But I meant to say:
>There's certainly far more common shared
characteristics than military
>service, nor would I call it a distinguishing
characteristic. Even
>trenchcoats or fedoras are probably more common, and
in the long run, how
>important are they?
And Mark wrote:
>There do seem to be many vets among private eyes, but
I agree with Kevin
>that there is a big difference between the attitudes
of veteran PIs pre-
>and post-Vietnam. Given the nature of patriotism and
the draft through
>the World Wars and even Korea, in which Lew Archer
served, any fit male
>served. Therefore it would cast aspersions on the PIs
manhood if he,
>like Frank Sinatra and John Wayne, had not
served.
A very good point, and Mark's bit about a sorta like-Nam
attitude among WWI
vets is dead on. Some of the early pulp eyes mention trenches
and mustard
gas and the like, in much the same way jungles and Napalm and
Agent Orange
are later evoked...
One thing I've noticed is that several French novels (those
by Leo Malet
and Didier Daeninckx come to mind)
and none of the ones I've stumbled across have romanticized
it in the
least. I guess when the war's going down on your street, it's
hard to
pretend it's some Boy Scout game of capture the flag.
>However, to my mind, Archer is the beginning of a
change in emphasis.
>Archer was clearly disillusioned by his military
experience.
Explaining, perhaps a bit, part of his popularity in the
sixties and
seventies among the boomers? Although, to tell the truth,
most of the
people I know who enjoy Macdonald all seem to have discovered
and devoured
him at more or less the same age (late teens to
mid-twenties), regardless
of when they were that age. Which probably ties in with his
use of
disillusioned, confused kids of more or less the same age
trying to deal
with big choices in almost every book.
And gee, Bill, thirty-five years ago? You started reading
when you were
four? I'm impressed!
**************************************************
Kevin Smith
The Thrilling Detective Web Site
http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
This month: New fiction by Burl Barer and Kim Sellers,
and a look at the 1998 Private Eye scene in our P.I.
Poll.
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