Fooling around on Amazon, I ran across a new title from
Thomas Hibbs, a professor of somethingerother, who also
serves as the film critic for the National Review. Now, the
National Review often makes me grind my teeth, and Hibbs'
work is no exception. I find the premise of his new book,
Arts of Darkness: American Noir and the Quest for Redemption,
facsinating however.
From the description:
In a striking new interpretation of film noir, Thomas Hibbs
mines the philosophy and theology of these dark films to
reveal a subtle but profound insistence on the reality of
redemption. Properly understood, these tales of spiritual
quest assume a new importance amid the nihilism of
contemporary popular culture. Repudiating old-fashioned
American optimism but never quite succumbing to despair, noir
depicts a world of captivating characters who, in the words
of Pascal, seek with groans
The first question I have, though, is this interpretation of
noir really "new" as the marketing copy suggests, or is this
just a new packaging of an old idea?
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