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

EJM Duggan (ejmd@mcmail.com)
Tue, 02 Mar 1999 09:54:32 +0000 On Tue, 2 Mar 1999, billha@ionet.net (Bill Hagen) wrote:

[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.

I posted some thoughts a while back in which I suggested Cain included
elements of both hard-boiled and noir.
[flame suite on:]
I'm not sure that there has to be a *detective figure* in order to
qualify a text as hard boiled
[:flame suit off]

FWIW, however, in Cain's _TPART_, there is an investigating agent, and
of course Frank and Cora are under investigation. However, there's no
murder in Cain's _Mildred Pierce_, so, following the chain of logic
implied by Bill H.'s post, Cain's _MP_ wouldn't be hardboiled, while the
film would be...? [on the grounds that there is a detective who
investigates MP--the film unfolds as a series of flashbacks while she is
being questioned].

Hmmm... not sure if this post has actually worked---only one coffee thus
far this morning, so mind-body system not yet fully initialized ... post
and be damned ...

ED

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