On Fri, 8 Sep 2000, Etienne Borgers wrote:
> Back to HB, I could suggest another poet who
really
> qualifies as HB, by his life and by his
work:
> Francois Villon. He lived in Paris during the
middle
> of the 15th century, was a university student and
a
> "truand", lived the life of the outlaws and his
own
> life was at risk many times.
> In his poems he depicts the misery of life and
fate,
> the tragic destinies of the culprits when caught,
life
> in taverns and bordellos...
> And he was using some slang in his
writings.
> Some of his poems like: La Ballade des Pendus
(Ballad
> for the hanging men) or his Testament (The
Will),
> still resonates meaningfully into our
times.
Maybe noir, and only by him being a thematic ancestor of the
twentieth century generation of doomed hacks.
> Another French (well, he was a Belgian actually)
that
> could qualify is Henri Michaux (born in 1899) by
his
> forceful descriptions of his own surreal world,
and
> his total destruction of reality. In texts that
defies
> any classification but that can be accepted as
poems.
> Tough, quick, and destructive of social
conventions.
A great writer, one of my long time favourites, but
hardboiled? Even noir?
> But I hear already Bill Denton knocking on the door
as
> I probably stretched the HB search too
far...
I hear that knocking sound too, but before I leave, what
about the Harlem Renaissance? And also Tom Waits, who hasn't
published a book (as far as I know), but in whose rhymes
there is a certain iconography of hardboiled and noir
literature.
Juri
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