RE: RARA-AVIS: UK month

From: Dave Zeltserman ( davez@shore.net)
Date: 31 Jul 2002


I would define noir as an inescapable doom, which if done right creates a sense of dread (and possibly horror) in the reader. With James M. Cain, his characters usually cross some line in which there is no turning back. With some of Jim Thompson's books, his characters are born broken. Their doom is inevitable.

-Dave
 

-----Original Message----- From: owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca [mailto: owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca] On Behalf Of Al Guthrie Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2002 2:56 PM To: rara-avis@icomm.ca Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: UK month

----- Original Message ----- From: "Joy Matkowski" < jmatkowski1@comcast.net>
> > blight as well (then again I suppose serial killer novels more
properly
> > belong to the horror tradition than the h/b).
>
> > Apologies for the rambling nature of the above. Any thoughts?
>
> Yes, thanks for the insight that serial killer books belong in the
horror
> genre. It's so obvious once you say it, but this bit of taxonomy never
> occurred to me.

John's actual words were "I suppose serial killer novels more properly belong to the horror tradition than the h/b", which is quite different from saying they belong in the horror genre. Horror, at least my understanding of the term as it relates to the fiction genre, requires an element of the supernatural. Isn't horror without the supernatural simply what some of us choose to define as noir ("dark and sinister")?

Al

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