Bill Hagen (billha@ionet.net)
Wed, 15 Sep 1999 22:32:19 -0500 (CDT)
Neil, another, O'Connor fan says ,
" And "Good Man Is Hard To Find" continues to be my favorite
short story. You've got the dark humor, the gangsters, the
guns, the South--works for me.
"I can't help but feel she was "playing" with noir in that
story, though. I mean, hardboiled gangsters just show up out
of nowhere. What are the odds? A more pure portrayal of crime
from her would be "Good Country People." What a con man we've
got in that one."
They're not quite "gangsters"; they're just homocidal good
ole boys, far as I can figure. In fact, the Misfit, their
leader, had a church upbringing and through him, O'Connor
daringly provides a kind of theological rationale for their
killing spree--to wit, if there's no miracle of Jesus to be
witnessed by humans now living, then why should we believe,
and if we can't believe, then there's only meanness left to
do, which ain't fun either. Now that's a vision for you.
(Like Hobbes on life in a state of nature: nasty, brutish and
short.)
...which leads to a possible thread-starter. Catholics and
Calvinists or artists from those backgrounds (O'Connor,
Greene, Thompson, Scorcese), often create very believeable
evil characters, it seems to me. The sense of eternal
damnation or depravity deepens and supports the gloom. So
which other noir or HB writers seem to have this extra sense
of cosmic darkness or damnation that might be called
"religious" (even if inverted)? Who are the real prophets of
noir or HB? What are the best lines for the book of Noir
Scripture we are collectively putting together?
Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>
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