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Is It Or Isn't It?: The Duality of Parodic Detective

Lizabeth Paravisini and Carlos Yorio

Writers of discovered lon g ago that every begets its parod y and that can be the vehicle for genre renovation and transformation. Con trary to other (lik e the pastoral 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 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 , 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 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 they run the gamut of parodic 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 , 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 to . 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. Even the packs of kid s time. The main ch aracter is a p ig and a lout. The violence and sex are gra tuitous. that wo uld usuall y be breaking windshi eld s or ripping antennas off of parked cars T he pl ot is a melange of in credible coincidences. If the book is a parody, it 's a were not on the streets today. It was that hot. (7) complete failure. If it's serious, it's worse." T his is followed quickl y by the abru p t entrance of a hulk who trashes H u nte r abou t, warning him to stay off Domingo, an d leaving him to calm How tough is Sam H unter? Remember Dirty H arr y? . . Next to Sam Hunter, Dirty hi s scant ily-clad secretary' s fear with a brief and rough bou t of sex: H arr y looks like Mot her Theresa. In fact, The Big Enchilada requires a bod y count , ra ther than a review. . . . When I was th rou gh I let her down slowly. She slid down the wall until she The plo t: What ? was sitting on the floor, skirt above her wai st, legs spread apart, totally spen t. L.A. Morse has written either the best West Coast detective novel or the best I zipped up my pants and left the office. West Coast detective no vel parod y in years. Ei ther way, its great Iun.? I wanted to get something to eat. I also wanted some informa tion. About Do mingo . Whoever or whatever that was. T hese reader respo nses to T he Big Enchilada four important My vaca tion would have to wait. Until I found Doming o. At the very least, Domingo owed me a new desk. (I I) elemen ts evid ent in readings of detective fiction: ( I) th at read ers are often u ns ure as to whet her wh at they are reading is a parody or a " straigh t" T he bri ef cha pter accomplishes two goals. On the one han d, it sets work; (2) th at parody has been so readily ac cepted into detecti ve fiction th e for the chap ters to follow, which will open with amusin gly cyni cal that it often doesn 't matter to the reader wh ether th e work is parod ic rem arks about Lo s Angeles, foll ow ed by quick bo uts of violence and/ or or not; (3) that if you are a nai ve read er-one unable to di st inguish sex, and end with Hunter on th e move, comme nt ing wrily on the mess between parody an d its original-you can mi ss th e point en tirel y; and left behind. On th e other hand, it affectiona tely recreate s for the reader the th at (4) if the work is humorous, it probably is a p arody. eleme n ts we have come to associate with th e hard-boil ed genre: the steaming T he Big Enchilada in troduces Sam H unter, a tough, wise-cracking city of Los Angeles, th e dusty office in a dil apidated building, the absence private eye in the Philip Marl owe mold - on ly more so.What the book offers of clients (unt il a case comes look ing for hi m), the sexy secretary (a dark, is precisely more of everything; it is a parody-by-exaggeration which succeeds voluptuou s Mexican) with wh om the detecti ve has a friendly, no-strings­ by humorously heigh tening th e elemen ts com mon ly found in hard -boiled attached sexu al relation ship, th e provocation of his thirst for vengeance by detective novels. As the cri tic quo ted above sugges ts, the novel in deed requires an of unj ustified and unexplained violence. a body coun t. A firm believer that not hing succeeds like excess, Morse present s T he pattern acco un ts for the quickness of the pace and explains th e us with seven corpses, more than sixteen m aim ed, castrated, mut ilated or staggering amount of bodies Hunter