I don't know that noir is always about a reaction to war, but
I liked what was said about darkness and disappointment.
Those factors seem to be the spur to increasing wave of
"street lit" authors. The emerging genre, which seems to gain
some respect now that white-owened publishers are picking up
some of the bestselling authors, seeks to make sense of black
ghetto life. The stories about drugs, prostitution, violence
and prison are an indication for a style of novel that is
more authentic to the African American mass culture, and a
reaction to the ongoing struggle to survive in a rracist,
capitalist system. I guess that is a kind of war.
vincent f. a. golphin
--- Tim Wohlforth <
tim@timwohlforth.com> wrote:
> To answer Brian Thorton. You are right. I was
not
> clear. I wanted to
> draw a parallel to the whole WWII-Immediate
Post
> WWII period to the
> whole Post 9/11 period which continues. It seems
to
> me the original noir
> was one reaction to the darkness of war and
the
> disappointments of its
> immediate aftermath. The musical and other
Hollywood
> fluff was another
> reaction (and to the Depression that preceded
the
> war.) And so today we
> have both fluff, cozies, escapist "Reality "
shows
> based on becoming
> Donald Trump's assistant and Mystic River, and
other
> dark works.
>
> The question to probe is why the noir? Why
the
> escapism is a no
> brainer. There seems to be a need to probe
darkness
> in a dark period.
> Cathartic like telling ghost stories late at
night
> in a house in the
> woods as a small child. Maybe its like clearing
the
> throat with cool
> water after a dose of a saccharine-laced
drink.
> Perhaps to find, if only
> in a highly individualistic way, a partial way
out
> of darkness, a
> triumph of the good on a small human scale. Maybe
we
> sense a need to try
> to understand the dark side of the human
experience
> since it manifests
> itself so strongly around us.
>
> But it is pervasive. Take the latest Star
Wars,
> Batman Begins, Sin City,
> Dogtown.
>
>
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