At 11:51 AM 22/10/2004 -0400, Mark wrote:
I laugh out loud all the time while reading Ken Bruen, Joe
Lansdale, Jason Starr and, most recently, Charlie WiIliams's
Deadfolk.
Yeah, I think humour is primal and can only be described as
that which makes us laugh (aloud or otherwise.) And what
makes it dark?
"Although that's a joke, much of his (Pryor's) humor is based
on laughing at life's absurdities, as is much of the humor in
noir."
Okay, laughing at the dark things in life, its absurdities
etc. but the prime characteristic that makes life and humour
dark is that we are laughing without trying to do anything
about these absurdities etc. We can only laugh and accept
them. Laughter is a defense mechanism that lets us
"whistle past the graveyard," as you say. It helps us to
endure, or survive.
Yes, humour is all over noir (or the opposite) but is it
essential? It may be essential to the genre as a whole (I
can't envision many people reading a lot of noir without the
help of this defense mechanism) but may not be essential to
each individual work within the genre. I'm thinking, say,
Last Exit Brooklyn. I've only seen the movie and it certainly
seemed noir to me, without any humour I can recall. Don't
think I could watch or read many like this in a row without
some Willeford and Thompson in the mix somewhere, though.
Then again, maybe there's an overview of ironic humour to
Last Exit?
I am thinking, however, that humour is the useful response to
critics of the genre who ask how we can read this stuff when
it denies hope as it does. Just don't tell them they're the
joke. They get all huffy, then violent (see CSI Miami.)
Best Kerry- who likes to think he's past his huffy
stage.
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