>
>
>
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>
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> Message: 4
> Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 03:41:42 -0800
(PST)
> From: Michael Robison <
miker_zspider@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: Questions for Domenic
Stansberry
>
>Miker wrote
> That all literature contains a moral theme was one
of
> the premises of the New Critics. I believe it.
It's
> not so much that literature must teach morals,
but
> that it does at least raise moral
questions.
>
> One of the common criticisms of noir is that
it
> doesn't teach morals.
>
Yeah, Miker, I know.
But if you look at Cain, those can be read as cautionary
tales, about the consequences of reckless desire. I have
heard it argued that Hughes' "In a Lonely Place" can be seen
as having a moral dimension as well, in that the sociopath
seeks out his own punishment. At first glance, I am less sure
about books like "Killer Inside Me,"--in that it doesn't have
an obvious
"lesson," other than to raise the specter of innate evil that
exists within all of us.
At the same time, in Thompson, there is very much the view
that people are damned, and there is no escape. There is a
kind of fire and brimstone that underlies the apparent
blasphemy.
In The Getaway--the two lead characters go through Dantesque
tortures and end up in their own version of hell. In a lot of
ways, conscious or otherwise, there is a very traditional
allegorical substructure, even to the extent that the realism
in the plot is less important than the allegory.
In "Killer Inside Me:, there is something else there, I
think--in regards to the vicarious pleasure the reader is
invited to take in the violence, in the cruel sense of humor,
in mocking social order, in evil behavior, and in the fiery
apocalyptic conclusion.
It is in many ways the voice of the devil...
Thompson's stories have often been described as existential,
amoral tales. And though I think that's legitimate, I also
think it's possible to read them as cautionary tales.... In
some ways, that's what makes his best work so dynamic...the
tension between the cautionary and the blasphemous...
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