RARA-AVIS: Re: Super Heroes, Comics, and Noir

From: davezeltserman (davezelt@rcn.com)
Date: 25 Jul 2008

  • Next message: Steve Novak: "Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Super Heroes, Comics, and Noir"

    --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Sandra Ruttan" <sandraruttan@...> wrote:
    >

    > I'm not intending to nitpick, but this idea of motivation as a critical
    > component really struck me. I guess I feel that if someone has all good
    > motivations and is really trying hard to fix some problem/stop
    something bad
    > from happening and they fail, it's more likely to be noir. At the very
    > least, it's more depressing.

    I would call that more irony. If we label every book where bad things happen to characters as noir, then almost everything written gets labeled noir. I think at some point you have to go to the works of the authors more universally recognized as writing in the noir tradition to better define literary noir. But I also think Mario has it right, each of us has our own internal definition of noir and know it when we see it.

    > That said, I'm content to let noir be defined by the individual, as the
    > argument over what is and is not noir is one that nobody will ever
    win, and
    > thus an exercise in futility.

    But Sandra, don't you know what we do here at Rara Avis is argue the definition of noir? Our cycle is briefer than the cicadas, probably every 2 years, but once it happens we'll go through a 2-3 week
    "discussion" with the same passionate arguments brought out. And like the cicadas, it usually amounts to a lot of chirping...

    --Dave

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