Frank "Dolly" Dillon from Thompson's 'Hell of a Woman' fits
the
"screwed" definition, as does "Kid" Collins from 'After Dark,
My Sweet' and to some degree Carl Bigelow from 'Savage
Night'. To me, literary noir, instead of the protagonist
being "screwed" is instead "doomed". The doomed aspect can be
physical or psychic. To me, the perfect example of noir is
'Double Indemnity'. When Walter Huff crosses the line and
commits murder, his doom is sealed. It might not be apparent
right away, but it's inevitable. In "Name of the Game is
Death" by Dan Marlowe (one of my favorite noir books), the
protagonist is doomed from page 1 (like many of Thompson's
characters). And just to confuse things even more, has anyone
here looked at "A Century of Noir" edited by Mickey Spillane
and Max Collins? I picked it up recently to plow through
during a long flight, and at most 10 of the 32 stories were
what I'd even remotely consider noir. They seemed to open up
the definition to any crime story with shadows or any dark
characters. Some of the stories had happy endings, some were
what I'd consider pure hard-boiled, and some fit more with
the Henry Slesar type of twist ending. The book did have a
terrific noir story by David Goodis
(The Plunge), a good one by Mickey Spillane (Tomorrow I Die)
and a couple of pretty good ones by Evan Hunter and Chester
Himes, and some good non-noir stories by Carroll John Daly,
Donald Westlake, Norbert Davis, Frederic Brown, and a few
others. All in all I don't think it was worth it, and
definitely not if you're actually looking for noir.
-Dave
http://www.hardluckstories.com/inhisshadow.htm
-----Original Message----- From:
owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca [mailto:
owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca] On Behalf Of Al Guthrie Sent:
Sunday, February 16, 2003 3:40 PM To:
rara-avis@icomm.ca Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: Noir,
etc
Thinking about "screwed" as a definition, I've concluded that
it only works as a psychological term. As far as external
events are concerned,
"screwed" isn't necessarily noir. An optimist can be
repeatedly "screwed" without batting a noir eyelid (Candide
or Earl Swagger in Pale Horse Coming, for example). Come to
think of it, being repeatedly "screwed" and not giving a damn
is pretty hardboiled. "Screwed" and thinking the whole
world's out to get you, that's one aspect of noir. But it
isn't that simple. Jim Thompson's psychopaths don't fit the
"screwed" definition, but they're sure as hell noir. They do
fit the "psychological horror" definition. Surely one of the
most obvious links between Thompson's psychopaths and
Goodis's paranoids is abnormal psychology. And those books we
really enjoy, but aren't quite noir? Maybe the protagonist is
too sane? I don't know. I'm merely speculating.
Al
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