world the novel depicts, I think.
That at least offers up a reason for Mr Hardboiled to be the
way he is.
I'm ranting on here, but I know I won't get flamed too badly.
This is my first post after all. Right?
I salute you all,
Charlie Williams.
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