Dispatches from the front
Wednesday, July 4th, 2012 09:14 pm1. I can't complain of the heat. I could, after all, be somewhere without electricity. Nor can I complain of two early mornings in a row, given the hours other people have to get up at. Even so, my heat/ sleeplessness headache is none the better for it.
2. Happy beaver is noir in one other, very obvious, way. The hero is an obnoxious git even to his friends, and his friends still go on helping him in spite of it. I remember this puzzling me a lot in Dashiell Hammett's works as well. Demanding favours from people and never saying either thanks or sorry even when they get hurt helping you is not how one secures co-operation in my part of the world. Maybe there's some macho ethos at work that never got explained to me. I still find Aaronovitch's Peter the most likable of the current trio. His mum did good by him.
( Read more... )
2. Happy beaver is noir in one other, very obvious, way. The hero is an obnoxious git even to his friends, and his friends still go on helping him in spite of it. I remember this puzzling me a lot in Dashiell Hammett's works as well. Demanding favours from people and never saying either thanks or sorry even when they get hurt helping you is not how one secures co-operation in my part of the world. Maybe there's some macho ethos at work that never got explained to me. I still find Aaronovitch's Peter the most likable of the current trio. His mum did good by him.
( Read more... )
