I think Willeford's protagonists are definitely sociopathic,
if not exactly "psychotic". I also think that Willeford saw
sociopathology as a kind of normative state, at least for
sucessful living. This moral ambivalence gives his work much
of it's richness, I think.
As for the tree, I finally took a look and I think it's okay
as far as it goes. Personally I think if you're trying to
understand hardboiled *writing* it'd be more interesting to
drop off the film noir stuff completely and focus instead on
works that, while not hardboiled themselves, have influenced
a lot of what followed: the grim bureacratic spies of Le
Carre, Robert Stone's hippie-bummer books, etc. I think you
could get a better understanding of where we're at now.
Her syllabus has an interesting connection between Ellroy and
LAURA. I've not read the book, but the movie is a favorite of
mine, and it's a good insight to link the two together.
doug
--- Dave Zeltserman <
davezelt@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> >
> > Also, are Goodis and Williford's heroes
really
> > psychotic?
> >
> >
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best
spam
> protection around
> > http://mail.yahoo.com
> >
>
> I look at Willeford's protagonists, at least in
The
> Cockfighter, Woman
> Chaser, and even Hoke Mosely going berserk
in
> Grimhaven as characters
> unwilling to compromise their values or lives
or
> artistic vision,
> regardless of the consequences. Might make
them
> anti-social, but not
> psychotic.
>
>
>
>
>
>
Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 09 Feb 2006 EST