----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry Newton" <
ldnewton2@attbi.com>
> so Race Williams and Mike Hammer are sleaze??? They
are criminals???
>
> I object to that. Just finished "One Lonely Night"
tonight. Hammer isn't
a
> criminal (in the book). He's a crusader of sorts.
Race Williams is a
> similar character. They only kill those characters
that need to be
killed.
> There are no innocent bystanders that catch bullets.
Only those who need
> killing get killed.
Maybe you've been reading too much Mike Hammer, Larry.
> The judge alluded to in the beginning of "One Lonely
Night" would agree
that
> these characters are sleaze and criminals, but I
don't agree.
You don't find the following extract sleazy? (from "One
Lonely Night.")
"I raised my hand until it was against her breast and pushed.
Ethel staggered back a step and I yanked with the hand that
held her dress and it came off in one piece with a quick loud
tear, leaving her gasping and hurt with vivid red marks on
her skin where the fabric had twisted and caught....Her head
shook, unbelieving (sic) what was happening to her. It only
lasted a moment, and her hands that trembled so bent up
behind her back and the bra fell away and landed at her feet.
Her eyes were on mine as she slid her hands inside the
fragile silk of the shorts and pushed them down.
When she stepped out of them I slid
my belt off and let it dangle from my hand....
I started to swing the belt back and
forth very gently. Ethel pressed against the wall, her face a
pale oval. "Mike...it wasn't - "
"Keep quiet," I said.
A naked woman and a leather belt. I
looked at her, so bare and so pretty, hands pressed for
support against the panelling, legs spread apart to hold a
precarious balance, a flat stomach hollowed under the fear
that burned her body a faint pink, lovely smooth breasts,
firm with terrible excitement, rising and falling with every
gasping breath."
To me, Travis McGee's attitude to women just seems dated.
Mike Hammer's sexual sadism is a whole different ball game.
If only those characters who need killing get killed, then
Hammer should put a bullet in his own head first (if he isn't
too busy belting women who need belting).
Al
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