leaves scattered around Lo s Angeles. merely beaten up bodies, and at least twelve offers of sex (no t all of them It also allows for the introduction of al most every conceivable accepted). T he excess alone cou ld mark th e book as a parody; bu t wh at assoc iated wi th th e genre: th e corrupt cop, the teenage porn star, the gruff Mor se has in mind is a more systematic, tongue-in -cheek send-up of the cop wh o helps H unter reluctantl y, the all -powerful nymphom an iac gossip genre. colu mnist, th e grotesq uel y fat for mer star tu rn ed dope-dealer, and the T he narrative follows the well-established pa ttern of the hard-boi led monosyllabi c h ulk of a bod yguard, to men tion just a few. genre: first person narra tion, every chapter openi ng with H unt er's commen ts The accum ulation of elemen ts an d charac ters, present ed withou t on Los Angeles (that "work of fiction " ) prior to facing violence, sex and derision, but with a speed and freq uency not fou nd in non -pa rodic examples mayhem, and closing wi th Hu nte r's wise-cracki ng, cyni cal remarks prior of th e genre, is the chief source of h umor in the boo k. This "h umor by to moving on. Chapter One establishes the narrative pattern that will be accumulation" is helped along by Hunter's wry and amusingly detached follo wed in the following chapters. It opens with H unter looking ou t h is commentary, as shown in th e following exa mples. office window, business being slow, and considering a vacation to Mexico: Hunter on women: 186 Comic Crime The Duality of Parodic Detective Fiction 187

unanim ous pr aise from read ers an d critics, and whi ch was not readily I stuck my head aro und the sho wer an d saw that it cou ld have been ident ified by reade rs as a parody. It is our cont ention that T he Old Dick a lot worse . . . it was only the da ug hter of the woman who man ages the apartme nt is Morse's best parody (in that it offers the most creat ive re-ela boratio n of bu ildi ng. Her na me was Candi or Cindi or Bambi or one of those goddam dumb th e formula), as well as being th e most represent ative of the fin e line between names that were dropped on kids by parents who were term inall y war ped by the parody and the "s traig ht" genr e that characterizes the contemporary detective Mickey Mouse Club. .. . She was blonde and pretty in a slu tty sor t of way that exactly novel. suited her na me, Suzi or Sherri or whatever it was. (50-51) The Old Dick ha s been described as a "s ly send- up of th e hard-bo iled Hunter on sex: detective (starr ing) Jake Span ner, the world's oldest gumshoe, leading a host of geriatric avengers culled from L.A. rest homes." 12 We could add to th at She pull ed away the towe l. " O h, Sam !" She fell o n me like she was dying of ap t description that the nove l is also a parody nested within the pa rody hunger and I was the Christmas tu rkey, of a parody. What the hell . I had a coup le of ho urs before my appoin tment. ( 137) T he novel opens with a typ ical scene fro m a Sp illane-type ha rd-boiled detective novel: H unt er on food: Duke Pachink o lay propped against the wa ll, a dripping red sponge where his face I had some time to kill so I went to the Krakatoa Restaurant. . . . Honor ing its name, used to be. He wou ldn 't bother anyone again. . .. T he blon de looked at the body, they served a hu ge cone-sha ped pile of noodl es th at was volcanically hot. The side and then she looked at me. Her eyes narrowed an d her lips parted.. . . She slow ly dish of chile sambaI that I poured ont o the no od les was nearly stro ng eno ugh to rai sed my hands and pl aced them on her breasts.. . . Her breath was coming in deep dissolve the bowl it was in. T he delicate, saro ng- clad girl who served me couldn 't sh udde ring gas ps. I p ut my hands at the neck of her dress. A q uick pull, and the believe what I was doing. She called the rest of the staff out and they stood a t a silk tore apart wi th slithery ripping sound. She step ped out of the remnants of her discreet dista nce away as I wor ked throug h the heap. T hey politely app lauded when dress and wal ked across to me moving like she was hypnotized, her eyes fastened I finished and retu rned to their respective jobs. (186) on the bulge in my trousers... .(9· 10)

