Réflexions de fin de soirée

Je viens de terminer de lire Hard Revolution. J'ai encore une pile de livres à lire alors j'ai de quoi me tenir occupé. C'est toujours un plaisir que de lire Pelecanos. L'un des avantages d'être sans emploi, c'est d'avoir du temps devant soi pour la lecture.

J'ai peur que l'été 2008 ne soit exactement comme celui de 2007. Je me répète je sais, mais j'ai eu comme cette angoisse aujourd'hui: il a cessé de faire beau à peu près en même temps et il n'arrête pas de pleuvoir. Aura-t-on droit à un autre été pourri?

Quiet Friday

I don't have much to say today. It is a quiet Friday afternoon, sunny, hot, a bit boring. I might go out and read a bit more of Hard Revolution. I also have to get my suit ready for this week-end's christening.

Mai 2008

Il semblerait que l'été ne nous fera pas faux-bond cette année. En effet, s'il ne fait pas toujours beau, il fait chaud et le soleil se montre quotidiennement. Dans les journaux québécois, on parle beaucoup de Mai 68 ces jours-ci. Époque troublée et anarchique, un peu infantile aussi à mes yeux. Je suis en train de lire Hard Revolution de George Pelecanos, comme je l'ai dit ici. Le roman a pour trame de fond la même époque et une situation similaire (la lutte pour les droits civiques), mais sur un continent différent. Je ne peux m'empêcher de penser que ce qui s,est passé aux États-Unis a été plus positif et ultimement plus profitable que ce qui s'est passé en France. Un article sur Mai 68 et son héritage ici.

Femmes fatales, damsels in distress, villains, heroes

This is the May 1937 cover of Detective Tales magazine. I love it. I just love it. You have one balding villain with a skin that looks almost green (I wonder if that was intentional) about to stab the blonde, a masculine hero that shoots at some other badguys, and not one but two dames, one blonde one redhead, both of them in distress. It's suspenseful and dramatic. I just love the panicked eyes of the redhead when she sees the bald man about th stab the blonde, too much into her work to see the imminent danger. I will have to find those stories and read them. I have finished the first story of Pulp Fiction: The Villains, the adventure of Ed Jenkins (nickname the Phantom thief), a burglar created by the father of Perry Mason. I also want to get eventually the book on crimefighters and dames. I am reading at the moment Hard Revolution by George Pelecanos, just so I can enjoy something more modern and slightly less escapist (not that there is anything wrong with escapism). Pelecanos is probably my favorite crime fiction writer at the moment, so I recommend his books a lot. It's not so depressing as being noir (because he never kills hope), but it's definitely hardboiled.

Anyway, my intention writing this entry was to talk about archetypes. I see four different archetypes in this picture: the Villain, the Hero, the Damsel in Distress and the Femme Fatale (since both women have the look of femmes fatales). The badguy has the features of a villain: the long face, that looks even longer with the face (what's with bald headed men as villains? A sign of impotence and inadequacy?), the aquiline nose, the very elegant clothes, the angry eyes. Visually, he is my favorite character of the picture. I am surprised that it is the redhead who is tied up, I think redheads in that kind of fiction should be more active and fierce than blondes. The hero looks a bit too much virtuous for my taste. But I guess it goes with the role.