faith? works? angst?
It may be totally unfair and skewed --but hey, I'm Ex Cathedra, that's how I roll-- but you can get a sense for the difference between Europe and America by comparing Wallander with Justified.
Swedish Detective Kurt Wallander I have already expatiated on: the soul-sick hypercivilized European male.
Contrast with US Marshal Raylan Givens of Justified, battling the bad guys in the towns and hollers of eastern Kentucky and not losing a wink of sleep when he takes one of 'em down.
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It may be totally unfair and skewed --but hey, I'm Ex Cathedra, that's how I roll-- but you can get a sense for the difference between Europe and America by comparing Wallander with Justified.
Kenneth Branagh's Wallander
Swedish Detective Kurt Wallander I have already expatiated on: the soul-sick hypercivilized European male.
Timothy Oliphant's Givens
Contrast with US Marshal Raylan Givens of Justified, battling the bad guys in the towns and hollers of eastern Kentucky and not losing a wink of sleep when he takes one of 'em down.
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3 comments:
Dear ExCathedra,
I was intrigued by your comparison between these two fictional cops, not having seen the series called "Justified". I checked out the first episode of the American show and totally understand what you refer to now.
May I make a suggestion, please read the wikipedia article on Henning Mankell, the author of the Wallander novels on which several tv shows have been made, the last ones in English by the BBC.
I believe that reading about Mankell's view of the world helps understand why he has created the Wallander persona, as it is. Elmore Leonard represents a totally different ratio of writing crime fiction and subsequently his character Givens in "justified" comes from a different mindset.
However, comparing these two crime dramas, as you do very well, also sheds light on some troubling facts. As a projection of the socially conscious cop, Wallander is part of a Swedish tradition begun in the 1960's by Authors Sjöwall&Wahlöö where the crime in itself, is inherently seen as a result of an unjust society and where the individual criminal is a victim, not an evil perpetrator. In accordance with this view, the individual investigating officer is also a representative of the suppressive machinery and deserves his doubts, pangs of bad conscience and ulcers etc. Mankell is a Gutmensch, and so is his protagonist. They carry the burden of what they perceive as just sins. And it is only natural that they should wallow in that misery.
To end this, I say only one thing, look at Sweden today and the situation the politically correct nomenclature has created there over the past 50 years. Read Mankell's curriculum. Fiction mirrors reality.
And thank's for keeping up a great blog.
Thanks for that, Polstjernan. I will look into it.
Well, I did look into it. Not good! These people actually think that capitalism is the cause of crime? Mankell, as you indicated, is utterly trapped in a deeply Leftist worldview. No wonder Wallander is so sick and miserable.
Thanks for the tip. I'll take cowboy Raylan Givens any day.
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