Morse's h umoro us style (described by one critic as crackling with " witty But (alas!) a page and a half later we discover tha t th is is not o u r novel toughness"!" and praised by another for his "s uperb Chandleresq ue bu t th e parody of a ha rd-boi led detective novel that our sep tuagena ria n hero descriptio ns of our fair city and its denizens and a gusto so 'macho' it almo st Jake Spanner is readi ng: " I clo sed the book (he tells us) and pu t it down creates an acceptab le context for h is graceless h ero " !' ) has been the on ly on the bench out side. I rea lly didn 't need to read stu ff like th at." (10) From as pect of the book to be universally celebrate d. The same two critics, for the ope ning pages of our novel, J ake establishes himself as a read er of detec tive example, reach widely different concl us io ns regardi ng the book. Wh ile th e fiction; a reader, moreover, who ha ving been one of the origi nal private first finds it to be full of fun, the second one as ks: eyes in his you th, is ready to reject the parodic world of contemporary detective fiction : Who's more despicab le in The Big Enchilada . . . the sli my porn -smack czars whom sha m us Sam Hunter tracks down or H unter hi mself? He throws hissteak on a restaurant And fifty years later he was lying on an unbelievab ly ugly couch, reading abou t floor, pulls a Roscoe on a guy p laying his car radio 100 loud, kicks down a door a guy named Al T racker who could shatter other guy's jaws wit ho ut ever hurting rat her than look for the key and leaves poisonous snakes slithering through Beverly his ow n hand , an d who had bea utiful women lining up 10 give h im blow jobs. Hills. T em pus fugi t. Hunter may spea k 10 the anger in us all, but I'd rather cross the street to avoid Forty pages into the book, there had been a garroting, a defenestration, a speaking to him. dismem bermen t, and a ga ng rape. AI was out for veng eance (red, I supposed) and a mal ignant dwarf wi th a steel han d was out 10 rip AI's ba lls off. I dozed off. (33) T he two are characteristic of the responses elicited by T he Big Enchilada, which range from en joyment of the book as a parody to complete rejectio n T hro ugh out th e novel Jake will remain a reader of the adv entures of AI of its sex and vio lence by readers not able to reco gn ize which elements of Tracker'! (his rea ding of that novel parallels our reading of his own detective fict ion it parodied. The responses are interesting because very few adventure), and he will cons tantly compare the details of his case to those of them fell on the middle ground between acceptance and rejection. T ha t of AI's tale. If, as a parody of the orig inal priva te eye (a parody of Jake's was not the case, however, with The Old Dick, a book which received almos t origina l self), Al Tracker is found wa nting, Jake (also a parody of hi s or ig inal 188 Comic Crime T he Duality of Parodic Detective Fiction 189 self becau se he is a very old man) will constantly com pare th e parody th at the di sappoint ment of our expectations as Jake's a ttemp ts to act fail miserabl y he is against the parody that Al represents. because he is an old man . T here are actually th ree versio ns of the private eye pr esen t in the novel: Interestingly eno ugh, however, the novel is not a satire of old age (I) Spanner's former self, th at of the pro totypical private eye as exemplified although the work has a fair share of satiric elemen ts.IS Un like parody, by ; (2) Al T rac ker, a parody of th e original private eye who satire is not necessar ily lim ited to the imitat ion , disto rtion or quotat ion bores Spanner the reader because his adv ent ures are too far-fetched and of ot her literary texts, and the humor in T he Old Dick is indeed restricted unrecogn izabl e; and (3) Jake Spanner as an old man, constant ly comparing to th e in congruity-not between you th and old age- bu t between two literary him self at seven ty-eig ht to the original J ake Spa nner of fifty years before. figures: the