> This list is supposed to welcome discussions of
both
> hardboiled/PI/police fiction AND noir fiction. I've
been thinking about
> the very different views of life that these writers
depict. Lately,
> we've discussed the difference between Chandler and
Hammmet. Not much
> difference there - except in style. But try to
compare the PI-novels -
> where something is wrong and the PI corrects the
wrong and everybody's
> happy in the end - with the Goodis/McCoy/Thompson
view of life. These
> ways of writing - these problems that are described
- and the solutions
> to the problems, they are so very different! I'm not
saying anything's
> wrong, anybody can discuss anything, but don't you
agree that we're
> discussing literature with fundamentally different
views of life on this
> list?
>
> Regards,
> Geir Glosvik
If I may interject...I think
the world-view of both Noir and Hard-Boiled fiction is one in
which the "World" portrayed is essentially an evil one. The
world of Cain and Woolrich and Thompson is one of despair,
bitterness and corruption. The typical Noir/Hard-Boiled
protagonist is often viewed as a "White Knight" out to right
wrongs and do justice. I think this is partially
mistaken.
The typical protagonist in both
kinds of stories can not always be describes as a "Good"
fighting "Evil." One of the greatest characters I've ever
seen created (in one of the hardest of the hard-boiled novels
I've ever read) is a corrupt gangster named Gerry Kells in
Paul Cain's "Fast One." There is no attempt at all in this
novel to portray Kells as anything but a crook.
Same is true of one of -
in my opinion - the hardest hard-boiled novels ever written.
"Solomon's Vinyard" by Jonathan Lattimer. While the
protagonist here is, in fact, a PI, he most assuredly cannot
be described as someone trying to right wrongs.
The point is this: Characters,
I think, should be described as
"Hard-Boiled." They are tough, gritty, purposeful men (and
sometimes women)who make their own rules and follow their own
sense of justice.
Novels and stories, on the other hand, I think are best
described as
"Noir" as the plots and situations portrayed in the
"world-view" setting of corruption and evil create in the
reader what Chandler called "a smell of fear."
Simply stated, characters are
Hard-Boiled. Novels are Noir. Opinions?
Alan
-- # Plain ASCII text only, please. Anything else won't show up. # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 13 Dec 2003 EST