Kerry,
Re your commments below:
> But I'd agree with you that noir and
hardboil,
> though often appearing in
> tandem, are not the same thing. The
protagonists'
> approach and behaviour
> may fit a story into the category of hardboil,
but
> those same
> characteristics may be compared and/or
contrasted
> with the moral atmosphere
> in which the protagonist operates. Spade and
Marlowe
> may have something of
> the romantic optimist about them, but they still
do
> battle with the forces
> of evil.
Battling, and even winning out over, the forces of evil, does
not render a crime story either noir or hard-boiled. Poirot
does as much, but he's neither hard-boiled nor noir.
> That alone does not make the story noir,
however.
> 101 Dalmations is a crime
> story (dognapping, if not a crime, surely ought
to
> be) . . .
It's a felony in California. See Wambaugh's THE BLACK
MARBLE.
> . . . with ample dark and
> sinister atmospherics and it may even fit
our
> time-lines, but it is not
> noir.
Of course not. It's in color. Though you have a point. It
does come close.
> Disney assures us that in the end, good
> triumphs over evil. The dark
> and sinister forces have, for the time being
at
> least, been held at bay.
> But Marlowe's world-weariness, and Spade's laugh
at
> the end of their
> adventures suggest that, though their cases may
be
> solved, the moral
> challenge continues unabated. This is
even
> foreshadowed by tragic flaws
> within the protagonists' own personalities.
I
> believe it is this outcome
> that ultimately makes the Chandler/Hammett
stories
> fit the category of
> noir, though Hammett more definitively than
Chandler
> ("down these mean
> streets a man must go who is not himself mean"
-
> Spade is definitely a meanie.)
Th Op isn't. Some might say that what makes a story noir is
that it exists in a world where order and justice aren't part
of the natural landscape, and what makes it hard-boiled is
the hero who is determined to impose order and justice.
I wouldn't, of course. But I would say that a world
(depicted with words in prose or with images in film) in
which disorder and injustice reign would probably be dark and
sinister, and a tough, colloquial hero who was able to impose
justice and order on such a world
(however temporarily), would probably be hard-boiled.
JIM DOHERTY
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