Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on May 19, 2020 20:26:05 GMT -8
I do believe our conception of the advantages of electronic book reads are pretty much the same.
As for Bosch, I do think you nailed the dynamic. I think you could draw a U-shaped curve...the best novels at the start, lesser quality toward the middle, and better toward the end.
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Post by artraveler on May 20, 2020 13:05:02 GMT -8
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. What Connelly has done with Bosch is create a character who carries the values we used to attribute ti liberalism. And there are two Bosch's the Bosch of the TV series is a veteran of the Gulf War and the Bosch of the books is a veteran of Vietnam. In the LAPD of the book Bosch is not as much out of touch as in the TV series. The book Bosch lives in the LA of the 70s, 80s the culture of LA was much different than today. So, in a sense you're correct the Bosch of the book could not make it in the LAPD as the Bosch of the 2000s. Keep in mind that the book Bosch was a tunnel rat in Vietnam most of these guys who lived to come home had the worst cases of PTSD, they are the old guys who drank for 40 years, never could hold a job and died on the street.
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Brad Nelson
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Bosch
May 20, 2020 13:09:43 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on May 20, 2020 13:09:43 GMT -8
Thanks for the Boschology.
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kungfuzu
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Bosch
May 20, 2020 13:19:14 GMT -8
Post by kungfuzu on May 20, 2020 13:19:14 GMT -8
That goes to my point. The Bosch in the book is simply too broken/crazy to have lasted in the LAPD. The man does not seem to be able to recover from his mother's being a whore, her murder, his time in juvenile homes and foster care and finally as a tunnel rat.
It could be said that because of his horrible childhood and time in Vietnam that he has developed a fixation with "finding the truth and doing what is right" as a way of tethering himself to the world. But his idea of "truth and what is right" has little to do with what the LAPD considers to be true and right.
I think Bosch would have been more believable as a Phillip Marlow or Sam Spade type of P.I.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on May 20, 2020 13:51:08 GMT -8
I think that a guy like this fascinates Connolly (as it should). And if your mother was killed (and was a whore), that’s going to possibly be a deep motivation for seeking justice for others as well as taking on project cases as Bosch has done. I’m good with all that.
And if all this happened in the 80’s, maybe a guy like Bosch fits into the system still, if somewhat precariously. In the Dirty Harry films (1971) we got a glimpse perhaps into the exact time that cops were being put on the defensive while criminals were considered more of a victim. Harry was just trying to do his job and all the bosses ever did was complain about it. Everything in that film came to pass in spades.
Whatever the flaws in the characters and stories, Bosch remains a constant foil of the bureaucrats. Bosch has integrity and is motivated by a proper sense of justice. Most of his superiors come off as amoral idiots (at best) who are much more interested in avoiding controversy, advancing their careers, and inflating the crime statistics in their favor. Fighting crime is an afterthought, at best.
I would venture to say that no man or woman of integrity could possibly make it very far in public service or in a medium-to-large corporation today. You just can’t say that. But so many things are needed to be said. The ground floor is now political correctness. Objective notions of right and wrong have been almost replaced by the politics of perception.
I would have done somersaults and backflips had Connelly taken on more of these issues in his books. But he mostly didn’t. And so they feel thin at times. It’s as if Bosch has so much he could say but does not…so he punches a wall once in a while. Connelly thus seems constrained upstream by political correctness himself.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jun 25, 2020 19:55:46 GMT -8
"Nine Dragons" by Michael Connelly _____________________________________________________
Harry Bosch is called to a murder scene in which an older Chinese man is found dead in his liquor store in South L.A. Bosch takes a special interest in the case as the dead man had performed a small act of kindness toward Harry some twenty years before.
From the appearance of things, Bosch believes the murder might be related to the Triads, i.e. the Chinese mafia. He receives a text warning him off the case and threatening him if he doesn't drop it. Shortly after receiving this warning, Bosch receives a photo of his daughter gagged and tied to a chair. As his daughter lives with her mother, Bosch's ex wife, in Hongkong, Harry is convinced of Triad involvement. Bosch is going to Hong Kong.
Before he leaves, Bosch checks with a friend in the department who uses modern technology to give Bosch some facts to work with when he arrives in Hong Kong, including the general location of the building in which the photo was taken.
With this and US$5,000 cash in hand, Bosch flies to Hong Kong where his ex wife meets him. Along with her she brings some muscle in the shape of Sun Yee. The ex-Mrs. Bosch is now a professional gambler and is a big drawn for the local high-rollers who frequent the casinos of Macao, one of which she works for. Thus the need of a body-guard in the shape of Mr. Sun.
