Ron Goulart
Hawkshaw

I don't know if and how active he is today as a writer (he was born in 1933), but over the years Ron Goulart has been what we could call an indefatigable author as well as particularly 'versatile', meaning that from the outset he has dabbled in various works and literary genres. He has written mysteries and science fiction novels, and others drawn from famous comic book works like Flash Gordon, Phantom, Vampirella. He has also written for and collaborated directly with Marvel Comics. And given the vastness and heterogeneity of his works, in addition to the fact that many of these have been published over the years under pseudonyms, it follows that creating a complete reconstruction of his work is particularly complex. If not impossible. If we can, however, recognize a constant and identifiable trait of his style in all these works, it surely lies in the constant use of a certain humor, an irony that sometimes becomes a unique form of optimism. Surely a way to handle seemingly catastrophic situations in a light and unconventional manner. Essentially, I would say that if today we talk about humorous sci-fi in some cases, it is largely due to his contribution to the genre.

Urania began to take an interest in this author and practically published his genre novels in series starting in the late seventies, which were perhaps the author's most productive years in the genre. Something that is not coincidental, considering the settings of his novels. Stories that could be considered futurological sci-fi works and mostly set in situations that could hypothetically be the worst crises during those years of the sixties and by extension the seventies. Practically the years of the Cold War and generally considered in Western society as years of great change also in the way of understanding politics and thoroughly exploring its contents and mechanisms.

Since this novel here, 'Hawkshaw', was written in 1972 and is set in a United States completely disrupted due to an internal crisis, more specifically in what would be the reformed old 'thirteen colonies', and given the recent elections in the USA which led to the victory of a questionable character like Donald Trump, someone could clearly consider that the themes addressed could still today be a current literary subject. Although Donald Trump (as U.S. president and beyond) is a 'particular' type of character, he is nonetheless part of the American system, is still one of its representatives and his election is not detached from the structures and functioning of the Made in USA society, there is no figure that directly corresponds to him in this work. But I would say that this could just as easily be a mere coincidence in the author's imagination, because Goulart, always employing his usual irony, a timidly masked intelligence, generally always targets the 'powerful' in his works. Indeed, perhaps he does so even in this case, apparently directing his attention elsewhere but delving deeply into complex topics such as corporatism and associationism and how this last 'practice' in the USA from the foundation of democracy has instead become a kind of puppet behind which always hide third-party interests of more or less legitimate power groups. Aside from all this, however, before proceeding, it is important to emphasize that 'Hawkshaw' is mostly a parodic work; expecting too much would be dishonest, primarily I suggest reading this book solely for entertainment and without too many other pretenses. Which perhaps, who knows, is the best way to approach all things.

The protagonist of 'Hawkshaw' is a journalist named Noah Kraft (deliberately recurrent in this work is the use of names with biblical references or in any case to the Catholic religion) who works in the 'Dig Deep' editorial section of his newspaper and is asked to investigate the appearance of a werewolf in the Connecticut colony. A piece of news that would generally be considered suited for the 'Superficial News' editorial, but his boss, Hal San Francesco, known for having a particular nose for the news even where apparently there is none, wanted to entrust him believing that the incident hides particular and unexpected twists.

The figure of Noah is not particularly sketched out and described, like everything in this novel, which consists practically more of absurdly-themed dialogues (one might think of some of Douglas Adams's works to get the idea) and description of situations teetering between the frightening and the thrilling, and on the other hand the ridiculous; rather than in introspection of the characters and their 'reasons' and/or in breathtaking action sequences. Which nonetheless are not lacking.

As San Francesco hypothesized, indeed, what Noah thought might be a mere piece of fashion news with no hidden interest or worth investigating by the journalistic tradition to 'dig deep', will instead prove to be the start of an exciting and at the same time complex (perhaps too much so...) spy story, which will lead him to travel through the thirteen colonies and clash with all the absurd realities that followed the dissolution of the American system and in which now essentially two factions with some actual political interest confront each other: the dominant one, the FRH (Robin Hood Foundation), led by the dark personality of George Washington II, practically oriented to emerge and take control of this situation, ruling without restoring the democratic status quo. And one that is a democratically oriented faction, acting mostly in a covert manner and strongly leaning on satirical propaganda systems and behind which it is believed a mysterious character named Hawkshaw operates, of whom practically everyone knows very little.

It is certainly not this author's most successful or popular work, which constructs a plot that, due to the numerous situations and cases represented, becomes inevitably confusing. From time to time, Noah Kraft will deal with increasingly strange situations and puzzles of which he will manage to untie the knots in an almost passive way, swept away as he will be by the momentum and speed of events. There will be plenty of typical sci-fi elements and not only of the humorous genre. Of which, however, as already said, he can be considered one of the founding fathers. There are robots that continually change look seeking the approval of their interlocutors and talk about their troubled family life; cannibals, devotees of what could be defined as a dedicated TV program and archetype of modern cooking shows on TV (truth be told, it reminded me of two radically different cinematic episodes, but both with ironic and at the same time grotesque contours, namely the famous scene from Gabriele Salvatores's film 'Nirvana' where the unfortunate Solo desperately tries to convince the organ traders to let them go with Diego Abatantuono's typical style; the unforgettable scene of the Beverly Hills surgeon in 'Escape From Los Angeles'; the usual Italian mafiosi from New Jersey, divided among themselves in associations according to Italian provenance and as always a precious source of information for any self-respecting investigative journalist who knows which sources to consult.

In conclusion, 'Hawkshaw' certainly cannot be considered a work of apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic science fiction. Although the settings, in essence, are those of an America disrupted by unspecified events, everything in this work has contents that are actually satirical and parodistic and in particular of that phenomenon which has today almost become a matter of reputation and evident public domain compared to the sixties-seventies regarding the world of 'lobbies', practically those associations and organizations of people who influence institutions in a pressing manner according to their particular and personal interests and whose rationale is clearly mainly in safeguarding and promoting the interests of power groups and financial interests. From this point of view, although I mentioned Donald Trump earlier as a 'particular' figure in this specific context, this does not mean that he is a man outside the system. On the contrary. Perhaps he is one who is in it too much and practically always has been (after all, he has been a supporter of both the Republican and Democratic parties historically): in a certain sense, Donald Trump is himself the representation of all the faults of the American system. Faults that he himself recognizes and candidly admits to using for his own purposes within the limits allowed by the legal system. According to many commentators (including Italians) in the aftermath of his victory in the elections, this would have occurred because among the American electorate he would have represented a sort of 'homo novus' (but his appointments following the electoral victory are clearly in line with the wishes of power groups and historical supporters and financiers of the Republican Party) and a break with an institutional figure like Hillary Clinton entrenched in U.S. political schemes since the 'watergate' times and therefore inevitably linked and bound to the balance of power of the lobbies and moreover already twice first-lady, although betrayed and later reconciled with Bill 'The Great Communicator' Clinton. Who in turn would be Donald Trump's political model! What a mess. It would almost seem like a plot suitable for one of Ron Goulart's stories.