Thank you so much Kerry for those notes that both acknowledge
the
Œtraditionalism¹ in Rara-Avians, and also make room for the
innovations brought on by extremely important people like
Paul Auster when one touches upon the ŒnoirŒ concept within
the last 20 years in the US...
From the start this discussion about new trends in noir
innovation/tors, prompted me to read anew the superb analysis
of JF G鲡ult of Manchette
(Encrage 2000), the Œinnovator-par-excellence¹ of the
polar-noir in France in 70/80¹s and thus the creator (or
maybe it was the press who gave him that label) of the
Œn鯭polar¹/¹n鯭noir¹ movement, in which critics have included
many other writers from France to Uk to Germany and Spain
since... I wanted very much to give here the titles of some
of the chapters and sub-divisions of this very analysis of
Manchette, because I believe it gives tools to think about
what a radical shift, an Œinnovative¹ shift could be or is
for such a movement/genre as the noir one...I think that much
too often, innovation is confused with the characteristics of
a plot line, of a character, of a certain style in a book or
short story...but Œinnovation¹,
Œrenewal¹ of a genre is a much wider scope involving many
more elements and people...Here are the elements touched upon
by JF G鲡ult when he analysed Manchette¹s books in the context
of Manchette as the crime writer responsible for a
Œinnovation/revolution¹ in the crime writng genre. All these
paragraph titles refer to specific elements in Manchette
books that are part of a Œdifferent¹ approach to polar/noir
writing, from the preceeding decades...
1)A radical social critique
- decadence of intellectuals and
bourgoisie
- a police force very much out of
touch and utterly stupid and brutal
- corruption within the federal state
apparatus at all levels
- disinformation: otherwise known as
dumbing down and corruption of all information by
communication/news entities
- the utter ridicule of the present
left (i.e.liberals)
- madness as the ultimate
refuge
2)Wring the neck of literature: Manchette follows and
subverts at the same time the rules of polar, of novel
writng, of crime story writing, the themes, the
styles...
- death of love
- immorality and sexual
indifference
- obessions and vulgarity
- sexual deviances
- sexual failures
3) Noirer than noir:
- generalised vulgarity, racism and
stupidity
- omnipresent violence
4) Break with narrative patterns:
- break with linear time: often start
from the end...etc...
- weird or absurd endings
5) Break with the place, position, of the narrator: (loss of
the fabricated romanesque illusion)
- intentional impresisions
- narrator intervenes inawkward ways
in the text and thus bungles the flow
- narrator exposes narrative
structures: a process directly linked to film Œstraight cuts¹
between two paralell actions (see tarantino and all I
guess-my comment)
- direct references to stereotypes of
literature
6) Refute and discredit of stylistic & rhetorical
features
- chopping up of sentences
- repetitions and enumerations
- use and abuse of parenthesis
- parody in names and patronyms
7) The art of surprise and permanent creation
- hyperrealism
- behaviorism
8) Humour and parody
- ridicule
- derision, self mockery
- play on words
...anyway...all these elements contituted for JF G鲡ult a new
aesthetics at some point in time and in listing all these
(which are my own translation from the French). My only
purpose is to welcome here on Rara any such approach to the
innovators in the US noir crime story...at whatever physical
and geographical time this happened...now or 15 years
ago...in other words, besides individual writers, besides
some books of importance...where are we within the darkness
of US noir...the very darkness that Manchette reveired from
the start...remember her was first a translator of many US
writers...and that¹s where he got the bug....
Bienvenue and many Thanks for any new input...
Steve Novak
Cinefrog@comcast.net
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