RARA-AVIS: Re:Most Hard-Boiled?

From: al_guthrie65 ( allan@allanguthrie.co.uk)
Date: 18 Dec 2006


Wonderful. Thanks, Karin.

Al

--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Karin Montin <kmontin@...> wrote:
>
> Let unwary readers be warned: books in the S鲩e Noire cannot
safely be placed in just any hands. Those who like Sherlock Holmes- type puzzles won't find what they're looking for. Neither will systematic optimists. The immorality generally accepted in this type of work solely to serve as a foil for conventional morality is just as much at home there as fine feelings, even just plain amorality. The spirit of such books is rarely conformist. In them there are police more corrupt than the crimnals they're chasing. The nice detective doesn't always solve the mystery. Sometimes there is no mystery. And sometimes there isn't even a detective. And so? So what remains is action, torment and violence, in all its forms, especially the most shameful--from beatings to massacres. As in good films, moods are expressed through actions, and readers who are fond of instrospective literature will have to do the reverse gymnastics. There is also love--preferably bestial--disorderly passion, pitiless
> hate. In short, our goal is quite simple: to keep you from
sleeping.
>
> Marcel Duhamel, founder of the S鲩e Noire. 1948
> translated by Karin Montin, 2006



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