Jacques Debierue asked:
> What exactly does the real present-day PI do? Surely
he can't be doing
> much "divorce work", or chasing the proverbial
"missing daughter"?
> Does he even drink or want to? Does he have or need
an office, or does
> he work from home and his SUV? Who hires
him?
>
> I ask these things because life has changed so much
since the classic
> era of the PI with bottle, pretty and/or motherly
secretary, hostile
> cops (except for one who remains grudgingly loyal),
etc. etc.
Well, you do realize it was always a fantasy, right?
Fiction is not real life. Fiction has to make sense of some
sort. Real life doesn't operate under those
restrictions.
Even Hammett's so-called "realism" was pretty much a
romanticized and tidied-up version of life in the Pinks (a
quick perusal of his article "From the Memoirs of a Private
Detective" is mostly tall tales and bullshit), just as
Chandler's take was a romanticized version of the lone wolf
operator.
Despite the claims of "realism," most hard-boiled fiction is
every bit as much of a fictional construct as the rosiest of
cozies -- it's just that the disbelief is suspended in
another area. When reading fiction, we always have to suspend
a certain amount of disbelief -- some genres may ask us to
suspend more disbelief than others, but ultimately all genre
preferences simply boil down to which poisons and how many of
them we're willing to swallow.
But who cares if the trappings have changed? In Hard-Boiled
Land, the cops are still hostile and daughters still go
missing. Fortunately, the streets are just as mean as they
ever were. And whether he's got a cellphone in his pocket or
a pencil and notebook, and an iBook back at the office or a
long-suffering secretary, eventually, down those mean streets
a man must go. Even if he's a woman. Or gay. Or black. Or
even -- GASP!!! -- non-American.
So yeah, the bits and pieces may change and the detective
himself may not be your grandfather's detective, but some
things never change. Justice must still be done, and one
person can make a difference, if they're hard enough and true
enough.
So whether it's Marlowe looking for yet another lost young
girl, Archer probing into some 40-year old family scandal or
some new kid on the block looking into some fake AIDS drug
scam or a missing rap musician , a lot of people will be
willing to follow the detective.
Actual realism isn't the driving factor for fiction -- it's
the illusion of reality (peppered with an occasional
universal truth) people buy into.
I mean, God help a world where there are adults who actually
think something like I, THE JURY is "realistic." I recently
re-read it in prep for a local mystery readers group I
moderate, and I tell ya, I ended up shaking my head in
disbelief so many times my neck is sore. I, THE JURY is as
convoluted and artificial as any cozy ever written.
But what the hell -- it's still a great read!
Pure popcorn, as the Mick might say.
Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.thrillingdetective.com
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 24 Aug 2006 EDT