At 11:23 PM 26/11/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>If Himes, Goodis, and the writers mentioned in this
disucssion
>believed in or advocated political reform, or if they
were dedicated to
>describing predatory conduct by the haves against the
have nots (in
>crime narratives) they would be radically different
works, that we might
>not think of as noir.
Agreed, if Himes or Goodis wrote different stories, they'd be
different stories, but I see no reason to preclude those
stories from being noir, however.
Sam Spade throws over the possibility of love (romantic
transcendence, and I think a metaphor for Christian
transcendence) and declines the chase for whatever "dreams
are made of" (an empty icon for transcendence) in order to
survive as an individual and a businessman. You may or may
not feel that Hammett was advocating political or social
reform, but it is a POV that suggests the transcendent arts
are dangerous distractions from the struggles of life. And I
think the Maltese Falcon is as much noir as hardboil.
Best, Kerry
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