Etienne, very interesting discussion about the differences
between France and England, and the different intents of the
authors from those two countries in imitating American
hardboiled. One part, in particular, got me thinking:
"I do not think that Chase was really thinking that America
was as he painted it in his first books; he just blew up the
major traits, prominent clich鳬 of American noir/HB lit of the
time. America was an excuse: It just happened that American
HB novels were good sellers... so he wanted to fake it. Real
America was really not his goal, which explains his
fantasies."
Is "real America" any more the goal of American writers?
While many of them do careful research on the particulars
contained within their novels, and some explore real issues
in America, don't at least as many deal in an America as
mythic as those foreigners do? In fact, don't some of them
use that mythology to explore the very concept of what
"real America" is? I know that sounds kind of cosmic (and
that I'm rambling a bit), but I'm trying to address writers
like Jack O'Connell
(not that there are any other writers like O'Connell) who set
their stories in a surreal, expressionist, mythic, whatever
you want to call it, city that is not "real," but is.
Sure, it can easily be said that Chase and Vian were dealing
with detached, even freefloating signs of America, while the
American writers' signs have roots, but isn't that just a
difference of degree? Although both are needed, aren't the
roots within the genre more important t readers than those
within a particular country's geography? For instance, while
locals might notice questionable geography or customs in
books set in cities I've never visited, my main concern is
how the books satisfy my genre expectations (and general
human nature and behavior). I know nothing of the accuracy of
Yasmin Khadra's Algeria, for instance. He paints a vivid
picture in Morituri, though, and the book fulfills my genre
expectations (even while expanding them). The same could be
said for numerous American locales I haven't visited, like
Burke's New Orleans or Montana, Crumley's Montana, Kantner's
Detroit, etc. And although I've visited LA a few times, I'm
not sure it has a whole hell of a lot in common with
Ellroy's, or Chandler's for that matter.
Now I understand the appeal of geographic verisimilitude. As
a local, I get a big kick out of initimately knowing exactly
where a Pelecanos or Thomas scene is set in DC, but other
neighborhoods they detail are as foreign to me as Rankin's
Glasgow. I guess it all comes down to whether we are looking
for realism or naturalism.
Mark
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