Re: RARA-AVIS: Definitions again: cozies and hardboiled/noir

Bill Hagen (billha@ionet.net)
Tue, 2 Mar 1999 00:26:34 -0600 (CST) Bill recently wrote the following definitions, amalgamating several of us:

>Hardboiled:
> - involves a detective, private investigator, reporter or somenoe
> similar as the protagonist in a criminal investigation
> - backdrop of institutionalized corruption
> - protagonist is tough and cynical
> - language is colloquial
> - involves sex and violence
> - protagonist becomes deeply involved in the crime's aftermath--
> he doesn't sit in his armchair, he goes out and shakes things up
>
>Classic examples: Dashiell Hamett, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain
>
>Noir:
> - features criminals or victims as protagonists, people who can't
> control themselves (psychologically) or, finally, what happens to
> them. [snip]

No problem with the definitions, especially since I contributed (which
didn't realize at the time). Problem is in including Cain in the
"Hardboiled" category, if it "involves a detective, private
investigator...." Cain's protagonists seem to fit the "Noir" category, as
defined above.

Would add that I appreciate regular reconsiderations of basic definitions.
Helps to renew the discussion.

Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>

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