old dick (Jake at 78) and the even older dick which is hi s form er T hese three versions of Spanner are cons tan tly present in the text, bu t only self. (Notice that the titl e itself, T he Old Dick , is sema nt ically ambig uous.) the you ng Spa nner is presen t in hi s own literary righ t; Al T rac ker and th e T he hard -boiled detective is obviously the target of this parody and the curre nt Jake Spanner are copies tryin g despera tely to emulate the original. elements of th e prototype are always pr esent as the sub-text wh ich makes T he first of these cop ies, AI T racker, is bound to fai l becau se he is humor possible. too much of a carica tur e. And it is Jake h imself as a reader wh o repudia tes T h is constan t presence of sub-text and tex t in a dialogical relati onship h im th rough out the novel: is indeed wh at mak es the wo rk a parody, since parody req uires literar y self­ consciousness, awareness of the need to "l ay bare the device." Larry Morse Since it did n 't look like there was anything I could do until the next day, I smo ked is aware of th e need for writers working in the genr e to high light the fact myself to the point wh ere the advent ures of Al T racker would seem a musing, if th at detective fiction has become a self-conscious genre: not intelli gible. Som ewhere between Al wipin g out a wit ches coven and bein g beaten to a bloody pulp by a gang of Ori ental men with bamboo sticks, I go t a call from I started writing detective fiction because I knew the genre very well, and enjoy ed Sal. .. . Just as Al was about to sin k hi mself into the lubriciou s body of his client 's it. Whi le I never set out to "sa tirize" it, the genre is by now so form ulai c tha t it's wife, I gra tefully sank into deep , dar k, dream less sleep. (84) impossibl e to write about private detectives withou t some acknow ledg ment or awa reness of wha t's gone on befo re. Wha t I do is admit that you can 't take th is But Al T racker is al so a figure wh ich must be transcended if Jak e is stuff as deadly earne st and seriou s.'! to come close to recrea ting hi s former self. Jak e's existence as a pa rody, we must reme mber, is on ly validated to th e degree that he is a " distorted " And indeed, most parodies of detective fiction, T he Old Dick in clud ed, version of the origina l. And surely enough, as th e plo t of j ak e's own case do more than j ust establish a dialogue between parody and target, they also subvert from withi n those elements that characterize th e genr e. The Old th ickens, Jake leaves Al behind: Dick , for exam ple, ends wit h Jake, who at 78 had faced abject poverty , running I go t into bed a nd picked up the advent ur es of Al Tracker. He was han gi ng by off with the cro ok Sal Piccolo and his mill ion dolla rs to T unisia, th ereby hi s fingers from a freeway overpass. How did he get there? I did n't care. After recent sub verting the pro totyp ical mora l stand of th e hard-boiled detecti ve. In doi ng events , AI's exploits seemed all too tame an d plau sible. (\ 77) so, J ake has bro ken the professional code that is such an intrinsic part of the model. What Jake cannot succeed in leaving behind is hi s present self, subject J ake's subversion of the ru les po in ts to th e need to liberate the genr e as he is to th e indignities of being a 3D-year-old private eye in a 78-year ­ fro m strict adheren ce to the or iginal formul a. That is, after all, the recurring old bod y. And th is incongruity between wh at a tough private eye should th eme in th e book. Jake, at 78, is as old as th e hard-boiled ge nre, and could do and what the old Jake Spanner can do is the source of mo st of th e humor be seen to stand as its represen ta tion. By accep ting th e 78 year-old Ja ke in what is, after all , a very fun ny book. as a private eye, we, as readers, have already subverted ou r own expectations Incongru ity has long been offered as an explanation for th e creation of wha t detecti ve fiction shou ld be and in the process, we have allowed of humor. Qu intilian, in hi s Institut io a ratoria, links humor to the for the stretch ing of the formu la beyond its for mer