Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: RIP John Gardner

From: Kerry J. Schooley ( gsp.schoo@murderoutthere.com)
Date: 16 Aug 2007


At 07:25 PM 15/08/2007, you wrote:

>Kerry J. Schooley wrote:
>
>Where's the prerequisite crime?
>
>**********
>Who said there had to be a crime? It wasn't me.

I wasn't addressing you directly. The suggestion that hard boil and noir are categories of crime writing isn't new to this list, or mine alone. Pretty much every book we've discussed has had a crime close to the centre of the narrative.

If I understand you correctly, you say noir is focused more on morality than criminality? There's a lot of interplay between the two, of course, but they aren't the same thing and the differences define the discussion.

It's an arbitrary categorization, I know, but that's what categories are, allowing us to talk apples or oranges, instead of fruit.

>Nevertheless, I don't see Fleming's Bond series as
>noir.

No, I got that. I was thinking of the genre, with Le Carré ©n mind, I think. A lot of killing and betrayal going on, but given that the characters act with their governments' permission, is it noir?

Best, Kerry

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