They have only one or two days to find their daughter and save her from the evil Triads. Most of the balance of the book deals with Bosch's elephantine handling of things. Bosch makes the proverbial Bull in a China shop look graceful by comparison. A stranger in a strange land, he doesn't seem to understand he just may not have a grasp on how things work in the Far East. Worse still, he won't listen, at least not at the beginning.
I must admit that the more I read the Bosch series the less real Bosch is. The man does incredibly stupid things. His philosophy is "keep moving." But as anyone who has lived more than twenty years knows, constant movement without much thought generally leads to failure if not disaster. Of course, there is plenty of Hamfisted-Harry disaster in the Bosch books, but the lion's share of this is visited upon those unfortunate enough to be around Bosch. If Connelly were more realistic, Bosch's idiocy would have led to Bosch ending up as a security guard, or dead, long ago.
As to Connelly's handling of Hong Kong, I can only say it did not ring very true. Yes, he mentions several well known areas and buildings, but to my mind they were only used like some haphazardly painted scenery in a play which needed a little bit of the exotic to keep the audience interested. Perhaps not a bad motive, but I think the story should be more important that the sets.
All this is not to say that Connelly is a bad writer. He isn't. His story flows along and the book is very easy to read. I finished it in a couple of days, for which I am very happy. Had it taken much longer I think I might have felt some of my time had been wasted.
I am now finished with the Bosch series and will move on to greener pastures. I have already read Dumas' "Twenty Years After" which deals with the Three Musketeers twenty years after the first book. It is full of incredible coincidence and nonsense, but to my taste, it is better than anything in the Bosch catalogue. Dumas is writing pure romance and does not try to disguise it, whereas Connelly is trying to pretend he is writing "realistic" fiction, but is in fact writing romance. If I am going to read romance, I want something that is true to the form and honest.
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Bosch
Jun 25, 2020 21:16:51 GMT -8
Post by timothylane on Jun 25, 2020 21:16:51 GMT -8
I assume this means you've also read The Three Musketeers. In one of my high school French readers, we had an excerpt from Twenty Years After, the escape of the Duke of Beaufort (based on an actual incident), which is split over several chapters. When I later read the book, I recognized those portions.
After that came Ten Years After, also called The Vicomte de Bragelonne, which is usually divided into 3 large volumes concluding with The Man in the Iron Mask. (That's also based on a real incident, and in fact one book I read on it suggested that the man was actual General Charles de Batz, Sieur D'Artagnan, himself. The man showed up in the Bastille right after D'Artagnan was reported killed in battle. Dumas includes his (official) death at the end of the book. The book suggested that Louis XIII not only disliked his wife but wasn't inclined toward women anyway, which would mean Louis XIV probably wasn't his son and thus wasn't the legitimate king -- if the theory is right. Supposedly D'Artagnan had learned about it.)
Incidentally, in the last novel, Dumas has a nice scene in which Colbert explains his own goals -- and his objection to the corruption of previous officials. As a romantic with a touch of realism, Dumas appreciated the competence and skill Richelieu, Colbert, and even Mazarin provided even if he preferred the alternatives emotionally.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 26, 2020 7:20:59 GMT -8
So, Mr. Flu, you blew through the Bosch series. That earns you at least two Gold Stars in the book-of-the-month club. Those stars can be redeemed for old books that I find lying around. So keep those stars in your possession.
I picked up The Three Musketeers a couple yeas ago and didn't get very far before I was distracted by something else. Maybe I should revisit it.
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Bosch
Jun 26, 2020 7:38:44 GMT -8
Post by timothylane on Jun 26, 2020 7:38:44 GMT -8
Remember, The Three Musketeers is just the first novel of a series spanning over 30 years, from the siege of La Rochelle to the Dutch War. It's based on a real person; in fact, Dumas was inspired by reading an alleged autobiography of D'Artagnan, a French general. He was especially fascinated by the names of the 3 guardsmen (Porthos, Athos, and Aramis), which he assumed (wrongly) were aliases. But the actual events began in the 1640s, and the details were probably almost entirely fictional.
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kungfuzu
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Bosch
Jun 26, 2020 8:38:42 GMT -8
Post by kungfuzu on Jun 26, 2020 8:38:42 GMT -8
I find The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After the kind of books that you can read a while, put down for days and then pick up and get back into the story without missing a beat. They should be read in a leisurely manner, in a nice relaxing chair, with a cup of coffee or glass of wine. They are what I would call historical fantasy.
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kungfuzu
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Jun 26, 2020 8:39:57 GMT -8
Post by kungfuzu on Jun 26, 2020 8:39:57 GMT -8
I started this book last night.
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Brad Nelson
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Bosch
Jun 26, 2020 9:34:33 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 26, 2020 9:34:33 GMT -8
Luckily, Mr. Flu, my electronic book readers will (generally) save my place, although sometimes this gets bollixed up. If I wanted to pick back up The Three Musketeers, it should have kept my place....if I can remember which book reader I used.
