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Re : RARA-AVIS: Michael Collins/Japanese hardboiled fiction



Jiro Kimuro wrote :

> I don't know what the term "hardboiled" really means, but I don't like to
> use the term "noir" for the same kind of fiction.

Yes, hardboiled and noir may overlapse in some works of fiction, but they
basically belong to two different aesthetic conceptions. IMHO, noir refers to
the dark mood of a story, and harboiled refers more a "dry", tough guy
no-nonsense style of writing. And the fact that the adjective "noir" wasn't
coined until after the war doesn't mean that some pre-war stories weren't
"noir" rather than "hardboiled". Most genres or schools weren't named before
critics had enough historic perspective to clearly see and define a trend
that occured in a particular period and place. In that light, hardboiled was
just the style of writing used by most "pulpish" american mystery writers in
the '30s.

> Anyway, it is very interesting that everyone
> has a different conception and definition of "hardboiled."  Maybe it is
> like love or happiness:  there is no absolute definition.

Yes ! Maybe the best we can do is some impressionist defintion of the term.

Hardboiled is... a tough guy waiting on a dark street corner, lighting a
cigarette.

Laurent
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