Is It Or Isn't It?: the Duality of Parodic Detective Fiction
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Is It Or Isn't It?: The Duality of Parodic Detective Fiction Lizabeth Paravisini and Carlos Yorio Writers of detective fiction discovered lon g ago that every genre begets its parod y and that parody can be the vehicle for genre renovation and transformation. Con trary to other genres (lik e the pastoral novel and the talc of ch ivalry) for whi ch parod y signaled their end as viable mean s of lit erary expression, detective fiction ha s incor porated its parody and, through it, ~ lUm o r into the tradition. T he genre, whi ch already involved the reader as an active parti cip an t (a "puzzle-solver" ), has added a new dim ension to reader participati on by forci ng a decision as to wheth er the work is to be read as a "straight" novel or as a parody. Parody has been one of the pri ncipal stra tegies used by writers in the renovation of detective fiction- that is, parody has led to the develo pment of the genre; parody has brough t h umor to what was in its origins a predomin ant ly hu morless genre; and parody has been incorpora ted into th e genre in such a way as to be often unrecogn izable as parody. Pa rody has not always been highly regarded as a form of literary exp ression. Definitions of it have ranged from th at of the Oxford English Dictionary, which defin es it as a "burlesq ue poem or song," to G ilbert Highet's defin ition in The Anatomy of Satire as " imitation wh ich, throug h distort ion and exaggeration, evokes amusement, derision , and sometimes scorn."! More recent stud ies on parody downplay its satiric (nega tive) aspects and emphasize the avenues it opens for the revitalizat ion of genres. In her boo k Parod y/ M eta Fiction: A n Analysis of Parody as a Critical M irro r to th e W riting and R ecep tion of L iterature. ' Margaret Rose argues th at when the formal pos sibi lit ies of a specific genre appear to ha ve lost their function- i.e. when techniq ues and struc tures have gro wn sta le-the genre can gai n new life by parod yin g th e older forms an d stre tchi ng the m beyond their former limits. With this function in m ind, Rose defines parod y as "in its speci fic form, the critical q uotation of prefor med lit erar y lan guage 181 182 Comic Crime The Duality of Parodic Detective Fiction 183 with comic effect, and, in its general form, the meta-fictional mirror to the It is undeniable that contemporary detective fiction is to a large degree process of composing and receiving literary texts" (p. 59). parodic. From its beginning as a genre, detective fiction contained within It follows from this definition that the distinctive literary ro le of parod y it the seed of its own metamorphosis: it was a genre which adhered rigidly is that of offering two texts within one: the parody itself and the parodied to a formula, offering a familiar combination of characters and settings, or target text : both present within the new text in a dialogical relationship. and prototypical detective figures. The development of the hard-boiled Parody is, above all else, dialogical; in parody we find two languages crossed detective story in the United States, although widening the possible variations with each other, two styles, two linguistic points of view-in short, two of crime fiction, basically pro vided an alternative formula. The formulaic speaking subjects. And although only one of these lang uages (the one being nature of the genre, however, is the basis of its appeal. Tzvetan Todorov, parodied) is present in its own righ t, it is th e other language (the parodic in his essay "The T ypology of Detective Fiction" writes about the need one) which guides the reader to a new way of perceiving the ori ginaJ.3 to work within-not outside-the formul a if one wants to write detective Because of its "dialogic" nature, parody is "ambivalently cri tical and fiction: sympathetic towards its target" (Rose, p. 34). Parody satirizes its target while being depend en t on it for its ow n materials and structures. T he diff erence As a rule, the literary masterpiece does not enter any genre excep t perhaps its own; between the parody and the target can be used as a weapon against th e but the masterpiece of popular literature is precisely the book that best fits its genre. latter while simultaneously refunctioning the tar get text for new purposes. Detective fiction has its norms, to develop them is to disappoint them: to "improve Thus parody represents the creation of an alternative form which allows upon" detective fiction is to write " literature," not detective fiction.' writers to supersede and reorient older traditions. Pa rod y, which is self reflexive in that it mirrors the process of writing and examines the aims If we accept T odorov's assertion that to transcend the formula is to and nature of fiction , is renovating in tha t it lead s to the development of abandon the genre, then we must conclude that the one avenue left for new , if self-conscious, literary forms. developing the genre from within is to parody the elements that constitute Since parody is self-co nscious, it follows th at its aims and methods will the formula in order to stretch them beyond their former limits. H ence the be different from those of non-parodic works. Non-pa rodic texts, since their innovative changes in the contemporary detective novel which can only be aim is to convince the reader of their tru th and reality, strive to blur the explained as parodic and which create a new bond between writer and reader reader's awareness of the presence of the literary medium by concealing the as two wh o are "in th e know" and can recognize and enjoy the presence literary devices used in the creation of th e text. Parody, however, is only of fam iliar elements in new and often humoro us forms. T he appeal of parody effective when the reader's aware ness is at its peak. T herefore, since it aims is at the basis of the popularity of writers such as Robert Barnard, Colin at sharpening the reader's awareness of the presence of the literary medium, Watson and Robert Parker. We will concern ourselves with one of them, parody will focus on the distinctive devices of the or iginal, "l aying them L.A. Morse. bare."4 The recep tion of parod y by the reade r depends on his ability to Larry Morse has published four novels to date: The O ld Dick, (1981, recognize this " laying bare of the device." a 1982 Edgar Award winner), The Big Enchilada (published in 1982 bu t Because parody focuses on the distinctive features of a genre , the ideal wri tten before The Old Dick), A n Old-Fashioned Mystery (1983), and Sleaze reader react ion occurs when th e reader recognizes the discrepancy between (1985).6 All four novels are clea rly parodic, and their particular interest in the parody and its target, while also enj oying the recognition of the hidden our context rests on the fact that as parodies they run the gamut of parodic irony involved in the h ighligh ting of certain elements. T he recog ni tion of forms and styles to be found in contemporary detective fiction. the discrepancy by the reader is vital to the effectiveness of parody because Morse's works are remarkable for having elicited widely divergent the reader's function is to redecode the pa rody (a work that has resulted responses from critics and readers alike, responses clea rly connected to the from the decoding of the or iginal by the parodist who encoded it again recognition (or lack of it) of the parodic aspects of the texts. The following in a "distorted" form). The reader of parody is cha llenged to the task of are q uotations from some of those responses, taken from reviews of The interpretation by the evocation of his expectations for a certa in text, genre, Big Enchilada, the first book written by Morse: style or literary world, before these expectations are disappointed. T hese expectations, however, can be of use to the parodist; they can eit her inhibit There is sex and/or violence on every tenth page, but it's all romp. The coupling the reader's understanding of the new work or provide him with a fam iliar is adolescent fantasy, the blood merely catsup. and the wit doesn't detract from the framework that could place the new work withi n the limits of his experience. seriousness of the message. The Big Enchilada sends up every canon of private eye 184 Comic Crime The Duali ty of Parodic Detective Fiction 185 fro m Raymond Chandler to Mickey Spillane. In a genre that is alrea dy a parody It was ano ther stifling summer day. A su lp hurous yellow haze hun g over most of Los Angeles. From my window I could see the cars backed up about two miles at of machismo, Morse has done the near impossible. He has created a parod y of parodies.7 one of the freeway inte rchang es. Down below the win os were shu fflin g around looking I found Th e Big Enchilada a truly vile book, one of the worst I've read in a lon g for some patch of shade wh ere they could escape the sun.