About this course
This is Freshman Seminar on U.S. Detective Fiction taught by Jim Groom at the University of Mary Washington during the Fall 2012 semester. For more information take a look at the syllabus.
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Category Archives: Hardboiled
Ellroy on Hammett: a Hardboiled War on Labor
I was searching the UMW library database for a James Ellroy novel I wanted to re-read this break (The Big Nowhere), when I stumbled across his introduction to an Everyman’s Library Edition of some of Dashiell Hammett’s stories and novels. … Continue reading → Continue reading
Posted in Dashiell Hammett, Hardboiled, James Ellroy, labor, Red Harvest, work
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More wikiness
Writing for Wikipedia is a challenge. When we write as students, it’s all about: What does the teacher want? What will make him/her happy so I’ll get a good grade? Whereas with an encyclopedia it’s all about: What will be … Continue reading → Continue reading
Posted in Hardboiled, wikipedia
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The Big Blow
It’s too bad time constraints knocked The Big Blowdown off the reading list. It makes a nice closing book because of the way it connects to so many of the others, from echoing minute details (“The Doc put fire to a … Continue reading → Continue reading
Posted in bigblowdown, Hardboiled, pelecanos
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Somebody’s Top Ten + 4
I noticed that Devil in a Blue Dress showed up on someone’s list of the fourteen best private eye novels of all time. I have no idea why they decided to choose fourteen, or who they polled. It’s nice that … Continue reading → Continue reading
Posted in Chandler, devilinabluedress, hammett, Hardboiled, mosley, paretsky, redharvest
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Why so serious?
This is my last word on James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia because I need to write about the re-emergence of black capitalism in Walter Mosely‘s Devil in a Blue Dress. At the beginning of Tuesday’s discussion about Devil in a … Continue reading → Continue reading
I want you to see the bullet coming.
I listened to Devil in a Blue Dress on CD rather than read it. I think you lose something doing it that way – it’s a different kind of experience. As I wrote before, the narrator becomes part of the … Continue reading → Continue reading
Posted in devilinabluedress, Hardboiled, mosley
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I want you to see the bullet coming.
I listened to Devil in a Blue Dress on CD rather than read it. I think you lose something doing it that way – it’s a different kind of experience. As I wrote before, the narrator becomes part of the … Continue reading → Continue reading
Posted in devilinabluedress, Hardboiled, mosley
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What a tangled web we weave
I love what the group has to say about The Black Dahlia. Brenna brought up the Joker connection, which was brilliant, but also pointed out the two-cop connection to Cotton Comes to Harlem. Sarah went into detail about the real … Continue reading → Continue reading
Posted in blackdahlia, Hardboiled
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Hardboiled Week 14: Black Dahlia, Alternative History, and the Rise of Smut and Gore
Audio of Hardboiled discussion of James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia 11-29-2012
Tonight’s class was a bit low energy given how late we are in the semester and how much reading I have thrown at the #emoboilers—but as they say what doesn’t … Continue reading → Continue reading
Posted in Hardboiled, James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia
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Hardboiled Week 14: James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia, and Other Twisted Obsessions
I can remember the exact moment I heard about James Ellroy for the first time. It was the Fall of 1994 and I was working at UCLA’s Audio Visual Services scheduling AV needs for the campus community when my co-worker … Continue reading → Continue reading
Posted in Hardboiled, James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia
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