Emotions and the femme fatale

Watching series four of David Simon’s crime series The Wire (which boasts George Pelecanos amongst its writing staff) recently, a thought occurred to me – how emotionally involved should Don Findy become in his detective works? In the last episode of series four of The Wire, ‘Final Grades’, it really hits home how some of the detectives have become emotionally involved in not just the crimes they are investigating, but the criminals themselves. We see how Carver breaks down when Randy is put into a foster home, McNulty’s rage when he finds out Bodie has been shot, Kima’s constant assistance of Bubs, and how Colvin asks Namond’s father to take him off the streets.

How involved are Findy’s fellow detectives? Knight argues that Hammett’s Sam Spade’s ‘friendship with Archer and affair with his wife appear to have no personal emotive meaning, and that brutal isolation, and a sense of automaton-like rectitude, is the point of the famous ending; Sam Spade asserts a form of communal duty that is also a threat to his own personal happiness when he finally decides to turn in for murder the woman he probably loves.’ (Crime Fiction, 1800-2000; Detection, Death, Diversity - Page 116)

So even if his personal feelings become involved, the case would still hold more importance. Maybe these are areas that can be blurred and played with within the genre, especially when referring to a femme fatale such as Miss Wonderly. Like Knight says, ‘in the private eye novels [of Hammett and Chandler]… the deepest threats faced by private eyes, come from personal betrayals, mostly by women.’ (Page 112) Hence, I should probably start building up my female character a lot more and start fleshing out her first scene and how she should appear to Findy and the reader. I had already planned for the Toni character to be a major part of the story and deceitful, I just need to think more carefully on how. Also, Findy's emotions towards her and how they may and may not effect the case.

Also, Knight gives us a source for Camus’ The Outsider having been inspired by Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice, he refers us to David Madden’s 1970 book James M. Cain.

Ant fact: Termites, unlike ants, have a king and queen which stay together after mating, whereas in ants the male dies. (Source: Ants by Ray North, page 8)