Lou Ford is a novelist (see Vintage ed. p179-80). That level
of action where he might be a murderer, whether schizophrenic
or coldblooded, is unverifiable as anything more than a tale
he is telling. (And who said dead men tell no tales?)
Rob
--- Dave Zeltserman <
davezelt@comcast.net> wrote:
> No. You could argue that a book like Killer
Inside
> Me is more
> tragedy than noir, since Lou Ford, while
not
> necessarily born broken
> (if I remember right its implied that
sexual
> experiences at a young
> age and his father's resulting behavior on
learning
> about it
> contributed to his state) was predestined to be
the
> way he was. But
> on the other hand, he did have a choice -
as
> difficult as it was, to
> battle his true nature. For me, noir has the
choices
> the protagonist
> makes contributing to his being screwed - even
if
> the odds are
> stacked well against him. Tragedy is
something
> different, where the
> protagonist is caught up in the whims of
fate.
> Anyway, that's what
> made Thompson's books so great - he was able
to
> create characters
> where the odds were so stacked up against them
that
> their bads
> choices they made seemed so natural for
them.
>
> --- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Karin Montin
> <kmontin@s...>
> wrote:
> > Dave, I don't quite get the difference
between
> creating your own
> fate by being born broken and being screwed by
fate.
> Are you saying
> that being born a certain way is an intentional
act?
> >
> > Karin
> >
> > At 04:15 24/09/05 +0000, Dave Z
wrote:
> >
> > >To me noir is more a sense of doom than
tragedy.
> More times than
> not
> > >the protagonist creates their own fate,
either by
> being born
> broken,
> > >as in some of the great Jim Thompson
novels
> (Killer Inside Me, A
> > >Swell-Looking Babe, Pop. 1280, etc) or
by
> crossing a moral line,
> for
> > >committing murder for a woman, money, just
to see
> if you can get
> > >away with it, etc., such as Double
Indemnity,
> Postman Always
> Rings
> > >Twice, The name of the Game is Death. Great
noir
> novels, such as
> Mr.
> > >Arkadin and How Like a God are outside the
realm
> of the working-
> > >class. And then you've got Charles
Willeford, who
> created some
> > >brillian tnoir novels based on artists
refusing
> to compromise
> their
> > >artistic vision. Yeah, there are some
examples of
> people who are
> > >screwed more by fate than their own
actions, such
> as the film
> > >Detour, but in my opinion the best examples
(and
> most prevalent)
> of
> > >noir involve the protagonist's bad
decisions,
> moral weaknesses,
> or
> > >simply broken psyches than the whims of
fate.
> Tragedy is one
> thing,
> > >noir is something completely
different.
>
>
>
>
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