At 11:54 AM 31/08/2005 -0400, you wrote:
>I certainly don't mean it's a
>didactic book, but if you wanted to show how moral
failings lead to
>trouble, then any noir book is jammed with examples.
Not that that's why
>we read them. (Or do we?)
It's certainly one of the reasons that I read them.
I think the notion of a person being good or evil, moral or
immoral, is Protestant. Catholicism treats morality more as
aspiration than a condition. If people were moral there would
be no place for confession, the idea that one can be forgiven
for sin and try again. Seems to me this recognizes the human
condition, as much as Protestantism recognized its
weaknesses. This practice also recognizes the human need to
confess, as well. Crimes are frequently solved because people
feel a need to tell someone when they've done something they
think may be wrong. But noir is also about the practice of
power, and the person who hears confessions and comes to know
the secrets within his community, becomes very powerful
indeed. There is no need to threaten to reveal those secrets.
When you give a secret up, you give up some power as well. I
think this was examined in the movie - was it True
Confessions? Don't know, but I'd like to know, if there are
any books on this theme.
>Sam Spade was, he said, mostly concerned about who
killed his partner
>because that's what people expected him to do. Custom
said that when a
>detective's partner was killed, the remaining
detective had better solve
>the case, or else it was bad for business. Some
schools of thought said
>custom was important, but others would say one's
internal morals
>outweighed that. Spade's morals and his behaviour are
a specially
>interesting case, and I'd have to reread the end of
THE MALTESE FALCON to
>remind myself of details before I say
more.
Yeah, but is this morality? "Bad for business" seems more an
amoral statement to me. The killer of a business associate
draws a lot of attention, and if people see that a detective
cannot detect the killer of his partner, well, he cannot be
very good. Not worth hiring. Yes, it's about public
expectations, but it's about what a man should do to stay in
business, not to be a moral person. Of course, we might
suspect that Hammett felt business had replaced morality as
the guide for behaviour in modern America.
Best, Kerry
------------------------------------------------------
Literary events Calendar (South Ont.) http://www.lit-electric.com
The evil men do lives after them http://www.murderoutthere.com
------------------------------------------------------
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~--> Life without art & music?
Keep the arts alive today at Network for Good!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/FXrMlA/dnQLAA/Zx0JAA/kqIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 31 Aug 2005 EDT