RARA-AVIS: fatalism and noir?

From: Carrie Pruett ( pruettc@hotmail.com)
Date: 28 Apr 2002


I don't know if "fatalism" is a necessary component of noir, at least not as i understand it. "fatalism" implies to me a universe where people try to do their best but get screwed anyway, or are punished out of all proportion to the wrongs they've committed; say Tess of the Durbervilles (not calling Hardy noir, just an example of fatalism) or Robert Mitchum's character in
"Out of the Past" (I'm not sure if this was a book or not, the film is just an example that occurs to me) or the impossibility of Sam ending up with Brigid in "The Maltese falcon." on the other hand, the characters in "The Postman always Rings Twice"

spoiler space

pretty much get what's coming to them; and i get the impression this sort of resolution is more typical of Cain and of some other types of noir.

am i misunderstanding the definition of fatalism?

carrie

-

He got thirty years for lovin' her/ from some Oklahoma governor,/ who said
"everything this doughboy does is wrong" - Tom Waits

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