John and Mike--Thanks! It's great to be here...I love Miami
Purity, and Vicki's latest, Voluntary Madness...
You explain your points on noir and hardboiled fiction
excellently, and I'm glad I'm not on your panel at
Bouchercon--you'd probably kick my ass in a debate!...I think
a lot of this is subjective--noir and hardboiled mean
different things to each of us, so trying to pinpoint and
exact, universal definition is difficult, if not impossible.
But, for me, your definitions are just a bit too broad. I
think "dark and sinister" is a terrific way to sum up the
atmosphere, and even plots, in a lot of noir fiction, but it
doesn't speak enough about noir characters. You talk about
the French origins of the genre, but this is exactly my
point--noir started with the French, but then as it spread
back to the United States and the rest of the world it became
something else--something more specific. To my American
sensibility, I can't accept a definition of noir that
includes traditional detective fiction. I think you can say
that Marlowe, Spade, Archer, etc. operate in "a noir world",
but they are not noir characters. Since "character" is a
defining characteristic of what I think of as noir, I can
only include writers such as Thompson, Cain, Goodis etc as
full blown purveyors of noir.....But I know you've discussed
this issue at length already. Tell you what--I'll try to come
to your panel at B-con and we can duke it out there. Deal?
Jason http://www.jasonstarr.com
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