limits. disappointment of expectat io ns, a view echoed by Kant, for wh om h u mor A different kind of subversion takes place in An Old-Fash ioned Mys tery, was "an affectatio n arising fro m the sudden transformation of a strained where Morse tries his hand a t a tru ly satiric parody. T he clear satiric intent ­ expec tation in to no th ing." \4 T hi s concept of h um or is pa rticu larl y apt to th e use of la ughter as a wea pon aga ins t the classic mystery gcnre- sets this describe humor in T he Old Dick since it arises, for the most part , fro m book apart fro m Morse's oth er work. In hi s pre face to the book , Morse refers 190 Comic Crime The Duality of Parodic Detective Fiction 191 to An Old-Fashioned Mystery as " the mystery to end all mysteries," as " the eschatology of the mystery,"; and indeed, here the classic mystery becomes Bu t Mrs . Hook is to be found moments later nearly cu t in half with the object of satiric ridicule in a way not found in those works in which a cleaver: he parodies the hard-boiled detective novel. To judge by the parodic treatment of the two types of in Morse's work, it is not hard to see "Wrong again , Violet," Sebastian said after a moment, flashing his sister a friendly gn n. which type he finds to be alive and well (and likely to be renovated through Cerise began to sob hysterically, her body shaking with each new burst. parody), and which type is dead and gone. Sebastian moved to comfort her. "Take it easy," he said. "No use crying over The target text in this parody is obviously th e classic mystery in general spli t Milch".. . . and 's Ten Little Indians (also p ublished as And Then There "I say! What's that?" Derrick pointed to the ground next to the body. Were None) in particular. The book's premise will be familiar even to casual "Golly, you're right!" Sebastian said. "Look, Sis. It's the footprints of a giant readers of m urder mysteries: ten people gathered together in an isolated m anor duck!" (156) on one of the Lawrence River Thousand Islands (no boat, no phone, no As th is and many other examples could show, every cliche found in way out) where it is soon obvio us th a t a ki lle r is loose. the classic mystery is employed here, the book being after all a h igh ly ela borate The characters ar e just as easily recognizable behind th eir Clue masks: literar y joke. T he in ten ded for this novel is clearly th e inveterate Rosa Sill, the nowhe re~ to - be- f ound hostess, brand-new heiress, and perfect reader of classic my steries, since the deepening layers of humor can only murder victim; the apop lectic Col. Nigel Dijon who hides God knows what be appreciated by those who are " in the know. " The humor arises primaril y bizarre secrets from his military service in the Asian colonies; Bea trice (Au nt fro m the recognition of the multiple "quotations" fro m other novels fou nd Budgie) Dijon, seemingly har m less wife for whom Ros a's millions could in the book: bri ng freedom from the Co lo ne l's sado-masochistic tendencies; Mr. Eustace Drupe, executor of the will, whose briefcase suspiciously reveals a one -way The text is rerruruscen t of those sequences of fast-flashed photographs that show ticke t to South America; Derr ick Costain, society beau and Rosa's fiance; the events of an era in the space of a min ute. Situations, characters, phrases, and Cerise Redford, Rosa's secretary-companion, soon to be unmasked as her dialogue zoom past, evoking elusive images of other books; often the source stays ill egitima te sister; Mrs. Hook, the housekeeper and potential mass poisoner; tanta lizingly out of reach, ju st below the surface of memory.. . .After a few pages Mr. Ching, the cook and erstwhile spy, present to disprove the notion that the reader will "know" that a Christie classic is the basis for the book, and, as the no Chinaman can figure in a detective story; the plainly loony Mrs. Cassandra situation unfolds, will be amused and amazed by its simp licity.'