Mario wrote:
You float the notion that Cain, Thompson and Goodis exhausted
the possibilities of noir.
******* I knew I wasn't expressing myself well. That was
definitely not what I meant to say, Mario. Let me try again
(this could get ugly). Noir fiction has remained true to its
origins. There have been many exciting and innovative
variations, but it always harkens back to the roots.
For me, Cain's THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE is the
measuring stick of noir. I don't mean to imply that
everything must emulate Cain's work, but just that I think of
POSTMAN as the cornerstone of the genre. Not necessarily the
best, and not necessarily the first. I know you favor
Whitfield's GREEN ICE as a strong candidate. I feel the same
way about Faulkner's SANCTUARY.
What I derive from Cain's book is a template plot, style, and
theme. The plot involves sexually-charged losers attempting
to better their place in life by crime and losing miserably
in the end. The style is hardboiled. The theme is expressed
in one word. Ask Jack Bludis for details.
There are many variations on all this.
In Thompson's KILLER INSIDE ME Lou is just plumb crazy and is
making no attempt to better his life. Cornell Woolrich's I
MARRIED A DEAD MAN abandons the hardboiled style. Willeford's
WILD WIVES plays the irony game and provides a twist on the
true identity of the femme fatale.
There was a time when it looked to me like noir was evolving
into something significantly different from its origin. The
doom of the protagonist had always been based on some
wrong-doing on his part, but noir writers hit on a formula
for increasing the irony of the protagonist's fate. The
formula involved elevating the nobility of the protagonist
and trivializing the significance of his wrong-doing. In my
limited reading experience, I would identify the apex of this
trend in Geoffrey Homes's BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH.
But Harrington's DARK RIDE brought it home for me that noir
fiction is still firmly rooted in its origins. Don't get me
wrong. I'm not disparaging noir for not evolving. Rather, I
think I'm saying that where it started is such a rock-solid
place in the human experience that writers cannot help but
return there.
So no, I don't think that the possibilities of noir were used
up with Cain, Goodis, and Thompson. Flannery O'Connor,
Willeford, James Ellroy, Harry Crews, Daniel Woodrell, and
Sallis all have made innovative contributions. Although they
might be fringe for this group, even science fiction writers
Philip Dick and William Gibson have enriched the noir
genre.
miker
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