Jim Thompson has a lot of dark humor mixed into his best noir
books. I find some of the stuff funny as hell.
-Dave Z.
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Michael Robison
<miker_zspider@y...> wrote:
> Karin Montin wrote:
>
> Whereas humour is commonly held to be a
redeeming
> feature of either the noir hero or the noir
book.
> That's what I learned from a panel at
Bouchercon.
>
> *************
> Humor has been a frequent element in noir since
its
> inception. It comes in several flavors. Although
it
> can be of a bawdy nature like the funeral scene
in
> Faulkner's SANCTUARY, more often it emanates from
a
> cruel irony that seals the fate of a
doomed
> protagonist. After escaping a bona fide murder
rap,
> Frank's murder conviction for Cora's accidental
death
> in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE is a good
example.
> So is Stanton Carlisle's eventual demotion to the
job
> title that he so openly despises at the beginning
of
> NIGHTMARE ALLEY.
>
> It has been suggested that literature sporting
irony
> is more sophisticated than works lacking it. I'm
not
> sure if I agree with this or not. I sorta
lean
> towards thinking that irony is simply another
literary
> device in an author's bag of tricks, but I
definitely
> find irony in noir aesthetically satisfying
and
> downright entertaining.
>
> Charles Willeford did more for noir humor than
any
> other writer I have read.
>
> miker
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 22 Oct 2004 EDT