RARA-AVIS: atomic fear vs. noir (was: postmodern noir)

Myshmysh (Myshmysh@aol.com)
Wed, 10 Dec 1997 15:12:49 EST Pynchon's fears, at least in L49 and Gravity's Rainbow (haven't read the
others), are atomic. The whole world is going to go boom, so how do we
survive, and make sense, here-and-now? Paranoia works for Pynchon, addiction
for Burroughs, whimsy for Calvino, etc. Granted that "it's the end of the
world as we know it" can also mean that day-to-day existence shifts so quickly
we can get lost. But that isn't noir.

A noir fear is a very personal, this _will_ hurt kind of fear. It's the fear
that nothing will ever change. The fear that humans have always been beasts
and will remain beasts. Noir isn't the fear of impersonal forces, rather it's
the desperate smell of cordite in a small and dirty room, the killer's smile
as he stabs and stabs and stabs, the beautiful girl with a heart as cold as
winter saying, "I never loved you."

Cheers,
myshmysh
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.