southpaw@altavista.net wrote:
> I just came across this interview with George
Pelecanos and was struck
> by what I think is a dead-on criticism by him of
much hardboiled lit.
> and films -- that too often we see men who are
unusually affected by the
> schemes and demands of women who make the men do
things they ordinarily
> wouldn't. Pouty lips and heaving bosoms, sad stories
and breathy
> entreaties don't seem so realistic (maybe that's not
the right word ...
> compelling, perhaps) as either they might have in
another decade, or
> might have on my first reading of them. Am I being
too harsh?
>
> ###
>
> <
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/archives/cover/1998/print_cover0821.
> html>
>
> I'd basically come to the point where I was sick
of
> noir, because now it's become a parody of a
parody.
> It's like in movies_in the late stages of the
'50s,
> noir movies became a parody, like Kiss Me Deadly,
a
> great film, but it's a parody of noir. And so
modern
> noir literature has become this James M. Cain
riff
> where a guy is sucked into the web of a
black-widow
> spider woman who makes him kill people. It's
always
> wealthy white guys, they lose everything
'cause
> they're drunk on pussy or whatever.
>
Guilty as charged.
TL
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