Mr. Taboada said:
: His theory on why readers read pulp stories seems dubious.
Why not
: assume that a colorful mystery with colorful characters
generally draws
: the reader in, period? Everyone wants to be an adventurer
and a
: detective. It's fun to read about someone else being those
things. I
: suspect that this type of story is read for much the same
reasons pulp
: stories were read eighty years ago.
Sure, that's one reason, same as for swashbucklers and
romances and epic fantasy. But the hardboiled stuff is
especially concerned with behaving morally--walking the mean
streets and all that. We've talked about that here before and
how readers pattern themselves on heroes like Marlowe or
Travis McGee, not just in their imagination, but in real
life. It's still like that: George Pelecanos's books are
about males working at being men, having jobs, supporting
families, staying clean, learning lessons like how
"last man standing, wins" cuts two ways. Plus, there are
gunfights and lots of sex, drugs, and rock and roll,
"Ads urged readers to remake themselves into real men; Black
Mask fiction gave them role models," Smith's book said. The
role model angle isn't news, but it's intriguing how the ads
and the stories tied together (if they did) to show readers
how to live. Hell, if they were manuals to class, society,
clothes, behaviour, speech, and women, readers were certainly
getting their money's worth.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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