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.
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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
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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 …
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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.
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On (iii), Zorro was 1919 and The Scarlet Pimpernel was 1905, but both were set in times of corrupt authority — as was Robin Hood.
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Still, for them to be popular, they had to resonate with the audiences of their times.
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Recommendations for learning about police legitimacy crisis of '20s-'30s? Sounds fascinating. Just Googled but nothing jumped at me
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if you haven’t, you should read Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest
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I suspect the mystery man evolved more from a separate villainous line, like Lupin and Fantômas? TBH I'm not sure you need any discredited institutions. From the aristo POV, the cops may look bumbling but harmless. From common POV, vicious and corrupt. +WW1 seems important here
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