1. I've been reading some Raymond Chandler lately & it clarified something that is maybe obvious to everyone else but had never occurred to me: that pervasive police corruption was a necessary precondition for creation of hard-boiled detective novel as a genre.
-
-
6. To my mind, the police legitimacy crisis of the 1920s/1930s was the precondition for these separate genres: i) hard-boiled detective ii) G-Man (super-honest federal police) iii) mystery-man adventurer iv) super-hero.
Show this thread -
7. The G-Man genre is semi-forgotten but it was created at the behest of J. Edgar Hoover & his myth-making promoters: the idea of an elite band of super-competent federal police exempt from corruption of local cops. For-runner to our copaganda.pic.twitter.com/2sjnfDXN1W
Show this thread -
8. The Mystery Man genre (the Shadow, the Phantom, the Spider etc.) has deep roots but started flourishing again in 1930s, for same reason as hard-boiled detective & G-Men. Add some science fiction to mix & you get the superhero.https://twitter.com/KurtBusiek/status/1304976226587521030 …
Show this thread -
9. So: the police legitimacy crisis of 1920/1930s created a raft of genres from hard-boiled detective to superhero. I suppose the question is whether the current crisis will create new genres or cause these older ones to return to their origins.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.