? Argus, possibly the murderess of Rosa's mother; and eye-shadowed society T he "insider's joke" 18 is obvious both in Morse's manifest intention fop Sebastian Cornichon, smart-alecky twi n brother of Society-G irl De tective of parodying Ch ristie, and in hi s com mitment to breaking every single one Viol et Cornichon. The la tter is set on solving the mystery and ready to of Father Ronald Knox 's Ten Commandments of Detection (which the reader en tertain bids on the manuscri pt. The only pro blem is that as soon as sh e of An Old-Fash ioned M ystery will find in a footnote on page 217). This builds her case and identifies the cu lprit, h er suspect is either poisoned, com m itm ent resu lts in a major "transgression" of the rules of detective fiction defenestrated, chopped, drowned, strangled or bludgeoned. (or so it has seemed to readers and critics): T he tech niq ue used by Morse in the structuring of An Old-Fashioned Mystery is remarkably sim ilar to that use d in T he Big Enchilada: a patte rn This all would be very thrilling and suspenseful except that Ms. Fairleigh chooses is established early in the novel and then repea ted in a fast-paced narrative to end with a twist that leaves the reader feeling nothing but betrayal. (Indeed I that len ds itself to the humorous accumula tio n of fam ili ar elements in parodic wanted to throw the book across the room.) This gimmick is low-class, unartistic, excess. Violet's case against Mrs . H ook is just one of the many examples unnecessary and it violates the very reason for reading any crime fiction-to try and of the bu rlesque im ita tion of the quintessential classic detective story: deduce who the criminal is before it is revealed at the end of the novel. T his is impossible in A n Old-Fashioned My stery. The ultimate result is disappointment. 19 So, Sis, you're saying that this Hacker killed Mrs. Hook and took her identity . But T he "gimmick" of course is Morse's breaking of Knox's First all the time Mrs. Hook was not Mrs. Hook, but was really Helga Milch. And thus it turned out that Hacker , who is a convicted murderer, is posing as a woman who Commandment, whi ch clearly states that "The criminal must be someone was herself playing a part to hide the fact that she's an acquitted murderer. What men tioned in the early part of the sto ry, but must not be anyone whose a delicious irony! (154) th ough ts the reader has been allowed to follow." By making the author 192 Comic Crime T he Duality of Parodic Detective Fiction 193 the guilty party, Morse fails to satisfy the reader 's need for a logical 6T he edi tions of Mor se's works dis cus sed in thi s essay are listed below, preceded exp lanation, thereby cro ssing the imaginary line between what some readers by the ori ginal date of publication. All q uot ati on s will be cited in the text using, wh ere necessar y for clarity, the ab breviation giv en after the entry: are willing and un willing to accept in parodies of detective fiction. It is 1981 Th e Ol d Dick (New York : Avon, 1981 ). (TO D) worth notin g tha t the maj ority of critics com men ting on An Old-Fashioned 1982 Th e Big Enchilada (New York: Avo n , 1982). (TBE) M ystery professed to like the novel very m uch " up until the deus ex mach ina." 1983 An Old-Fash ion ed Mystery (T oro n to: Lester & O rpe n Den n ys, 1983). (O FM) T he " transgression " brings us back to T odorov 's con tention that in We will om it Sleaze (New York: Avon , 1985) from th e discussion sin ce our anal ysis order to write detective fictio n we must work within th e form ula, since " to of The Big Enchilada holds true for the parodic elements to be fou nd in Sleaze. develop the nor ms is to disappoin t them. " A review of readers' responses 7Marga ret Ca nnon, " Gritty Antidotes to Bucolic Boredom," Macl. ean's, 14 June 1982, p. 53. to Morse's books reveal s th e enthusiastic accep tance of the parodying of 8Bill Crider, q uoted by Wa lter Albert in "The Big Co ntroversy," T he N ot So th e elements of detective fiction, as lo ng as th e parody does not tran scen d Private Eye, Issue 11 112 (1984), [s.p.] the essen tia l ru les tha t govern the genre. T he parodist, they seem to tell 9Michael Neill, " Mystery Roundup,"NY Daily N ews, 1 Februa ry 1982, [s.p .]