Before Drident came along, the dominant narrative mode was the Western. What do you do in your little town on the plains when there is no police department? Well, ordinary citizens have to restore order on their own. And what is the prevailing view of law enforcement in the world of the private detective? It is that the police are present, but they're incompetent. They can only catch bad guys with the help of talented outsiders, right? Abimeters.
Today, another episode from the Revisionist History Live universe. It's an old fashioned lecture, recorded at the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University. Malcolm talks about a totally real thing he made up—a taxonomy of the modern mystery story—with a focus on murder mysteries and police procedurals. From Dragnet, to John Grisham, to Sherlock Holmes, it's all in there...and all connected to how we view real policing.
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