February 26, 2007
A Knight Without Armor in a Savage Land
Just stumbled across this in something called Manas Journal from 1965:
[Travis] McGee is an ultramodern Robin Hood who disdains adjustment to the established order of things, seeking neither status, financial security, nor conventional comforts of any other kind. Though the plots in which he becomes involved pit him against one or another criminal exploiter to regain expropriated moneys for his clients, his real dedication is to resistance to routinized living.
…
[The McGee character] is MacDonald’s way of opposing the Orwellian horrors of 1984 and the humdrum confinements of W. H. Whyte’s Organization Man. Who is responsible? Not a league of capable demagogues who plot the submergence of individuality; the real offender is the inertia of so many citizens of the ‘affluent society.’”
This is why the McGee character appeals now more than ever.
February 26th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Hi M, If you like this character, the ramblings of hobo Steve Keely may interest you. This interesting chap’s writings reside on the Niederhoffer’s Daily Spec site of all places:
http://www.dailyspeculations.com/keeley/hobo_index.html
February 26th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Caravaggio: Thanks for the link; never heard of hobo Steve.
February 27th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Another good point about Travis McGee (and somewhere in my attic I have most of McDonald’s pre-hardcover, pre-McGee books as well)is that McGee genuinely likes women. And he’s a committed environmentalist. And he is, with occasional exceptions, anti-cop.
February 27th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Jerry: Thrilled that you visited! Well, The Quick Red Fox has a pretty outrageous tirade about the dangers that lesbians pose to other women, and MacDonald in general seems about as sexist as the next guy (back in the 50’s and 60’s), but I agree that McGee is a committed tree hugger throughout the series.
February 27th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
I’d like to read the full text. Which issue from the 1965 volume?
February 28th, 2007 at 12:14 am
Well, yeah. When McGee and I were young was back in the 50s and 60s, and I’d argue that he, at any rate, was a great deal less sexist than the average male of the day. And incredibly less sexist than the average mystery and adventure protagonist of the day. Look at Hammett (a little earlier, but not much), Chandler, Spillane, and a thousand other lesser know misogynists. McGee, on the other hand, was unabashedly sentimental, often nearly lyrical, about the succession of women he slept with. A friend of mine knew McDonald, and once asked him what was the hardest thing about writing a series. He said it was finding a reason for McGee and his paramour to split up at the end. He felt that the readers wouldn’t stand for it if McGee ever settled down with one woman (which would probably have been both the character’s and his creator’s preference.) In my own books I felt the same problem, which I addressed by having Bethany monogamous, but with a woman married to a closeted homosexual. Parker made Spenser into a monogamist who lives apart from his quasi-wife. Which I would do, too, if I were quasi-wedded to a woman as irritating as Susan Silverman. I await without much hope the day when a male mystery writer creates a hero who is an unashamed serial adulterer. And without any hope at all a hard-boiled hero who keeps a cat.
Can’t address the lesbian issue, I’m afraid. Your memory is certainly better than mine (practically anybody’s is), but I don’t remember the tirade. I’ve got the book around and will look it up. Must say that it doesn’t sound like the kind of rant up with which Meyer Meyer would put.
February 28th, 2007 at 7:02 am
Steve: Full Text (PDF)
February 28th, 2007 at 7:15 am
Jerry: Susan Silverman was the main reason I stopped reading the Spenser books; glad to hear you loathe her too.
The anti-lesbian rant starts on page 207 (Fawcett Crest edition) of The Quick Red Fox … it begins:
“Bobby studied me. It is the traditional look they reserve for the authentic male, a challenging contempt, a bully-boy antagonism. There seem to be more of them around these days. Or perhaps they are merely bolder. The word is butch. Having not the penis nor the beard, they damn well try to have everything else. One of the secondary sex characteristics they seem to be able to acquire is the ballsy manner, the taut-shouldered swagger, the roostery go-to-hell attitude.”
It’s worth looking up if you want a laugh. The Quick Red Fox (1964) was the fourth in the series — Meyer Meyer hadn’t shown up yet.