--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick J Lambe"
<patlambe@p...> wrote:
> I read my favorite definition of Noir vs Hard Boiled
in an
interview
> "hard-boiled is about tough guys who win, and noir
is about
tough
> guys who lose."
This does not suffice to cover a lot of noir classics.
Willeford's Figueras was not tough: he was obsessed and he
slowly went crazy. The same goes for the protagonist of
Harrington's Dark Ride, and for all the protagonists of Jason
Starr's novels. In fact, it seems that most noir protagonists
are *not* tough. They are guys waiting (or asking) for
something terrible to happen to them.
On the other hand, a lot of tough guys in hardboiled novels
don't win. Lew Archer is a good example: he rarely solves
anything. In fact, things are often much worse after his
intervention. The hardboiled tough guys can lose, though they
are not defeated morally, they don't implode. Instead, they
just suffer for a while with the help of the bottle
conveniently kept in the lower left-hand drawer of their
battered desks in shabby office buildings otherwise occupied
by dubious dentists, failed philatelists and various hopeful
scammers.
Best,
MrT
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads.
Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for
free!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/kqIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 23 Aug 2004 EDT