At 06:54 PM 14/10/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>"Or were capable of abstract thought..."
>
>I'm not sure the ability for abstract thought is
necessary for a noir
>protagonist. For instance, Royston Blake in Charlie
William's Deadfolk
>(which I'm enjoying very much, by the way) certainly
doesn't seem
>capable of it.
You may be right, and I'm glad you've taken me up on this. I
suggest (not originally) that the whole of western literature
is based upon the idea of aspiration. The protagonist has a
goal toward which he/she aspires. The antagonist is an
impediment toward the acquisition of that goal. In the
romantic genre the goal is attained. In tragedy it is
frustrated, though this is often intended to be
instructional: If the reader avoids the tragic flaws of the
protagonist then life will be better. In noir the aspiration
toward a better world is deemed impossible from the get-go.
Nevertheless people continue to harbour aspirations. It's the
Catch 22 of the human condition. To aspire toward a better
world, one must first be able to imagine something other than
the world in which we exist. That requires abstract
thought.
Though it comes close, that's not quite the same as saying
the protagonist displays much in the way of abstract thought.
I'd be interested in hearing about exceptions. People are
influenced by others, and memory comes into it too, I'm
sure.
And to be honest, I own a dog not a cat, a much inferior
creature according to the cat-owners of my acquaintance. I
can only say (as I said at the Bouchercon panel) that my dog
appears to spend very little time imagining heaven or hell or
whether the sofa would look better on the other side of the
family room.
Best Kerry
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