I just finished a book so I'm on the lookout for another.
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Bosch
Jun 26, 2020 11:00:08 GMT -8
Post by timothylane on Jun 26, 2020 11:00:08 GMT -8
Just remember that this is almost invariably published as the first volume of the novel, followed by Louise de la Valliere and The Man in the Iron Mask.
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Brad Nelson
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Bosch
Nov 18, 2020 8:50:34 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on Nov 18, 2020 8:50:34 GMT -8
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Bosch
Nov 18, 2020 8:57:41 GMT -8
Post by timothylane on Nov 18, 2020 8:57:41 GMT -8
I don't know if the LAPD needs Bosch, but the city would probably be a lot better off if it were the LA of the series.
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Bosch
Nov 18, 2020 9:35:07 GMT -8
Post by kungfuzu on Nov 18, 2020 9:35:07 GMT -8
That was a nice article. There were a couple of good observations in it. One I particularly liked was:
It is exactly Father Brown's use of "moral" tools that is missing in the recent British "Father Brown" series.
A couple of days back, I read that the filming of the final series has been delayed by the KFF panic. I wonder how long this will go on.
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Brad Nelson
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Bosch
Nov 18, 2020 9:58:15 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on Nov 18, 2020 9:58:15 GMT -8
One of the commenters there sort of was of my mind: The first couple of seasons were fine but then it began to "diversify" itself into the typical silliness you see on TV. He recommends Goliath with Billy Bob Thornton. I haven't seen that but it's also on Amazon Prime Video. I'll check out the first episode and report back. That is an interesting point about Bosch's moral outlook. To me, his appeal is very simple: He doesn't rationalize or fuzz-up the difference between good guys and bad guys. However, he works inside a system he has to fight in order to pursue the law and justice, the bureaucracy filled with those who have anything but law-and-order on their minds.
And isn't that pretty typical of what we see these days? My god, look at the hell-hole that is Seattle or Portland. You might think that somewhere in those cities there is at least one Bosch. But I would think he would be instantly booted out. And Bosch, of course, has been booted out a time or to. But he continues on. He has a firm sense of justice and right-and-wrong without being over-the-top about it. He's sort of a John Wayne type. He speaks softly but pursues his good aims with dogged determination and with a little jazz in the background. He's the opposite of all the over-the-top, girlified characters you see on TV— cop shows or otherwise.
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Bosch
Nov 18, 2020 10:40:37 GMT -8
Post by timothylane on Nov 18, 2020 10:40:37 GMT -8
It sounds a lot like Bosch is Harry Callahan transferred from Scat Francisco to Lost Angels.
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Brad Nelson
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Bosch
Nov 18, 2020 11:16:30 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on Nov 18, 2020 11:16:30 GMT -8
Both Harry Callahan and Harry Bosch worked against a bureaucracy that was often more interested in avoiding controversy than catching the bad guys. I think Callahan was more overtly pushing back against political correctness.
In the case of Bosch, he is a character written by an inside-the-liberal-California-beltway author, Michael Connolly. Bosch is Connolly’s experiment in defining a good man inside of (perhaps under the radar of) Progressive ideology. He sort of squints in his writing and makes it all work out — although we realize (although this is fiction) that you have to squint real hard to make a Bosch type of character ever work out in today’s PC environs.
Bosch never goes against Progressive ideology. He’s always nice to “people of color,” to female co-workers, etc., etc. He accepts the universe he lives in. As far as I recall, none of the bad guys in the police force were bad because they were Progressive nitwits who for for letting the thugs off the hook because, gosh, to arrest a black man for murder is somehow racist. Mr. Kung’s memory is probably better on this point.
Connolly walked a very fine line between Harry Callahan and political correctness. He didn’t always succeed. But those (such as us) who understand that the airwaves now are completely awash in political correctness, Connolly’s somewhat non-compliance with it stands out. Bosch, after all, was not an emasculated, effeminate cop whose concept of justice was letting a guy off simply because of the color of his skin. He had a clear sense of right and wrong that never could have led to anything like the attitude that police should be defunded and the thugs should be in charge of policing their own autonomous zones.
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kungfuzu
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Bosch
Nov 18, 2020 12:20:50 GMT -8
Post by kungfuzu on Nov 18, 2020 12:20:50 GMT -8
No, if there were a bad guys in the police force, and there were at least a couple, they were rotten for other reasons than being Progressives. Politicians and run-of-the-mill dirty cops come to mind. They were, of course, all white.
On the other hand, good guys, like Bosch's black lesbian partner (or was it his Latino partner who was a lesbian or was it both?), were not people out of Grant Wood's "American Gothic."
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