I don't disagree with any of this, thought Jack made a good
point too, but I would like to suggest that we cannot
overlook the human propensity toward violence, and enjoyment
of it, for its own sake. We are, many of us at least,
conflicted by this (that's worthy of literary consideration
too) and at times, repelled by it. But there's an attraction
too, and different people have different ways of making that
attraction acceptable.
The straight run 'em down, shoot 'em up yarns quickly become
cliched and boring, but they also reveal something of the
human character.
best, Kerry
At 07:29 AM 04/05/2005 -0700, you wrote:
>My Pal Jack Bludis wrote:
>
> > Something that many of us at Rara_Avis miss
is
> > that not all of Chandler and Hammett was
great.
> > It's a comment rarely made here. Many of us
seem
> > to have the opinion that just because C or
H
> > wrote it, it must be good. Some of it is
just
> > crap where we are treated ti the development
of
> > the hardboiled genre.
>
>With his characteristic bluntness, Jack makes a
salient point here. Hey
>Jack, been reading some Carrol John Daly, or
something? Because you just
>described everything I've ever read by the guy!
;)
>
> > Many of their Black Mask stories were just
"shoot
> > 'em ups." with little character develoment
and
> > hardly any story line. For me, even
*Red
> > Harvest,* a combination of six novellas with
each
> > judged individually, is just a shoot 'em
up.
>
>I can see what you're saying about RED HARVEST, but
let's face it, the
>Continental Op in RED HARVEST is as effete, fussy and
mincing as Hercule
>Poirot when compared to the two-fisted head-stomping
of Mickey Spillane's
>Mike Hammer in *anything* he's ever done. Some of
Hammett's stuff is just
>uneven, too. Take WOMAN IN THE DARK (Please!). I
finished that and
>wondered, what the heck is the point? That's
something I found myself
>nearly always asking with Spillane. Likewise with
"Blackmailers Don't
>Shoot." Lord, was that putrid. I couldn't believe
Chandler was actually
>able to sell it when I first read it.
>
> > It was the demand of the pulp fiction crime
story
> > of the day. Others who wrote this stuff
are
> > forgotten beccause they never went on to
write
> > great novels as Chandler and Harris
did.
>
>Oh, I don't know. Has Mickey Spillane's stuff ever
gone out of print?
>There are modern authors who get high praise here who
I also think fit into
>this bill: forgetable, cliched faire, that won't stay
in print long. But
>with apologies to Mr. Barnum, no one ever went broke
over-estimating the
>good taste of the American public.
>
>I hasten to add that there are authors out there who
do violence with a
>point, and do a damned fine job of it. That great
Irish scribe Ken Bruen
>comes to mind (and not just because he's a personal
mate of mine, the guy
>writes scenes that make me want to look away, but
because he's such a damned
>good writer, I just can't bring myself to do it, I
have to keep turning the
>page. Not every crime writer can do that), then
there's our own Al Guthrie,
>who can make you want to turn the page when a man's
mother is killed in
>horrific fashion right before his (and our) eyes. No
mean feat, that.
>Also, just off the top of my head (because I finished
his second novel not
>that long ago), there's Sean Doolittle, whose BURN is
a satisfying, funny
>hard-boiled read.
>
>However, for every Hammett or Chandler, guys who
sounded the odd sour note
>in what was otherwise an outstanding symphony of
work, there were (and
>continue to be) dozens of others just piling up the
bodies with no other
>purpose than to write gratuitous, book-selling,
page-turning violence.
>
>Your Mileage May Vary.
>
>Back To Lurkdom (got a deadline)-
>
>Brian Thornton
>
>
>
>RARA-AVIS home page:
><http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/>http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
>
>
>
>
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