Mark,
Re your comment below:
"As you say, Spillane took a number of attributes that were
already standard. Based on my slight, long ago reading of
him, I believe he stripped those elements down to their
basics. And maybe that's part of why I never continued on
with him. All that was left were cliches and Hammer, and I
never much liked Hammer."
He's not to everyone's taste, obviously. For years, I avoided
him myself because I found I THE JURY, which I read in high
school, to be such a load of dreck
(though, even then, disliking the book, I had to acknowledge
that the first and last chapters were pretty powerful).
I tried the subsequent books years later, in college, because
people whose opinions I respected suggested that he was a
much better writer than my first impression suggested.
I fyouy've read beyond I THE JURY, as your posts suggest you
have, I guess his particular charm is one that's lost on you.
And that's fine.
Regarding the misogyny issue, though, I have one more
observation to make.
One of the "basic cliches" that Spillane employs to good
effect is the gorgeous secretary in love with the boss. But
Spillane manages to work in a few twists.
First of all, Velda is a licensed PI herself, with a
concealed weapons permit on top of that investigator's
ticket. She is, therefore, presumably, like Hammer, an
ex-cop.
She's tough and hard in her own right, and though she has to
be rescued by Hammer occasionally, there's never the sense
that she was an easy prey for the bad guys. Indeed, you have
the sense that, if Mike weren't around, Velda could, and
would, simply take over the business and carry on (which is,
essentially, the premise behind Al Collins's MS. TREE
series).
Years later, in THE GIRL HUNTERS, we find out that she was
not just an ex-cop, but some kind of sub rosa super-fed, who,
in the course of a case, gets called back into service, sent
on a deep cover assignment in the Soviet Union (she's
presumed dead all this time, and Hammer goes into an
emotional tailsping blaming himself), and gather enough
intel, we are led to believe, that she damned near wins the
whole Cold War single-handedly.
No THAT'S a strong woman. You may argue that it's
"comic-book" strong, and I won't dispute that, but strong is
strong. I can't imagine Effie Perrine, Lucy Hamilton, or even
Della Street managing to cripple, if not quite bring down,
the whole Soviet espionage system.
I'd argue that no one who was truly a mysogynist would, or
could, create a character at once so strong and so
sympathetic.
That may not make him any more to your taste, but that's a
different matter.
JIM DOHERTY
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