In Popular Culture
Novelist Donald E. Westlake, who wrote scores of books in which the caper heist is the central plot and who featured the popular fictional character John Dortmunder, a professional planner of thefts, did somewhat glamorize theft as a way of life. In Westlake's comedic novels, the fence is portrayed in extremely negative lights. Dortmunder's usual fence, Arnie Albright, "was a fellow with a distinct personality problem." He is so repellent that his own family members raise enough money for a "personality intervention" to take place at a Club Med resort in the Caribbean area. Arnie's cousin, Archie, explains that they want to cure him of "his obnoxiousness."
In a non-series novel, Westlake writes of another, even more repulsive character:
As fences go, Jersey Josh Kuskiosko was no more scuzzy than the average. As human beings go, of course, Jersey Josh was just about at the bottom of the barrel, down there in the muck and the filth and the fetid stink where thoughts just naturally arise of retroactive abortion. But as far as fences are concerned, he wasn't bad.Read more about this topic: Fence (criminal)
Famous quotes containing the words popular and/or culture:
“Resorts advertised for waitresses, specifying that they “must appear in short clothes or no engagement.” Below a Gospel Guide column headed, “Where our Local Divines Will Hang Out Tomorrow,” was an account of spirited gun play at the Bon Ton. In Jeff Winney’s California Concert Hall, patrons “bucked the tiger” under the watchful eye of Kitty Crawhurst, popular “lady” gambler.”
—Administration in the State of Colo, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The white dominant culture seemed to think that once the Indians were off the reservations, they’d eventually become like everybody else. But they aren’t like everybody else. When the Indianness is drummed out of them, they are turned into hopeless drunks on skid row.”
—Elizabeth Morris (b. c. 1933)