Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned | Literary Precedents

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned Literary Precedents

Socrates is a larger-than-life hero in the grand tradition of countless Western films and novels, whose cowboy characters doggedly pursue justice according to a clear-cut code of right and wrong. A resemblance also exists between Socrates and the traditional detective hero—Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe (The Big Sleep, 1939; see separate entry), for example—who seeks solutions on crimeridden, urban "mean streets." What differentiates these heroic types from Socrates is their ability to solve matters at hand. Part of the grandeur of Socrates lies in the fact that he is uniquely hampered by the racist corruption of standards of moral decency, and the gains that he makes must remain minimal at best.

In its episodic format, Mosley's work shares points of comparison with Sherwood Anderson's ground-breaking Winesburg, Ohio (1919; see separate entry). Anderson also largely dispensed with plot when he wrote his tales that, like Mosley's, can stand alone or...
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