--------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael D. Sharp Email: msharp@umich.edu
Department of English Lang. and Lit. Phone: (313)
761-8776
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Fax: (313) 763-3128
On Wed, 26 Nov 1997, Gilbert, Len wrote:
> Loved Auster the when I read it about 5-7 years ago
(can that be
> right?). Lethem's book appealed to me, but the
concept seemed too
> freaky. I'd often pick it up in a bookstore but
always put it back
> before checkout. Finally a friend of mine said it was
really worth it,
> so I read it and found it very true to the genre
while introducing some
> really weird, new stuff.
>
> >----------
> >From: Ryan
Benedetti[SMTP:rhino@cybercen.net]
> >Sent: 25 November, 1997 5:58 PM
> >To: Hard-boiled List
> >Subject: RARA-AVIS: Auster and Lethem
> >
> >Has anyone out there read Paul Auster's
> >_New York Trilogy_ or _Leviathan_?
> >And since I'm asking, how about _Gun
With
> >Occasional Music_ by Johnathan Lethem?
> >Auster is more pensive and post-modern,
> >whereas Lethem is more humorous and
cyberpunkish,
> >but they're both definitely hard-boiled
> >structure/content-wise. Some
hard-boiled
> >fans I've met, my father is one of them,
will
> >only read straight, concrete realism,
> >whereas others enjoy a more "artistic"
style
> >that plays with the form and formula a
bit.
> >I emphasize the quotes above since
realism
> >can be as artistic as any other style.
> >From recent discussions in this group,
> >I gather that we have two strands
> >here: "hard-boiled" and "noir." "Noir" seems to
be
> >the bastard, post-industrial, stepchild
> >of gothic romance. "Hard-boiled" seems
particular
> >to a type of post-war, commercial, detective
fiction.
>
> >
> Noir is usually film, as in film noir, but I like
another pretentious
> french term "roman noir" or black novel. Noir has
destinct themes as
> well:
>
> * The location (usually a city) as a character-like
element in the
> story.
> * A sense of entrapment.
> * Action at night.
> * Those who pass for decent folk sucked down by a
flaw, greed, a woman
> OR decent folk in the wrong place at the wrong
time.
> * Fate as enevitable. Justice by nature.
>
> Obviously there are others and books to describe
them. Cain and Thompson
> are prime examples of Roman Noir, Detour, DOA, the
Killers, of Film
> Noir. Hardboiled and Noir cross lines, but Hardboiled
is often paired
> with "detective fiction" where as to me the noir
novel needs no
> detective and is much more effective with a regular
joe or jane. The
> Postman Always Rings Twice or Double Indemntity, for
example. Vanished
> by Mary McGarry Morris is like that as
well.
>
> --Len
>
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