Chapter 12 the revolution was particularly successful

Without that transformation, I can't imagine what Hollywood would be like today. "Black Revolution" can be regarded as the most successful transformation in the history of detective novels.Whether it is the results at that time or the impact on later generations, this revolution is enough to be recorded in the annals of history.Geoffrey Deaver, the most famous contemporary American detective novelist, said: "It's a pity that we can't get rid of the 'curse' of the Black Revolution. It's a product of this revolution." The influence was first reflected in the field of film—the "Black Revolution" directly gave birth to the era of film noir in American history.

The term "Film noir" was first proposed by the French critic Frank to describe the detective films that became popular in the United States in the 1920s. The word "black" comes from vocabulary such as black humor and black literature. The plot of "film noir" at that time was very simple: the protagonist was always under attack from both sides of the government and criminal groups. Connivance or cover-up of crime, so the protagonist's victory is of no social value.The Second World War blocked the development of "film noir", and it was not until the outbreak of the "black revolution" that this type of film was revived.

The "film noir" of the new era has undergone obvious changes—the protagonist has a clear understanding of society and becomes cynical, but falls into a crisis of isolation and helplessness; in terms of artistic techniques, it highlights the depiction of thrilling scenes, Highlighting the inexplicable melancholy always gives people a sense of horrific and unpredictable crisis.And these new features are obviously influenced by tough guy detective novels. Dashiell Hammett and James Caan mentioned in the previous section are the guides of the new era of "film noir". Both the 1941 film and the 1942 film were based on Hammett's works (almost all of Hammett's works have been made into films); while the films of the same period "Double Indemnity" and "The Postman Twice the Bell is adapted from Kane's novel.These four films can be called the "template" of "film noir", which shows the influence of tough guy novels in this period.

Then, the great Raymond Chandler pushed "film noir" to its peak.His masterpiece "Long Sleep" became the highest-grossing movie during that time, and the subsequent "Goodbye, My Love", "The Woman at the Bottom of the Lake" and so on were out of control.For a while, Billy Wilder became Chandler's best partner; and Hitchcock, who later became a master of the generation, was just Chandler's "apprentice" at the moment. The influence of film noir is immeasurable.The familiar classics such as "North African Spy", "Seven Deadly Sins", and "Infernal Affairs" can all be counted as this type of film; while other types of Hollywood blockbusters also more or less embody the essence of "film noir".And all of this is thanks to the "black revolution".No wonder Hitchcock said with emotion: "Without that change, I can't imagine what Hollywood would look like today."

From movies back to literary creation, it is not difficult to find that the Black Revolution has "designed" all routes for Western detective novels. Throughout the development of Western detective novels from the "Black Revolution" to today, it is not difficult to find that the tough guy detective novels have always occupied a dominant position and have never been shaken.Compared with the era of Hammett and Chandler, although the later works have new features in all aspects, they have never wavered in the core idea, but have become more popular and deepened with the improvement of promotion conditions.

American Lawrence Bullock (1938—) is undisputedly "the number one tough guy". Born in the suburbs of New York City, he started literary creation at the age of 19 and has never stopped writing for more than half a century.Bullock's works are mainly divided into four series: Alcoholic Detective Matthew Scudder Series; Thief Bernie Rodenbaud Series; Insomnia Detective Ivan Tanner Series; Killer Keller Series.In addition, he also wrote non-series works such as "Liar Game". The Matthew series is Bullock's most standard work, and the protagonist Matthew Scudder is even more famous than Philip Marlowe shaped by Raymond Chandler.Matthew was a policeman in his early years, because he accidentally killed a girl while performing a mission, and has since lost confidence in life.He quit his job, left his wife and children, and lived in a hotel year-round, accompanied by bourbon all day long. "After the hotel closed, I was homeless" - this is Matthew's mantra, and it is also the most appropriate summary of his life.

In order to make a living, Matthew will accept some commissions and run around the streets of New York for this purpose.It can be said that Matthew is the best spokesperson for New York in the contemporary literary world.Through this drunkard, we can not only experience the essence of the works of the tough guy school, but also witness the changes of Buffalo City in the past half a century. Compared with other tough guy novels, Lawrence Bullock's works are more "elegant", whether it is writing or plot layout, they all have a "petty bourgeoisie" sentiment.Therefore, Bullock's works are loved by the majority of elites, Tang Nuo, Zhu Tianxin, Zhu Tianwen, Hou Xiaoxian and others are his most staunch fans.The actor Tony Leung even stated many times that he very much hopes to play a role in one of Bullock's works, even if it is a supporting role.The famous director Wong Kar-wai's work "Blueberry Night" is also written by Bullock-his style and skill can be seen from this.

