Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: This Sporting Life.... Noir and Class

From: Steve Novak ( Cinefrog@comcast.net)
Date: 20 Feb 2008


In other words, I mean in other word, noir and harboiled are stories of alienation (as in Œcrime¹).... How¹s that?

Montois

On 2/20/08 6:48 PM, "Patrick King" < abrasax93@yahoo.com> wrote:
        I'd say much more than "class, colour, money,
> education, status and sex," the clashes that occur in
> noir and hardboiled fiction are between the lucky and
> the unlucky in life. Most stories concern someone
> who's been very lucky or unlucky, and how their luck
> shifts and then shifts back. Sometimes the shift
> occurs due to hard work and intelligent planning
> (Mildren Pierce, The Godfather), Or criminal activity
> (The Grifters, Postman Always Rings Twice), but
> suddenly something that looks like great good fortune
> fails, or a gravytrain that looked like it would run
> forever is routed out, or someone who's never had a
> bit of luck fianlly sees an opportunity. Class,
> colour, money, education, status and sex are really
> just the underpinning of the story. You could reverse
> any of these in a well-written noir story, and still
> have just as good a tale as long as the reversals of
> fortune hold true.
>
> Patrick King

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