Here's some comments I have on the essay out of Madden's
TOUGH GUY WRITERS OF THE THIRTIES:
The central theme of Grebstein's essay is to lend support to
the shaky argument that Hemingway originated the hardboiled
movement. The essay is worth reading for his sharp
observations, even if you find his central theme hard to
digest. He compares Hemingway's TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT to
Hammett's RED HARVEST and Chandler's THE BIG SLEEP.
He also notes folk heroes Paul Bunyan and Mike Fink, Cooper's
Natty Bumppo, London's Wolf Larsen, Melville's Captain Ahab,
and real-life characters Jesse James, Buffalo Bill, Daniel
Boone, and Davy Crockett. His cataloging of their shared
traits is worth quoting:
"All are physically hard and emotionally tough. All are
supremely adept at their crafts. All espouse objectives which
frequently do not square with conventional moral norms but
which are admirable nevertheless. All are pragmatists who
employ questionable means towards desirable ends. In the
Darwinian terminology, they are superbly equipped in the
struggle for existence; in the Nietzchean, they practice a
Master rather than a Slave morality. ...They are, in short,
the splendid ancestors and prototypes of the tough guy hero
who emerged in the popular fiction of the Twenties and
Thirties and who is still very much with us in more ways than
we can possibly discern."
He is skeptical of the true Proletariat nature of TO HAVE AND
HAVE NOT, and I agree with that. He also reflects my feeling
that hardboiled and Proletariat are strange bedfellows:
"Although such explicit statements are rare in the tough
novel, which is neither a proper medium for social reform nor
a suitable forum for the exchange of ideas, the elements of
class conflict and social injustice I have outlined do often
provide a substructure for the strenuous action and
hard-boiled manner of tough writing."
He compares the Hemingway code convincingly with hardboiled
ethics, replacing loyalties to ideals with loyalties to
people, a committment to their work, self-discipline, a
personal familiarity with violence, and a strict sense of
conduct outside the norm. He notes the similarities in views
and attitudes towards death between Chandler and Hemingway,
and he mentions the influence of Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound,
and Sherwood Anderson, Mark Twain, and Stephen Crane.
Grebstein's argument that Hemingway started the hardboiled
style is founded on his assertion that Hammett's first
hardboiled work was a short story (Fly Paper?) written
towards the end of the 1920s. He offers no explanation why
none of the Black Mask authors' work before this is
hardboiled. I haven't read any of these short stories, so I'm
at a loss to even take a guess. I'll take care of that
problem over the summer.
He concludes the essay by stating that TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT
is the best tough guy novel of the decade.
miker
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