You know, Al, now that you call me on it, I think the devaluation of the term noir (through the form of neo-noir, which seems to be applied to every post-Tarantino crime film) is more a film thing than a book thing. As you mention, thriller seems to be the marketing laebl du jour for crime novels of any sort (for instance, I mentioned recently that Nick Stone's Mr Clarinet just seemed like a straight PI novel to me -- not a putdown). I'm probably stopping in a bookstore this afternoon. I'll have to look at the covers.
Mark
> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> From: allan@allanguthrie.co.uk
> Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:39:05 +0100
> Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Nag, Nag, Nag Noir
>
> Would you (or Kevin) provide some examples of these non-noir noir novels?
> I'd like to see some evidence of this pro-active marketing. My experience is
> that it comes from elsewhere, usually from reviewers and readers. I'd have
> thought that noir is too narrow a subgenre for most big publishers to find
> it attractive, hence the fondness for the 'thriller' label. Or is this issue
> perceived to be specific to small presses? In which case, which ones?
>
> Al
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark Sullivan" <DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net>
> > Now, let's get on to the far more interesting question you raised, the
> > dilution of the term noir to where it has expanded to apply nearly
> > anything with a gun or a crime. I wonder if it will snap back somewhat
> > when marketing moves on to another label, as rock and roll has (a bit).
> > For a while, rock and roll applied to any and all music marketed to youth,
> > but it's become somewhat more focused as its lost a bit of its market
> > share.
>
>
>
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