RARA-AVIS: Re: Noir Manifesto

From: ejflinn2002 ( ejflinn@comcast.net)
Date: 29 Oct 2005


--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Tim Wohlforth <tim@t...> wrote:
>
No other country on earth has the greatest disparities of wealth? Uh, have you ever heard of Asia or Africa?

> It seems to me the heart of Stansberry's excellent essay is the
> following: "Because that which has been strangling the genre is
the
> mentality that rationalism and logical must prevail. That order
must be
> restored. That good must triumph."
>
> It is hard to argue with the notion that most current writing
that's
> considered "noir" involves at least some concession to the "happy
> ending." I would hold up Connelly's excellent Bosch series as an
> example. The genre would be helped by more breaks with this
formula. An
> example of this would be Lehane's "Mystic River." One could
say "logic"
> triumphs in that the murderers are exposed. Yet everyone else is
pretty
> much fucked. And the villains are sad cases as well. I would
question
> whether the problem is a refusal to enter the "dark side" of the
> irrational (or woo woo). To me it is a desire to protect the
reader from
> the existential "truth" that life itself may be meaningless. Poe
was
> Poe, the father of the horror story as well as the mystery. It
does not
> follow that mysteries that are not woo woos are ergo not noir. Or
even
> that Poe is the father of noir, a mid 20th century phenomenon.
>
> However, I do feel Stansberry is right in suggesting
current "noir" has
> been sugar coated a bit. We writers need to strip away the
coating,
> write tougher, harder, uglier stuff. That is, be truthful.
>
> For some reason I feel this is a particularly American task. Not
to
> knock the French. I am not sure why this is the case. Maybe
because our
> nation does so many dark things, and everyday reality here can be
so
> distant from that created by TV, or that no other country on earth
has
> the great disparities of wealth that we have.
>
> Tim Wohlforth
>
> P.S. That's why I liked the recently demised Plots With Guns and
the new
> Thuglit site. Tough uncensured writing, younger writers, male and
> female, with balls.
>

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