mystery novels |

• james bond: he was created in the 1950s, when it looked as if communism were going to take over the world. james bond certainly embodied bourgeois cultural values: he had his silk suit tailor-made in hong kong, he drove a bentley, and he knew which grape was used to make the brandy in his glass by the bouquet alone. and he was licensed to kill (making him, in one sense, an outlaw)
• many of the most popular and enduring characters in fiction endure because they are cultural heroes, even though these characters are somewhat cardboard, some would even say "cartoon."
  • james bond is but one well-known example. indiana jones is another. such characters have very few inner conflicts, doubts, misgivings; rarely do they suffer from guilt.
• many popular hero/detectives are of this ilk. perry mason and his sidekicks delia street and paul drake are examples, yet they endure. they endure because they embody the universal heroic mythic values, even though as characters they're one-dimensional, and as flat and thin as a credit card.
• one theory, sometimes discussed in whispers among mystery writers, is that thin characters hook the reader in a strange way. since such characters have little or no inner life themselves, readers project their own personality onto such characters. comic-book heroes are such characters. the same is said of abstract paintings: viewers project their own formed image on a formless work.
  • alfred hitchcock, the great director, said he preferred a blonde for his female lead, one who seemed to have little or no personality, because, he said, audiences would then project their own personalities onto the character.