Patrick King wrote:
I don't really agree with you here, Jim. Noir concerns the
nature of the hero.
*********** Everybody else here has heard this before, so
I'll be brief. Paul Duncan wrote a very thin book called Noir
Fiction, and his primary thesis in the book agrees with your
comment that noir concerns the nature of the hero. Paul
thinks that the difference between the hardboiled and noir
character is in their degree of control. The hardboiled
character, like Marlowe or Spade, struggle but in the end
they maintain some semblance of control. Some do this by
strength, some by detachment, almost all by using a certain
amount of guile. The noir character, on the other hand, is
generally in the process of losing control.
Paraphrasing Duncan, a hardboiled character might be
teetering on the brink of the abyss, but the noir character
is drowning in it.
miker
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