. us, can break the Fifth Co m mandment (" No Chinaman m us t figure in th e lO Richard Labont e, " T he Big Enc hilada," Ottawa Citizen, 12 March 1982, [s.p. ]. story" ) with impun ity; but he mu st no t break com mandme n ts that transcend ll" T he Big Enchilada," L os A ngeles T im es, 14 March 1982. essential ru les (i.e., "All su pern atural or pretern atural agencies are ru led 12Canno n, p. 53. 13T here is a parodic link- a very funny private joke- concerning R ed Vengeance, ou t as a matter of co urse" ). And whereas Ch inamen in detective fiction ca n th e book that relates Al Tracker 's adv entures. It para llels, and parodies, Sam H u nter 's turn out to be pretty funny, reun ions in heaven ap paren tly are no t. first adventur e, T he Big Ench ilada (wh ich must be remem bered, was written befo re T he choice of h umor as the imaginary line th at separa tes successful T he Old Dick ). In an amusing case of intcrt extuality, this is what Hunter (T racker?) fro m unsuccessful paro dies is not inappropriate wh en app lied to detective has to say: "I would extract vengeance, red vengeance . .. Vengeance! I could taste fiction in general and Morse's wor ks in particu lar. H is most successfu l parody, it in my mouth. A red ha ze dropped before my eyes, and I saw vengeance, red vengeance. The Old Dick, is bo th the book that remains closest to its model and his It would be mine. It wo uld be good." (T BE, 139-140) funniest one by far. This con nectio n between humor and " success" in p arody " Lnstitutio Oratorio, Book 6:3 (Cambridge: Harvard University Pr ess, 1960), p. 17. Kant 's rem arks are quoted in The Psychology of H u mor, J. Goldstein and P. is u nderscor ed by the critics' reactions to La rry Morse's wor k. The furth er McG hee (eds.)(New Yor k: Academi c Press, 1972), p. 8. he strays from the conven tions of the genre, the greater the diversity in the lSAn Old-Fash ioned Mystery, as we will see later, is Morse's true satiric parody. responses to his wo rk and the grea ter the number of readers who do not 16Morse' s correspondence, 3 Jan ua ry 1986. H e add s th e following: "The wri ter 's recognize the humor in the text. job is to en gage th e reader, to ente rt ain, to keep the read er turning pages; h umor T he Old Dick and T he Big Enchilada succ eed p recisely because th ey is on e effective metho d of achie ving thi s, and because I enjo y it myse lf, I try to can be wil dl y funny books, even whi le poking fun at the conven tio na l p ut a lot of humor in my books. Looking at Fowl er 's Humor Cha rt, I probably use all of the approaches that are ment ioned. If nothing else, h umor is a good way formulas of detective ficti on. T hey offer clear eviden ce (the pun is in tended) of avoidi ng solemnity, pomposity and arrogance self-importa nce, thr ee of the deadliest of the possibi lities parody opens for the revital iza tion of detecti ve fiction. sins that can affl ict a writer. . .. " T hat the genre has been able to incorpora te its parody in to the tradition 17 Joh n Nort h, " An Old-Fashioned Mystery," Qui ll & Qu ire, Mar ch 1984, [s.p.]. assures us of many mor e detectives stories to come.s" 18T here is, of cou rse, an add itional "insider's joke" in th e Ru na Fairleigh hoax. Fairleigh is the reclusive au th or wh ose di sappearance-leavin g beh ind the man uscrip t N otes " found" and "ed ited" by Morse-is as mysteri ous as th e no vel she has written. 19Kelly Devries, " Low Class Gimmick Ending Spoils T he Mystery in O therwise Good A n Old Fash ioned M ystery," T he N ewsp aper, I Febru ary 1984, [s.p.]. 20 0 ur heartfel t th an ks to Larr y Morse for giving us access to his reviews and '(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962), p. 69. correspondence and answering our many questions. 2(London: Croom H elm Lt d., 1979) 3Mikha il Bakh tin, T he Dialogic Imagination, translated by Ca ryl Emers on and Michael Holq uist, (Austin : University of T exa s Pr ess, 1981), p. 79. "T u via Shlonsky, " Literary Parody: Rem arks on It s Method an d Fu nction," in Proceedings of the 4th Congress of the International Com parative L iterature Association, Vol. 2, 1966, p. 800. sT he Poetics of Prose (Ithaca: Corne ll University Press, 1977), p. 43.