Re: RARA-AVIS: Noir Horror?

From: Doug Bassett ( dj_bassett@yahoo.com)
Date: 07 Feb 2000


Yeah, but you know, I personally would like to see something more from a blending of hb and horror than simply the insertion of supernatural things into a hardboiled world. Such books (at least in my opinion) tend to degenerate into basic action thrillers with the supernatural tossed in as flavoring. I'd like to see an authentic horror tale told with a hardboiled sensibility. (Which means what? I'm not sure -- short sentences? Limited use of interior monologues? A cynical outlook?) I think such an unholy marriage might actually jumpstart the horror genre, giving it a new lease on life.

doug (thinking out loud).

--- Z0MB0Y@aol.com wrote:
> Both Lovecraft and Matheson have said that in order
> to have an effective
> weird story, everything about the story except the
> supernatural element
> (singular) should be normal. It often seems to be
> more a case of a
> supernatural element entering a Hard-boiled world. I
> recently read Fritz
> Leiber's "An Automatic Pistol" about a guy whose
> handgun was his familiar,
> and avenged his murder. It was very H-B in every
> other respect, and I saw no
> conflict. Horror is an emotion, Hard-boiled (and
> Noir) are worldviews and
> styles of writing. They aren't mutually exclusive
> all, but very complimentary.

===== Doug Bassett dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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