The desire for reform seems to be what gets humanity and so
many noir characters into trouble to begin with, especially
as we seek the power to implement our "improvements." But
noir writers also recognize that reform is essentially
impossible, or its benefits, at best, fleeting. It's a
central contradiction that leads to the use and necessity of
dark humour. Still I don't see why noir writers should or
possibly even could deny their humanity by failing to
advocate for reform. It's just that they carry the story
further by showing what becomes of such reforms.
I think this is similar to the question: "What about
hope?"
Hope looks after itself, rising in the most unlikely of
circumstances simply because that is what people do. It is
characteristic of human existence. It is what sustains us as
a pretty smart species, but one never quite smart enough to
figure everything out. Hope is the problem.
Even if we advocate for the end of hope, it ain't gonna
happen.
Best, Kerry
At 10:33 AM 24/11/2006 +0000, you wrote:
>Jay:
>
> > I assume that novelists who can
> > be called noir, like Cain, McCoy, Algren,
Dahlberg, Fante, or
> > Benjamin Appel are not social reformers or
proletarian novelists
>inciting to
> > social change, and that social reformers like
James T Farrell,
>John Dos
> > Passos or Michael Gold, however much they deal
with evil, the
>criminal
> > underclass, and political corruption, cannot be
considered noir or
> > hardboiled. Does this distinction make
sense?
>
>I believe this is just what the Marxist theorists
meant when they
>said that this kind of gloomy, pessimistic literature
- or pessimism
>and nihilism themselves - cannot do good for the
mankind, but only
>makes the readers more passive toward the society.
It's essentially
>the same thing that Georg Lukacs said about Franz
Kafka.
>
>Hope I'm not opening Pandora's box again.
:)
>
>Juri
>
>
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