RARA-AVIS: Noir -- Miker's new definition.

From: Bludis Jack ( buildsnburns@yahoo.com)
Date: 14 Feb 2003


Miker said:

"Noir is a carefully nurtured atmosphere of fear, sweat, and desperation." -- OK, I'll buy that, but it's eleven words too long.

Someone else said that Hammett and Chander aren't noir -- I'll buy that to, but I like the "They have desperate characters" aspect of another posters observations.

As for noir being a character. It's an idea that's been around for a while, and several people have challenged it -- I'll buy that atmosphere is not truely a character, but it's a contributor to the character of others.

Heat cause problems. Rain and thunder causes problems. Businesses going under cause problems. But none of these things are characters. They are not characters just because they cause problemsis.

I'm in a particularly conciliatory mood here.

And as a lurker said, there's a lot of people here who know a lot of stuff, and all of them give us something to think about. I haven't seen anybody get nasty yet.

Great thread.

Jack
 

===== http://JackBludis.com Hollywood Mysteries of the Early Fifties

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