Cicadas just started chirping in southeast Michigan yesterday for the first
time this year after a lot of wet weather...thank god for the wonderful
chirping...which brings us here close to Costa-Rica and southwestern
France...
Išll drink to that,
...a noir syrah of course...
Montois
On 7/25/08 10:12 AM, "davezeltserman" <davezelt@rcn.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com <mailto:rara-avis-l%40yahoogroups.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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