Steve,
Re your comments below:
> As I've learned from Rara-Avis, "noir" gets
to
> atmosphere (dark and
> sinister, as Jim D. puts it) and "hard-boiled"
gets
> to character (the tough
> outsider who adheres to his code, maintains
his
> dignity and even wins a few
> even as he takes his lumps). So is it right to
say
> that Chandler gives us a
> hard-boiled protagonist operating in a noir
world?
> If so, at what point
> does the fact that Chandler's hero isn't himself
a
> noirish character - isn't
> dark and sinister - isn't a desperate
loser
> spiralling out of control and
> about to go down for the count - change the
contours
> and texture of the
> world in which he operates - the world
Chandler
> describes - so that it
> becomes something other than noirish? There's
a
> nobility and romanticism
> and even an idealism in Chandler's hero and his
city
> that is ultimately
> redemptive ("I can't go on. I'll go on") and
so
> ultimately not noirish -
> despite the atmospherics.
It IS ultimately noirish because the atmospherics, and
nothing else, are what define noir.
Many noir stories are about "desperate losers spiralling out
of control," but many aren't. What they have in common is the
dark, sinister atmosphere. Since that's the common element,
that must be the DEFINING element.
Chandler's LA remains noir because, despire Marlowe's
"slightly tarnished" nobility, despite his perseverance,
despite his ethics, and despite his heroism, it remains dark
and sinister.
JIM DOHERTY
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