RARA-AVIS: polar posts

judith feaster (jfeaster@email.gc.cuny.edu)
Wed, 19 Nov 1997 15:30:28 Thank you very much for your posts, Etienne, Laurent, Steve and others. I
do read in French and have read novels by many of the French authors you
bring up, but not too many of them.I read Leo Malet's BROUILLARD AU PONT
TOLBIAC and have heard about his Nestor Burma series each set in a
different arrondissement. And I saw one of the comic books, too! I liked
the comic much better than the novel. I would love to know where I could
get a copy of the Daeninckx comic.

The phenomenon of San-Antonio is certainly intriguing. A French woman once
mentioned to me that she threw them out when she finished reading them. Can
you imagine?? Here we are carefully guarding our precious Pocket Books and
Livres de Poche, trying to keep them whole, and people are throwing books
out. This is an aspect of pulp writing not often discussed here - their
"nowness" and disposability. Did you all read the article Terence Rafferty
wrote in GQ criticizing the Library of America's publication of the
AMERICAN NOIR classics? I sort of hope most of you don't really read GQ but
this is a recent article that you should definitely read if you can. It's
maddening - he argues that the hardboiled, pulp fiction of that time should
not become the exalted literature of our time as if that would somehow
compromise both it and us.

I think that what we like about hardboiled literature is that we like to
read it over and over, just for the writing. Some people criticize Chandler
for his muddy plots but I think that's part of his work to deemphasize
narrative and focus more on rhetoric and imagery - just like film noir
...and jazz.

On the hardboiled subject, what do you all know about Simonin's TOUCHEZ PAS
AU GRISBI ? I saw in an old video guide that it was made into a film but I
have never seen it and as far as I know it's not on video. It's an
interesting, gritty novel published not long after the war with the
weirdest thing ever - a glossary of the slang used in the back. Does anyone
know of an American counterpart to this? Has anyone else ever done this?

Hey, Josh, I am preparing to do an orals section on hardboiled, too. What
are you including? I'm hoping to just discuss a few novels closely but I
haven't made my list yet. My examiner on that section is Vincent
Crapanzano, the anthropologist. Seems appropriate, I guess.

Thanks again, sorry this is so long, JUDY

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