A.N. Smith sed:
> But updating and substitution
> occured: the
> big city for the craggy mountain ranges, the mansion
for the castle, the
> fear of being watched/pursured, the fear of death
and the dark, etc. etc.
> And as far as the supernatural elements, I don't
think the key in
> Gothic was
> to ask if they were real or not, but to ask if you
believe the characters'
> fears that they might be real. A lot of that in
HB/noir: did you
> really see
> what you thought you saw? Are you really being
followed? Not to mention
> all the family secret stuff.
I really like this idea. It was never really important
whether the source of the dread was supernatural or not. I
think in gothic the source od the dread was typically
attributed to the supernatural because something dark and
chilling was still seen as having its origins in something
"out there." By Hammett's time, "rationality" has got a
foothold and it's sort of inconceivable that the thing that's
giving one the creeps is coming from dark spirits. Now, the
dark is something "in there", it's Thompson's "The Killer
Inside Me." Even scarier because of it's immediacy.
But like Smith mentions, it's the same thing. Great point,
Smith.
Tribe
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