Mario Taboada wrote:
...noir has to be about characters, about what goes on in
their minds; the protagonists of noir novels almost always
face the void, either because they are on edge or because
they are thrown into the void (I don't think I need to
explain the void, since we are all adults here). By contrast,
in much of hardboiled literature the protagonist may face the
world, may face the cruelest and most corrupt enemies,
individual or collective, but he does not face the void. The
void can take many forms, of course, and those
(unpredetermined) forms will not always be the same on the
page as on screen.
In this scheme, Franz Kafka, Nathanael West and
Charles Willeford would be quintessential noir; Hammett,
Chandler and Leonard not at all
****************** Paul Duncan's opinions on noir in his NOIR
FICTION are very close to yours. Your "facing the void"
parallels his "swimming in the abyss." Although he waffles
somewhat about the relationship between hardboiled and noir,
he places the hardboiled hero teetering on the edge of the
abyss, with the noir protagonist falling into or drowning in
it. Paul Duncan differentiates between the two genre
protagonists in the degree of control they exert in their
lives. Ultimately, the hardboiled hero prevails. The noir guy
bites the big one.
Unlike Jim, I see pessimism as an intimate piece of the noir
puzzle, instantiated in fear, sweat, or desperation. And I
think it's as hard for a noir ending to be upbeat as it is
for a rich man to pass through the eye of a needle. Maybe not
impossible, but darn near.
More than just atmosphere, I see in noir a pessimistic
philosophical stance on the condition of man. It's not
anything new in literature. It's been around since GILGAMESH.
Shakespeare's Hamlet didn't have a chance, and neither did
Stephen Crane's Maggie. Mario mentions Kafka, and I would add
Dostoevsky, Camus, and Hesse. I know damn little about
literature, and I know even less about philsophy, but I see
obvious parallels between noir and existentialism.
Although Willeford refers to the "immobilized hero" instead
of a noir protagonist in his master's thesis, several of the
books he discusses have been noted as noir here on the list.
It's a worthwhile read if one is interested.
Merry Christmas, Mario.
miker
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