On May 29, 2007, at 4:15 PM, Michael Robison wrote:
> I've been looking back at the roots of the
hardboiled
> genre in America, Ring Lardner, Twain, Bret Harte,
and
> London. It was only a matter of time before I made
it
> to Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. There might
be
> earlier American works that foreshadow the
hardboiled
> genre, but I haven't found it yet.
>
> He was the first major American author. He
wrote
> thirty novels, his lasting fame with the
five-book
> series about woodsman Natty Bumppo. Written in
1826,
> the most enduring of the series is Last of
the
> Mohicans. Bumppo is protective of the weak
and
> innocent, and more than willing to kill those
who
> threaten them, a classic combination of traits
that
> presages the hardboiled genre. Bumppo is
independent,
> stoic, tough, and yet still capable of
sentiment.
> Cooper uses Bumppo to accent the difference
and
> provide a bridge between the laws of society and
the
> law of the jungle. Last of the Mohicans contains
a
> buttload of violence. It is not just the
sanitary
> shoot-em-fall-down-dead type of violence, either.
It
> includes bashing a baby against rocks and burying
a
> hatchet in the mom's head. It is not just
> death-dealing, but well into brutal, another
feature
> commonly found in hardboiled.
>
> D.H. Lawrence made a famous comment about the
American
> soul being a stoic killer. The quote was inspired
by
> Cooper's writing. Cooper's style was overwrought
and
> his technical expertise questionable, but
he
> established a model for a tough American
character
> that still survives today.
What a great post, miker.
It should also be noted that Hawkeye's study of footprints
was said to have inspired Conan Doyle.
And that "I'd dare to speak the truth consarnin' you or any
man that lived" is as good a code as anything Spade or
Marlowe spat out.
And Nathan (not Bumpo) wrote;
> Am I the only person that finds Cooper unreadable?
Every time I've
> tried to
> read something of his I've never been able to finish
it.
Oh, yeah, his writing is pretty turgid. Cooper never let an
epigraph slip by, or a classical allusion get through,
without trying to hitch a ride. And why spend a line
describing something when you can spend a chapter?
Hawkeye may be hard-boiled, but the prose style is about as
floral as you can get (just ask Mark Twain). Still, if you
can plow past the verbiage... Wow! Whadda story!!!
And now, the obligatory Canadian bit:
WACOUSTA, (1836) by Colonel Something Something Richardson,
is generally considered the first Canadian novel, and of
course spins the similarly themed (but American) LAST OF THE
MOHICANS on its head. The title character appears to be a
crazy native hell-bent on revenge who kidnaps a white woman
and leads her rescuers on a nasty, violent chase. It gets
nice and grim and the bodycount rises steadily and everyone
ends up in some sort of hell or another. It's drawn
comparisons to everything from FRANKENSTEIN and IVANHOE to --
yes -- Cooper's works.
It's also pretty much a hard slog, for today's reader. But,
as Five- Star Harriet might say, it's just the perfect type
of thing to read for those who like that type of thing to
read for which I'd heartily recommend.
Kevin
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