Michael,
Thanks for taking the trouble to track down my work-- I know
you can't find it everywhere-- and I'm glad you enjoyed
them.
In answer to your question: The themes are very similar, but
the backdrop is shaded differently. Let me explain. These are
just some quick impressions.
The "spy" genre/ political thriller in my opinion is really
part of the crime family. One is about the crimes of
individuals, their personal impact etc. The spy genre is
about the crimes of the state, or at least the dark
underbelly of the State, of all States for that matter.
(Maybe not Monaco!) We follow how these political crimes --
done for good or bad causes-- effect the people that are
carrying them out in the name of the State. The key
difference is that the spy is a functionary of the State. So
we get to this place in the 20th century where a
spy/intelligence officer/soldier etc. has a license to kill,
and not just in fiction either-- but in fact. The whole
morality of the modern State comes into play and that is
Interesting and dynamic.
If a local cop were to take the law into his own hands --
give him a license to kill-- let's say. Then we are talking
about a whole different kind of person/situation. It couldn't
happen legally but in the land of espionage it does happen.
People are given a license to kill issued by the State. This
is all very interesting to me as a novelist because it allows
you to examine political issues, colonial intervention for
example as I do in Red Jungle, in a way that the average
person can become interested in and perhaps learn something
from. I use the license to kill as an example because it's
shocking and I'm trying to make a point, but the moral
ambiguities is what I'm pointing at, ambiguities practiced
sometimes directly in our names, so we have a stake in the
story when we sit down to read, let's say the "Constant
Gardener," quite different than when we sit down to read say
Agatha Christie. (In the case of the Christie story we have a
stake as human beings, but we didn't !
elect
Miss Marple.)
Are the themes the same in the two genres? Probably:
redemption, alienation, etc.
But the stage is bigger. I just saw Hamlet on TV the other
night. It is a crime drama but it has aspects of the
political thriller too. Interesting now that I think about
it.
What would be very interesting would be to juxtapose
Thompson's "The Killer Inside of Me."
[My publisher just called from his car and said he was out
side of Jim Thompson's place
of birth somewhere in Texas. He said he was going to spit on
the ground for me a Thompsonesque thing to do I guess] with
Le Carre's " The Spy Who Came In From The Cold".
kent
"Michael S. Chong" <
menglish47@yahoo.com> wrote: Kent,
I have enjoyed all of your books that I have been able to get
my hands on - Dark Ride, Dia de los Muertos, and the American
Boys. What compelled you to write an 'intelligence' story
with a conspiracy in it after writing 'crime' tales? Are
there thematic similarities?
Chong
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