Well, there are loads of good sports novels about the action
on the field, but it would be hard for any of them to be noir
novels. Probably the closest I can think of is Tom Wolfe's I
AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS, in which the political intricacies of
college basketball play a large part in the plot, as well as
the unraveling of a "smart" girl's constitution, certainly
making it hard boiled if not noir. Wolfe did a similar thing
for college football (and horse breeding) in A MAN IN FULL.
But the political angle is a paramount part of it for it to
impact the world of noir or hard boiled fiction. There was a
hurling match a few years ago in Ireland in which a member of
the opposing team stole the girlfriend of a player on the
rival team and in the middle of the game, the rival bashed
the opposing players brains out with his hurling stick. Now,
that's noir in sports! But for it to be noir, that personal
element has to come into it. The reason sports are sports is
because at the end of the day it doesn't really matter who
wins, while in a duel, for example, it definitely does
matter. So duels are better subjects for noir novels that
sports unless the sporting circumstance has some other
element to create the noir vibe.
Patrick King
--- Charlie Williams <
cs_will@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I love that film. But isn't it more sports
politics
> than actual
> sports? Not being picky, just trying to home in
on
> some examples
> where the actual playing of the game is what
it's
> all about. It's
> easy to find examples in not noir/HB: Mean
Machine,
> Escape to
> Victory... Erm, I'll start again. Rocky, