I've enjoyed catching up on this latest edition of Rara Avis'
semi-annual Noir Definition Debate. It's hard to disagree
with anything that's been written this go-round, which
suggests that perhaps the term noir might have become too
generalized to be of value?
But something specific and different did happen in the novels
that became movies that went to France to claim a name as a
genre, and I think it helps to remember that this was an
American literary movement. I suggest the early works of the
hardboil school mark a change in the attitude of the rugged
individualist heralded of the Western genre, in which the
protagonist tried to escape, or distance himself from the
corruption of the big cities to the east by heading out to
the wide-open spaces of the west.
In early noir, this individualist turns to confront the
corruptions inherent in urban, communal life often
discovering in the process that those evils, temptations,
compromises spring from within. This focus has since been
applied to other settings, and recognized in numerous
precedents, but I think it might be this American loss of
innocence at the heart of what we call noir.
Having said that, I'd like to consider the early Canadian
influences on the genre, through two founding authors.
Chandler was educated in England, spent most of his life in
the US, but served during the First World War with the
Canadian Expeditionary Force. We've all discussed the
influence of war on the genre, and it should be worth noting
that the experience of Canadians in the trenches was
different from that of the Brits, under whose command they
first served. It wasn't until after Canadian troops were put
under the command of more innovative Canadian officers that
they achieved their battle successes, often where others had
previously failed. Under the upper-class Brits, Canucks had
been expendable cannon-fodder like everyone else. I've always
felt this influenced the way Chandler portrayed the warm but
firmly distant relationship between Marlowe and the Colonel
in The Big Sleep. Sure, the kids were a trial, we can
sympathize with the parent, but who raised them? We confront
the evil inherent in social class structures.
It's also worth noting that the Canadian western experience
did not herald the individualism as in the US. Literature
here paid more attention to the distinct possibilities of
freezing, starving or madness through the isolation of a
long, cold, Canadian winter. The emphasis was on survival,
often achieved by desperate attempts to maintain social
relationships and communities in sparsely populated regions.
In the twentieth century the Canadian prairie province of
Saskatchewan elected the first socialist government in North
America, and then became the first to institute Medicare.
People knew the value of looking out for one another on the
sparsely populated province. In many cases, Canadian settlers
were desperate to get off the land and into the cities. The
darkness of the literature from rural experience in Canada is
more gothic, with evil resident in the landscape.
The noir of Ross MacDonald owes more to Ontario repression,
where MacDonald grew up. Ontario was the last place in the
British Empire where the sentence for treason, hanging,
drawing and quartering, was literally carried out. It's more
than ironic that the sentenced were Americans, in the early
stages of the War of 1812. Their heads were piked on a
distinctive geological formation in the community where I now
live, as warning to visitors. That war heralded a bit of a
social revolution in Upper Canada whose first European
settlers were actually American refugees from the War of
Independence in the 13 colonies. During the war of 1812 these
folks were often deemed untrustworthy, because many were in
fact members of pacifist religious sects and not loyalists,
and many still had U.S. family and social connections.
English and Scots from the homeland began to dominate the
local power structure, instituting a feudal cabal, called the
Family Compact, that was more repressive and closed than
anything in Britain itself at that time.
Sorry for the history lesson, but there are elements of that
Toryism in Ontario politics today. Much of what gets done in
the world gets done here, but quietly, behind a polite smile
because we're a kinder, gentler folk than those ruffians to
the south, don't you know. I think it is that kind of quiet,
ingrained corruption that MacDonald's unattached,
individualist confronts in the Archer novels.
I've gotten a lot for my 2 cents here, doncha think?
Kerry
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Literary events Calendar (South Ont.) http://www.lit-electric.com
The evil men do lives after them http://www.murderoutthere.com
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