Mark,
Re your comment below:
> Ah, the creationist version of words. They
come
> into being and forever
> remain the same.
>
> Personally, I believe in evolution, where genres
can
> change, even
> mutate, and their labels can find room for
the
> offspring.
And that would be, what exactly? The Humpty-Dumpty-ist
version of words, perhaps?
Here's a tip. When Lewis Carroll quoted Humpty-Dumpty as
saying, "When I use a word it means just what I choose it to
mean - neither more nor less," he wasn't seriously suggesting
a viable way of approaching language. He was trying to make
Humpty-Dumpty seem ridiculous.
And, as I keep on telling you, "noir" isn't a genre, it's way
of describing a mood or an atmosphere. If a story has it,
it's noir; if it doesn't, it's not.
Further, if you want to include all the "offspring," it seems
to me that my suggested defintion is a lot more inclusive
than anything anyone else has come up with.
> And wait a
> minute, if we are stuck with Duhamel's definition
--
> you point out it
> was just a pun employed as a broad marketing
term,
> covering his mystery
> line, not all "dark and sinister" -- doesn't
that
> render your
> definition as much a later reinterpretation as
that
> of those who find a
> "deep, existential meaning" at the core of
the
> literature?
Duhamel didn't "define" it; he applied it, leaving it to us
to discern the common elements that all the books he
published under the SERIE NOIR logo had, and so to identify
the DEFINING elements.
The common elements, and, in consequence, the DEFINING
elements, were a dark and sinister atmosphere, and
(since Kerry needs it spelled out) a crime story plot.
JIM DOHERTY
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