----- Original Message ----- From: "JIM DOHERTY" <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com>
> Even today, the vast majority of PI
writers,
> characters like Dick Francis's Sid Halley
> notwithstanding, ARE American, which was my
point.
> And a surprisingly large number of
non-American
> writers who wrote PI stories, such as James
Hadley
> Chase, Peter Cheney, and Peter Chambers (not to
be
> confused with the PI character of the same name)
used
> American characters and settings precisely because
the
> PI story was so closely identified with the
US.
>
> Certainly this has changed to a degree in
recent
> years, but the hard-boiled private eye character
is
> still widely regarded as an American, just as
the
> trafditional "cozy" amateur is still widely
regarded
> as a Briton, despite the large influx of
American
> writers and characters in recent years.
I don't disagree with the above. However, I suspect that if
Chandler had never existed James Hadley Chase would still
have used the same US settings. JHC himself cited his
influences as William Faulkner, John Steinbeck and James
Cain. None of them, despite being American, renowned PI
writers. But, then, neither was JHC. Incidentally, Chandler
hated Chase's writing almost as much as he hated
Cain's.
On another topic: how many novels must a character appear in
to qualify as a series character? Just two, or do serial
killer rules apply?
Al
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 06 Dec 2002 EST