#usculture — Public Fediverse posts

I recently read a couple of Elmore Leonard crime novels -- "Riding the Rap" and "Out of Sight".

I don't read that much contemporary fiction, nor do I have a deep background in crime fiction as a genre, so you'll have to make do with the remarks of a relatively ill informed reader.

I can see why Leonard is a both popular and respected writer. He knows how to structure a gripping narrative, and his dialogue rings true.

On a more critical note, I can imagine these two novels providing future students of US culture with material for a study of the anxieties and aspirations of middle class white men in an America seemingly riven with disorder.

In "Riding the Rap", Leonard's background as a writer of westerns comes across; the US marshal protagonist brings order to a lawless frontier by acting on his own initiative rather than a mere agent of a federal bureaucracy. Here though, the frontier is no longer in the west, but in Florida, and the threatening nonwhite others are no longer American Indians but a Puerto Rican hitman and a Black Bahamian immigrant who, as part of his assimilation to Black America, adopted an Islamic name.

Leonard's depiction of racial attitudes intersects with his representation of socioeconomic class distinctions. The two nonwhite criminals act for a while as henchmen to a drink and drug addled wealthy white playboy, whose kidnapping plan drives the plot forward. His exploitation of his senile mother's wealth and the revelation of her ugly racist attitudes point to the class and status tensions that exist between a decadent white upper class and the Appalachian coalmining heritage of the US marshal protagonist.

These racial and white populist themes recur in "Out of Sight", where middle aged, middle class, white bank robbers are contrasted with African American home invaders, the latter being characterized by their cruelty, treachery, idleness, lust, and greed.

In both novels the middle aged male protagonist beds a much younger female character; some readers might find these glimpses of the fantasy life of ageing men unintentionally ludicrous.

I think I'll reserve final judgment on Leonard until I've read another of his books. "Swag" is supposed to be good, but neither my local second bookstore nor my libraries have it available at the moment, and I don't want to pay full price for it.

#Books #ElmoreLeonard #USLiterature #CrimeFiction #RidingTheRap #OutOfSight #Race #Racism #Populism #USCulture

I recently read a couple of Elmore Leonard crime novels -- "Riding the Rap" and "Out of Sight".

I don't read that much contemporary fiction, nor do I have a deep background in crime fiction as a genre, so you'll have to make do with the remarks of a relatively ill informed reader.

I can see why Leonard is a both popular and respected writer. He knows how to structure a gripping narrative, and his dialogue rings true.

On a more critical note, I can imagine these two novels providing future students of US culture with material for a study of the anxieties and aspirations of middle class white men in an America seemingly riven with disorder.

In "Riding the Rap", Leonard's background as a writer of westerns comes across; the US marshal protagonist brings order to a lawless frontier by acting on his own initiative rather than a mere agent of a federal bureaucracy. Here though, the frontier is no longer in the west, but in Florida, and the threatening nonwhite others are no longer American Indians but a Puerto Rican hitman and a Black Bahamian immigrant who, as part of his assimilation to Black America, adopted an Islamic name.

Leonard's depiction of racial attitudes intersects with his representation of socioeconomic class distinctions. The two nonwhite criminals act for a while as henchmen to a drink and drug addled wealthy white playboy, whose kidnapping plan drives the plot forward. His exploitation of his senile mother's wealth and the revelation of her ugly racist attitudes point to the class and status tensions that exist between a decadent white upper class and the Appalachian coalmining heritage of the US marshal protagonist.

These racial and white populist themes recur in "Out of Sight", where middle aged, middle class, white bank robbers are contrasted with African American home invaders, the latter being characterized by their cruelty, treachery, idleness, lust, and greed.

In both novels the middle aged male protagonist beds a much younger female character; some readers might find these glimpses of the fantasy life of ageing men unintentionally ludicrous.

I think I'll reserve final judgment on Leonard until I've read another of his books. "Swag" is supposed to be good, but neither my local second bookstore nor my libraries have it available at the moment, and I don't want to pay full price for it.

