Richard,
Re your comments below:
> One thing I like about you Jim is the
absolute
> certainty you have in your opinions. But I have
a
> question about the above post.
It's easy to be absolutely certain when you're absolutely
right.
> You state that a)Mr. Duhamel coined the term
and
> therefore he has "the right to set the
parameters"
> and the right to decide which writers are
included.
> Given that, his opinion, in other words, is
beyond
> challenge.
Whoever coined the word gets to use it to describe what s/he
wants described. Whoever uses it to describe something else
is misusing the term. That, I think, is pretty much
unassailable.
Duhamel use of the term "noir" as an adjective to describe a
certain kind of crime fiction was clearly not as restrictive
as some would like it to be. Using it in a more restrictive
sense is misusing it.
> Okay, but then we have b)Doherty's
ironclad
> certainty that noir is defined by a dark
and
> sinister atmosphere.
>
> I need to check the Siere Noir list again
but
> certainly it includes novels that do not have a
dark
> and senister atmosphere. If some of those
were
> chosen by Mr. Duhamel, are they noir by
Duhamel
> fiat? Or, are they ruled out because they do
not
> have the only characteristics you deem as
defining?
I haven't seen a list of every single book ever published
under the Serie Noir imprint. And if I did, It's unlikely
that I would have read them all.
The common element I discern from the disparate Serie Noir
books with which I am familiar, and from the films made from
those books or in the tradition of those books, and really
the ONLY common element I discern, is, to one degree or
another, a dark and sinister atmosphere.
I can't speak to the books I'm not familiar with, but I CAN
say that's all the books I AM familiar with have in common
aside from being mysteries.
If there are Serie Noir books that don't even have THAT
element, than "noir" is reduced to nothing more than a
synonym for "mystery" or "crime fiction," but, in the ones I
AM familiar with, that single common element is so evident
that it's rather easy to infer that it's an editorial
decision to choose books that have that common element. And
that's what I infer.
> And, by the way, it was good to meet you at
Malice
> Domestic and I am enjoying your book.
Likewise and thanks.
JIM DOHERTY
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