Re: RARA-AVIS: Early Noir

From: harry.lerner@mail.mcgill.ca
Date: 21 May 2007


Hello All,

I've really enjoyed this thread about early noir, so thanks to everyone who has voiced an opinion.

I'm by no means an expert on noir or hard-boiled fiction and film, but my background in anthropology/archaeology leads me to believe that trying to pin-point the exact origins of this or any other genre is next to impossible. Like any other developmental process, noir developed over a long period of time and singling out a particular novel or short story as the first will always be an excercise in subjectivity.

The discussion regarding whether LITTLE CEASAR is noir or not is a perfect example of the co-existence of equally valid yet quite different points of view. It seems we always come back to the question of what is noir, what is hard-boiled, and how do the two relate to each other. As long as this debate rages on, so will the one about their origins. This of course is no justification for giving up the chase!

Best, Harry
  Quoting Michael Robison < miker_zspider@yahoo.com>:

> Mark wrote:
>
> Of course, this is all begging the question of whether
> noir started in novels. Or did it start in short
> stories in the pulps before these authors wrote
> novels?
>
> *************
> I see Cain's Postman as the beginning of the genre.
>
> miker
>
>
>
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