The female writer Sue Grafton (1940—) is one of the best contemporary writers of the tough guy genre. Born in Kentucky, USA, Grafton is a talented writer. She is not only proficient in the creation of detective novels, but also keen on writing TV drama scripts.In the 1980s, she even adapted the typical British idyllic Agatha Christie novels into TV dramas full of American flavors, and achieved good ratings. Grafton's creative talent is best displayed in her "subtitle series".Obviously, the creation of detective novels is very difficult. It is necessary to consider the general rules of literary creation (writing, characters, plots, ideas, etc.) and take into account the characteristics of the genre (tricks, misleading, reversals, answers, etc.).However, Grafton did not believe in evil, and further "compressed himself" in the original small creative space-self-persecution through the title of the book!

The "Letter Series" is based on the theme of 26 letters. Each book is matched with a word starting with the letter, and then a story is created based on the word.For example: the title of the first work in the series is "A: Alibi", the original text is "A is for Alibi", in which "Alibi" means "not at the scene", and the whole book closely revolves around the alibi trick; The title of the second work is "B: Thief", the original text is "B is for Burglar", "Burglar" means "thief", as the name suggests, the theme of this book is related to a gentleman on Liang...

Needless to say, the difficulty of creating this series can be imagined.However, in the hands of Sue Grafton, everything seems to be very easy.Since the publication of "A: Not on the Site" in 1982, she has completed the "Letter U", which is only one step away from a miracle.Among them, "A" won the American Detective Writers Association Award, "B" and "C" won the Anthony Award and the Shams Award, and the sales volume of the entire set has exceeded 30 million.Perhaps, in the face of such a genius, all we have to do is to wait quietly and look forward to the day when "Z" comes out.

