Bosch

Mr. Flu, I’m impressed by, even a bit intimidated by, the voraciousness of your reading. I know this isn’t a competition, but if it was, I’d throw in the towel. You (and Artler) have been awarded the I Know More About Bosch Than You Do award. This is (or should be) more prized than the Oscar which is handed out by a bunch of libtards on the basis of how politically correct you are.

I hope people take your advice and read some of those novels you suggested. Having worked as a beat writer, including three years at the Los Angeles Socialist Times, it shouldn’t be surprising if Connelly has a somewhat jaundiced view toward the police.

My own thoughts are that he probably soft-pedaled it a bit (things are much worse than portrayed) in order to have better access to the police. I just assume he did lots of interviews with cops and ex-cops, went on lots of ride-alongs, etc. As Artler said, if you want to see realistic policing, Bosch novels are a good avenue. And so I had always assumed (perhaps wrongly) that he had strong ties with the police.

At the end of the day, his main character is a man who is decidedly non-namby-pamby, is not easily intimidated by bureaucracy or swayed by careerism, and simply wants to do what is right and is willing to take great risks in order to do so. Although Connolly can’t get past his own political correctness, he does bring to life a more-or-less standard American male hero.

My habit it is to read a little in the armchair before going to bed. I usually get in a half hour or longer. Right now I’m reading another Charles Todd book, Legacy of the Dead. I admit to being a glutton for punishment in regards to Inspector Ian Rutledge.

A few weeks ago I finished another Ian Rutledge novel, Hunting Shadows. It more or less held together (for a Charles Todd novel).

With Charles Todd, he has a way of writing that is readable. It’s his plots that typically suffer from burn-out, sometimes fairly early in the novel. But I pick up (or try) so many novels from various authors, many of which I can’t stay with for over two paragraphs. I mean, the writing is so obviously drenched in disinterest that I just can’t bare to go on.

In Legacy of the Dead (typical of a Todd novel), he gets right to it. So although I’m quite sure this novel with run into the ditch at some point, sometimes the ditch is not so deep.

I think Connelly has the same thing going. He’s basically readable although sometimes his plotting can be tedious. But each paragraph, by and large, is not like trying to walk through a fly-paper tangle of ill-considered thinking.

Wow. You have been a busy beaver regarding your reading. That’s most excellent, Mr. 1984 Flu. Regarding Bosch, it’s interesting watching Connelly thread the needle between political correctness and writing a more Dirty Harryesque character.

Given today’s climate, it seems likely that a Bosch wouldn’t last five minutes in the LAPD. That said, he does tend to move around a lot, eventually ending up in the small-town San Fernando Police Department where he is all but exiled, but tolerated because he’s so damn useful at solving crimes.



I’m surprised the books are as good as they are. Obviously his writing is constrained by catering to political correctness. A more outspoken and grittier narrative would have been much more interesting to read. I think that’s why his offshoot female charter is so dreadfully dull. She’s female. What else is there to write?

I got about 35% into Trunk Music and then my check-out time expired. Do you think I should finish it?

Joseph Campbell was certainly no conservative. And overall I would have to call him a useful idiot, at best, for the Left. But he did try to do an objective look at mythology and what it means for human societies and individual lives.

I know it’s horribly insulting to ascribe “mythology” to any belief, including religious belief, because “mythology” has come to mean “fabricated.” But Campbell, to his credit, goes much deeper than that. Basically, he might say, whatever is ultimately true is one thing. But “ultimate truth” is a little hard for human beings to grasp, particularly because we don’t have the powers of perception to grasp it with much clarity.

But deep concepts do seep in via our mythology. Whether that mythology is grounded in real people and events, or is instead analogous (such as the Garden of Eden, for example), there is (or can be) a truth within the mythology, which might well indeed connect back to ultimate truth — seeing through a glass darkly.

So with that in mind, we might look at our present circumstances regarding Leftists and Progressives as a case of them living by their own particular mythology. And certainly something being a mythology doesn’t mean it’s inherently good and contains ultimate truths. I think it’s obvious there is bad mythology as well, and that the Left is full of it.

But these myths do provide a framework for people to live by. It is not wrong (as you noted by an article you recently posted) to see cultish behavior in the doubling-down by some to wear a mask despite increasing evidence that they not only do no good but likely do harm. The same with locking down society. This cult is guided by certain myths.

Connolly is steeped in the mythology of the Left. Despite that, he is somehow able to imagine a character of virtue, guts, determination, and a sense of real (not fake) justice. That he lathers so much of his prose with PC is possibly something he’s not even aware of. He’s inside the myth, not outside of it looking in as we are.

Okay. When that comes off “hold,” I’ll pick it up again. Thanks.



It’s nice to be challenged trying to put some find-grained perceptions into words. There is indeed something odd, possibly dishonest, about the Bosch character quite apart from whether or not he would survive LAPD’s bureaucracy.

He’s a man willing to face danger….but can’t bare to tell his Snowflake daughter anything harsh. Maybe Connolly should be credited here with his realism, but such things tend to put discrepancies in Bosch’s character.

I have to admit, I think Bosch’s character was very well written during his time working in the San Fernando Police Department. It was as if the pressure was off and he could just be himself. He was accepted for being somewhat of an oddball (by LAPD standards) and left to do his job, and called on when needed. But he was finally respected for his skill and determination.

It perhaps shows that Connolly could have easily spun off Bosch as a private eye years ago…and possibly should have. Perhaps we’re all longing for more of a “Bosch unbound.” That’s why I loved his work with his half-brother, especially when Bosch was working for the defense.

But, yeah, some of the storyline involving women are weak and not particularly interesting. Still, I know I cut Connolly a lot of slack simply because I have a hard time finding anything decent to read.



Clearly Connolly throws in a few Character McGuffins….just to move the plot along. One of the books ends with him assaulting a superior. The next book picks up (I think) with him coming off suspension. I think it’s perhaps hard for Connolly to write a conservative character through anything more than the lens of stereotype, at least at times. Maybe in his mind, people who are conservatives are all boiling with anger and waiting to lash out. I don’t know. But if they were in a PC atmosphere like the LAPD, it would be normal to be boiling with anger. Unfortunately, Connolly’s palette is too narrow to write introspectively about this. It would be fun to get inside Bosch’s head about the nonsense. But all we get is an unpredictable punch in the wall. It’s a cheat and I think you detect that aspect, Mr. 1984 Flu.

I do know that I’ve mostly enjoyed what I’ve read and am pretty much done with the series, perhaps Trunk Music excepted. Famous last words. I keep going back to the Ian Rutledge series hoping against hope that this time the author won’t get bogged down in fine-toothed introspection by Rutledge about who might have done what and why. Instead of moving the plot along, you get mired in this sort of stuff. And I finally had to pull the plug on the latest book (the second time I’ve done that with one of his books, a couple others I wished I had done so earlier).

It’s like (mea culpa) getting on the internet (or a Kevin Williamson or Jonah Goldberg article) and trying to cut through the thick weeds of a guy too enamored with the sound of his own voice (or writing). My approach (however fallible I am implementing it) is to try to relate an idea to another and not just engage in narcissistic writing.