Re: RARA-AVIS: Noir Horror?

From: Philip Benz ( Philip.Benz@wanadoo.fr)
Date: 05 Feb 2000


a.n. sez:
<< The professor said about my thought, "To equate pulp with gothic is to do violence to both terms." Which I think is a pretty awful thing to say. Gothic and noir share so many elements, but because of the "feminization" of gothic early on, they sort of laughed my comments off, as they were moreinterested in talking about gender issues and historical perspective in defining what gothic is. >>

Golly, seems to me there is quite a bit in common between the gothic and noir genres. They may not always use the same techniques in their efforts to generate anxiety, but that doesn't mean you can't even discuss the terms. As far as that goes, any attempts to "do violence to both terms" would probably do them a world of good.

While we might have some trouble finding common ground between Radcliffe and Ellroy, who could deny the importance of *investigation* as a plot tool (to take just one example) in such gothic classics as Stoker's
_Dracula_ or much of Lovecraft's longer fiction. Sure, Jonathan Harker and Dr Van Helsing are a far cry from the hard-boiled detective. But it isn't that hard to imagine a hard-boiled, noirish gothic novel. All we need is to get Spade bitten by a vampire so he could investigate his own murder. I think Cairo, Gutman and Wilmer would all look *great* in black capes...

Cheers, --- Phil, who's lost his mind for a moment Lyc饠Astier, Aubenas, France

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