a.n. sez:
<< The professor said about my thought, "To equate pulp
with gothic is to do violence to both terms." Which I think
is a pretty awful thing to say. Gothic and noir share so many
elements, but because of the "feminization" of gothic early
on, they sort of laughed my comments off, as they were
moreinterested in talking about gender issues and historical
perspective in defining what gothic is. >>
Golly, seems to me there is quite a bit in common between the
gothic and noir genres. They may not always use the same
techniques in their efforts to generate anxiety, but that
doesn't mean you can't even discuss the terms. As far as that
goes, any attempts to "do violence to both terms" would
probably do them a world of good.
While we might have some trouble finding common ground
between Radcliffe and Ellroy, who could deny the importance
of *investigation* as a plot tool (to take just one example)
in such gothic classics as Stoker's
_Dracula_ or much of Lovecraft's longer fiction. Sure,
Jonathan Harker and Dr Van Helsing are a far cry from the
hard-boiled detective. But it isn't that hard to imagine a
hard-boiled, noirish gothic novel. All we need is to get
Spade bitten by a vampire so he could investigate his own
murder. I think Cairo, Gutman and Wilmer would all look
*great* in black capes...
Cheers, --- Phil, who's lost his mind for a moment
Lycé¥ Astier, Aubenas, France
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