Re: RARA-AVIS: Subject Matter

Laurent Lehmann (llehmann@club-internet.fr)
Tue, 25 Nov 1997 17:37:42 +0000 SYNEFROG (what's your name ?) wrote :

> this brings one thought to the surface though: when i read 'hardboiled
> fiction' i, as a frenchman, read it in fact as 'noir' instantly...does it
> mean the same to you and to the majority of english speakers...

Well I, as another Frenchman, make a very definite distinction
before 'noir' and 'hardboiled'. In short : 'Noir' reflects a
pessimistic outview on the world and the people who live in it.
'Hardboiled' is more, in my eyes, a 'tough guy in a tough world'
kind of feeling. Meaning you can live in a hard world and have all
the odds against you, but you don't let it get you down, whereas
noir characters are beaten from the start, and act like they know it.

For instance, Marlowe and Spillane are hardboiled. Thompson
and Goodis are noir. And some people are both.

Of course, the subject is worthy of more than a post
though-out and written in two minutes, but for more comments, you
should check the list's very first archives, where we went on and on
for weeks without ever reaching any satisfying conclusion...
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