in a conversation with a colleague prompted by the RED HARVEST exchange it

was pointed out to me that the hard boiled detective (that we associate

with--among other names--d hammett) is clearly a descendent of

   the lonesome cowboy:

         the [definitively?] masculinist hero/protagonist who operates

pretty much alone, observes a moral code that may well require the breaking

of legal codes, whose life intesects with that of some woman but who remains

alone and lonely, and whose success at [re]solving the specific problem posed

by the plot nevertheless does not end up as a comic [that is, redeemed]

character but insists on holding on to a more tragic or ironic posture and

destiny

 

        now all of this seemed so obvious when pointed out  that i could

hardly believe that it had never occurred to me before . . . indeed it was

one of those ideas that, within minutes, i was convinced i had ALWAYS known .

. . so i have a couple of questions for the list

 

        1.  is this idea as obvious and compelling as i for the moment

think, or is there something i'm missing that might throw a monkey wrench

into what is a too facile equation?

 

        2.   is this idea conventionally a part of the scholarship and

criticism on the western, hard-boiled detective story, and noir modes and

mythologies  that i somehow have managed to miss [or forget]? . . . are thre

any "standard" or important explorations of this connection? (has leslie

fielder wirtten about this--he must have, no???)

 

        3 (or 2a)--are there any recommended works on the political (regular

politics/cultural politics/sexual politics) of this package of meanings??

 

mike frank

implications (both conventional politics,

 

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