MT:
> I think we should be careful about generalizing
from
> Chandler and his knight. Marlowe is not a
typical
> pulp
> protagonist. He is an educated man, he sees
himself
> and
> what he does ironically and his boss gave him
a
> voice that
> is both a paragon and a parody. I have
reservations
> about
> painting Marlowe as the quintessential
pulp
> protagonist. As
> Jim has pointed out, those pulps are full of
gleeful
> crooks
> and gleefully brutish anticrooks who are in
essence
> no
> different (just working on the other side). This
is,
> at
> least for me, is a large part of the attraction
that
> the
> pulps still exert (the other part is the
impudent
> and
> original use of language).
Even Hammett, though, had a moralistic streak, although it's
usually rather underplayed. It's a kind of independently
formulated Hemingwayesque "do your best to adhere to a code
in a hellish world" thing.
I guess my point is you and Mr. Doherty are right, but that
there's a reason we read Hammett and Chandler and not Daly,
say. The amoral stuff exists but suffers in comparison.
(Incidentally, I don't consider myself a snob about these
things. I have a really bad weakness for men's adventure
paperbacks, even really grotty ones like the Nick Carter:
Killmaster series.)
doug
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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