There are also many writers who are unswerving on the tough guy route, such as Sarah Peresky, Tony Schillerman, Ruth Landell and so on.The market share of works of this genre should account for more than 60% of the entire European and American detective novel market, and it is in an absolute dominant position. There is an important reason for the decline of classical detectives, that is, this genre has very strict restrictions on the connotation and extension of the works, and those who try to innovate will find that they are unable to move forward and cannot go beyond the threshold.The hard-boiled detective novels do not have this restriction, and the characteristics of the genre itself determine that the extension of such works can be varied. Therefore, we can see that many genre novels that are familiar to us today have gradually flourished during this period. Due to the impact of the two world wars, the relationship between countries has become increasingly close and complex.The creators kept up with this change and created many high-quality spy novels. The representative of them is the well-known British writer Ian Fleming (1908-1964), who is also the creator of the "007 series".Fleming, who worked in British intelligence during World War II, has a lot of first-hand information, which makes his No. 007 agent James Bond the most famous international spy so far. In 1952, the first "007 series" novel "Casino Royale" was published. Subsequently, Fleming published 14 series of works, with a cumulative sales volume of more than 300 million copies. In 1962, the first 007 movie "Dr. No" came out, and fans all over the world intuitively appreciated the "Bond mode" for the first time - a man who will never fail, a charming and sexy girl, an unfathomable villain, Luxurious and extravagant scenes, unimaginable props... These repeated elements have accompanied us for more than half a century.Every time, people will talk about these bridges that have actually been overused. A total of 22 007 movies have been released so far, and more than 2 billion viewers have entered the theater to cheer for this spy.From Michael Connelly to George Lazenby, from Roger Moore to Timothy Dutton, from Pierce Brosnan to Daniel Craig, 007 has gone through six generations.Everything seems to be changing, but the spy's charm has never faded.Pierce Brosnan summed up the reasons for the enduring prosperity of "007" in this way: "It is the glamorous Bond girl, the novelty props, the sex, the romance, the fantasy, and the ultimate hero, which endows this film with a long life. vitality." In addition to Ian Fleming's "007", Frederick Forsyth (1938-) and John le Carré (1931-) are also leaders in the field of spy novels.The representative works of the former are and, while the latter is known as the "Smiley Trilogy".In addition, the works of Maugham, Graham Green and others are also very representative. Some writers have created a large number of suspense novels by combining the suspense and puzzle solving in classical detective novels with the "camera sense" of tough guy detective novels. The famous director Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) is undoubtedly a master. His novels and movies have become synonymous with "suspense".When Westerners describe the unpredictable ending, they always say: "Only God and Hitchcock know the final outcome." American writer Jeffrey Deaver (1950-) is also good at creating suspense.He published his first work at the age of 11 and has never stopped writing since then.Deaver's masterpiece is the "Lincoln Rhyme Series".Rhyme, an American intelligence officer, was unfortunately hit by a steel bar during a survey site, completely lost consciousness from the neck up, and could only lie in bed for the rest of his life.God is fair, he sent an assistant named Amelia to Rhyme - this angel used to be a model, and his figure and appearance can be imagined.As a result, Rhyme's brain and Amelia's slender legs were well combined to solve many difficult cases. The Lyme series includes works such as , , , etc., which have been put on the big Hollywood screen. Lyme is played by actor Denzel Washington, and Amelia is played by Angelina Jolie - the weight of Deaver's works It can be seen.No wonder someone commented: "Reading Deaver's novels is like running with a time bomb in your mouth, and you will never be able to calm down." In recent years, the one who best embodies the characteristics of suspense novels is undoubtedly the American writer Dan Brown.There is not much to say about his work.His "The Da Vinci Code", which everyone on Earth has read, is the best template for this type of novel - endless mysteries, layers of suspense, compact plots, and rapid camera cuts. There is no shortage of elements in this work.From this point of view, it is not surprising that the film version of "The Da Vinci Code" is so popular. Its camera sense is inherent. Among writers similar to Jeffrey Deaver and Dan Brown, Michael Connelly, Reginald Hill, Bill Ploccini, etc. stand out. In addition to spy novels and suspense novels, during this period there were also crime novels that focused on describing crime phenomena, psychological novels that focused on describing the psychology of characters, police novels with the theme of police and police stations, and court procedure novels with courts as the background.It can be said that most of the genre novels we see today were produced under the influence of the "Black Revolution" during this period. Since some people choose to change, there must be some people who choose not to change.Facing the impact of the "Black Revolution", we see that there are still some writers sticking to the last position of classical detective novels, even if the position is small, even if there are few fighters left on the position. The American Edward Hawke (1930-2008) was the leader among those who stood firm.He loved classical detective novels since he was a child, and was valued and supported by Ellery Quinn when he was young. He joined the American Detective Writers Club at the age of 19. In 1968, Hawke published the novel "The Rectangular Room", which won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Short Story, and has since devoted himself to the creation of detective novels.In the following thirty years, Hawke actually created more than a thousand short detective stories, becoming the well-deserved "King of Short Stories".Since 1973, until Hawke's death, every issue of "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine" (the magazine mentioned in the previous chapter) has his works, which can only be described as "miracle". to describe. Hawke's works include "Inspector Leopold", "Nick the Thief", "Doctor Sam", "Simon Yaker", "Ben Snow" and more than ten series, most of which belong to the traditional puzzle-solving detective Novels, which also have a considerable number of high-level impossible crime themes.With his talent and belief in classical detective novels, Edward Hawke won all the honors in the field of western detective novels and became the chairman of the American Detective Writers Club. Another stickler is the Frenchman Paul Holt (1956-).Holt is a follower of John Dickson Carr, the master of impossible crimes. His works are full of classicism and strong gothic style, which is a combination of horror and romance.Reading Holt's works, one can't help but have a feeling of going back in time, as if the irreproducible "golden age" has returned. Holt's works are divided into two series, namely "Owen Burns Series" and "Dr. Tuwist Series".The latter series is more representative regardless of the quantity or quality of the works.Representative works of this series include "The Seventh Answer", "The Curse of the Red Beard", "The Fourth Door", etc., and "The Seventh Answer" is unanimously recognized by the critics as "a classic masterpiece in the post-golden age". . Someone once visited Paul Holt and found that the writer's residence was very inconspicuous, and even somewhat mismatched with his identity.From this we can see how much courage and perseverance are needed for those who still adhere to the creation of classic detective novels today.However, it is respectable that Holt's pen has not stopped, and we can still have the opportunity to read detective novels of such high quality and such pure style in the 21st century.Readers call Paul Holt "the last master of classicism", which is the best compliment to his creative ideas. Before the "Black Revolution", detective novels were defined as "Detective Story" by critics, and the meaning can be seen at a glance; after the Great Revolution, the extension of detective novels was infinitely expanded, so we call today's western works "Mystery Story". Story".The concept of detective novels is no longer limited to detective puzzle solving, and all literary works related to "mystery" can be defined as detective novels in a broad sense.It is precisely because of this expansion that detective novels did not decline as the "golden age" went away, but instead opened up a new situation where a hundred flowers bloomed.And this situation has continued to this day.