Al, it's not necessarily a confrontation with death, but more
something they can't live with. My two earlier examples, A
Hell of a Woman and Pop. 1280 are examples of this, and Mr.
Arkadin is also a perfect example of this--it's the
character's betrayal of his girlfriend that he can't live
with, even though the betrayal was necessary to save himself.
"Double Indemnity" is also a good example-
-Huff and Phyliss have nothing waiting for them but death,
and death is actually a release for them. The hopeless state
in these characters (and in my opinion the best of noir) has
nothing to do with any confrontation with death, but their
own psychic destruction.
--Dave
Btw. Agree Marv was pure hardboiled--nothing noirish about
his fate.
Mark--I mentioned "The Name of the Game is Death" because of
the follow ons--"One Endless Hour" and the string of soft
porn books afterwards. So while Drake seemed completely
screwed, the follow-on books allowed him to wriggle out.
;)
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "al_guthrie65"
<allan@...> wrote:
>
> Dave,
>
> Isn't 'a confrontation with death' what leads these
'walking dead'
> protagonists to their final hopeless state? The
'confrontation
with
> death' I mention below doesn't have to be the
protagonist's own.
It
> usually isn't. Mortality is nonetheless key. Think
of Mike Hammer
in
> that brilliantly noir opening chapter of ONE ENDLESS
NIGHT
> (otherwise a terrible novel). We've probably all
read detective
> novels where death has little consequence, where a
murder is just
a
> problem to be solved. But in noir, death's reach is
long and its
> grasp is firm. And, unfortunately, there's no one to
chop its arm
> off at the elbow. Not even Mike Hammer.
>
> As for the electric chair analogy, I was thinking of
Marv from SIN
> CITY. Hardboiled, and then some.
>
> Al
>
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