#Books #ElmoreLeonard #USLiterature #CrimeFiction #RidingTheRap #OutOfSight #Race #Racism #Populism #USCulture

I recently read a couple of Elmore Leonard crime novels -- "Riding the Rap" and "Out of Sight".

I don't read that much contemporary fiction, nor do I have a deep background in crime fiction as a genre, so you'll have to make do with the remarks of a relatively ill informed reader.

I can see why Leonard is a both popular and respected writer. He knows how to structure a gripping narrative, and his dialogue rings true.

On a more critical note, I can imagine these two novels providing future students of US culture with material for a study of the anxieties and aspirations of middle class white men in an America seemingly riven with disorder.

In "Riding the Rap", Leonard's background as a writer of westerns comes across; the US marshal protagonist brings order to a lawless frontier by acting on his own initiative rather than a mere agent of a federal bureaucracy. Here though, the frontier is no longer in the west, but in Florida, and the threatening nonwhite others are no longer American Indians but a Puerto Rican hitman and a Black Bahamian immigrant who, as part of his assimilation to Black America, adopted an Islamic name.

Leonard's depiction of racial attitudes intersects with his representation of socioeconomic class distinctions. The two nonwhite criminals act for a while as henchmen to a drink and drug addled wealthy white playboy, whose kidnapping plan drives the plot forward. His exploitation of his senile mother's wealth and the revelation of her ugly racist attitudes point to the class and status tensions that exist between a decadent white upper class and the Appalachian coalmining heritage of the US marshal protagonist.

These racial and white populist themes recur in "Out of Sight", where middle aged, middle class, white bank robbers are contrasted with African American home invaders, the latter being characterized by their cruelty, treachery, idleness, lust, and greed.

In both novels the middle aged male protagonist beds a much younger female character; some readers might find these glimpses of the fantasy life of ageing men unintentionally ludicrous.

I think I'll reserve final judgment on Leonard until I've read another of his books. "Swag" is supposed to be good, but neither my local second bookstore nor my libraries have it available at the moment, and I don't want to pay full price for it.

#Books #ElmoreLeonard #USLiterature #CrimeFiction #RidingTheRap #OutOfSight #Race #Racism #Populism #USCulture

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/sep/14/my-wife-and-i-had-couples-therapy-on-tv-it-nearly-wrecked-our-marriage

Painful reading.

My first thought before reading the article was to wonder why on earth this couple had agreed to have their couples therapy televised.

Then I read that the couple made very little money, so the offer of a free sessions with a therapist who regularly charges $700 an hour must have been difficult to resist. As the husband/author writes, "I wanted to save my marriage. I was desperate for help."

I won't dissect the whole article but will instead note a couple of more general thoughts.

Much of the unhappiness in this marriage can be traced to the continual changes in residence, prompted in turn by scarce job prospects and insecurity in employment. One of the most ugly consequences of the neoliberal political economy pushed by "family values" conservatives is not just the wreckage of marriages by economic insecurity, but the insidious pressure on couples turn inwards and blame each other for problems generated by social forces.

Contra Margaret Thatcher, there IS such a thing as society, and a deeply inequitable society can warp intimate relationships and destroy families.

Fitting in horribly with this antisocial individualism is the deference accorded to "therapy" by so many Americans . All too often a mishmash of self help nostrums, poorly grounded popular psychology, and moralistic bullying is offered as a panacea to both individual and social problems.

Of course, psychotherapists have a legitimate function in modern society, but, in the US in particular, "therapy" has become something like a religion to a significant portion of the population. Consequently I often - as I do now - feel the stirrings of the functional equivalent of anticlericalism within my breast.

I am not recommending a turn to the "traditional" way of life advocated by conservatives. I would just plead for a turn to the social rather than the constant reduction of all problems to those of individual psychology.

Here, the combination of therapy with voyeuristic TV, itself a product of a ratings chase shaped by neoliberal values, turns out to be disastrous.

#CouplesTherapy #Therapy #Relationships #USCulture #Neoliberalism