Re: RARA-AVIS: Noir and Randisi's response to Penzler, Kerry, Brian, Jack and MRT

From: davidcorbett622 (david@davidcorbett.com)
Date: 17 Sep 2010

  • Next message: davidcorbett622: "Re: RARA-AVIS: Richard Wheeler on Noir readership."

    I love the Springsteen reference, Brian. I always thought Nebraska had similar overtones.

    For those who missed Otto's original piece, here's a link to it, with a note Otto sent around today concerning its popularity on Twitter:

    This is a Q&A I did with Library Journal which, I am told by the HMH publicist, has been the hottest thing on Twitter that didn't involve Paris Hilton or the N.Y. Jets. While I have doubts that people who think tweeting is a delightful way to spend time actually read books, I suppose it can't hurt. If you are uninterested in noir fiction and/or me, simply delete. Yours, Otto
     

    http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/newsletters/newsletterbucketbooksmack/886803-439/qa_otto_penzler_on_the.html.csp
     

    David Corbett www.davircorbett.com

     

    --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Brian Thornton <bthorntonwriter@...> wrote:
    >
    > Eric-
    >
    > I liken reading good noir fiction to listening to both sides of Bruce
    > Springsteen's classic DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN. Even thought you start
    > out hopeful ("Badlands" on side 1 and "The Promised Land" on side 2), in the
    > end, you know that Life/Fate/God/Buddha/The Universe is going to intervene,
    > grind these folks down, and leave them with stark, Jungian moments of
    > clarity (as crystalized in the gorgeous, forlorn "Racing in the Streets" and
    > "Darkness on the Edge of Town," the songs that end each side respectively).
    >
    > Or, if you prefer, pick the blues tune of your choice. Someone somewhere
    > put it more artfully than I ever could: it's music that makes you "feel so
    > good about feelin' so bad."
    >
    > When it's done well, that's what keeps me reading noir fiction.
    >
    > Brian
    >
    > On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 2:18 AM, Eric Chambers <nqexile@...> wrote:
    >
    > >
    > >
    > > RJR says:
    > >
    > > > If the key to Noir is that the "protag" comes to a tragic
    > >
    > > > end, where's the suspense? Doesn't there have to be a ghost
    > >
    > > > of a chance that he might prevail? <
    > >
    > > This has got me thinking.
    > > The joy of reading Noir is in the writer's storytelling.
    > > You should never be able to see exactly what's coming, even though you know
    > > what kind of ending there will inevitably be.
    > > Sort of like a chess game or the sweet pain of watching your football team
    > > play their heart out and still lose. The character and the situation have to
    > > be belivable. The central character in Noir isn't an out and out villian
    > > like Hannibal Lector, otherwise the reader is not going to care.
    > > It's a little like watching a collision between two cars. It's that thing
    > > about your mind going
    > > into slow motion while you are watching.
    > >
    > > I'm probably not making much sense.
    > >
    > > Eric
    > >
    > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
    > >
    > >
    > >
    >
    >
    > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
    >



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