On Sep 7, 2006, at 9:37 AM, miker wrote:
> For many years tough guy characters ruled
the
> hardboiled genre, with only the occasional
female
> writer or detective making an appearance. Then,
after
> over fifty years of male dominance, hardboiled
women
> detectives swarmed the stage. Marcia Muller's
Edward
> of the Iron Shoes, published in 1977, is
commonly
> recognized as the cornerstone of the new movement.
It
> was notably followed by Sue Grafton's A is for
Alibi
> in 1982, and the trend showed no signs of
diminishing
> in 1991 when Sara Paretsky introduced her first
V.I.
> Warshawski novel.
Paretsky appeared about the same time as Grafton, not nine
years later. Did they actually make that mistake in their
book? How embarrassing for them!
> There are many positive aspects to Detective Agency
(but) their
> research into the traditional hardboiled genre
was
> woefully inadequate, or else they purposely chose
to
> misrepresent it through their own text and
multiple
> quotes that miss the mark.
>
It's pretty much the same problem I have with many of these
feminist- slanted looks at the genre (or any issue-oriented
take on the genre). There's too much feminism and too much
slanting going on, and not enough actual looking.
For example, Grafton, Paretsky and Muller are often presented
as the literary descendants of Agatha Christie, Dorothy
Sayers, et al, but anyone who's read any of them knows that
their inspiration is obviously Hammett, Chandler and
Macdonald.
Hell, it's a point that Grafton, Paretsky and Muller
themselves have all made at different times -- all of them
are very knowlegable about the genre.
> It is perhaps ironic that they would
> choose to ignore one of the primary precepts of
the
> hardboiled genre, that a message delivered in
clear
> and simple prose is the more forceful and
convincing.
Yeah, ain't it? Man, them academic types sure use big
words.
Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.thrillingdetective.com
New issue any day now...
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:
rara-avis-l-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:
rara-avis-l-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 07 Sep 2006 EDT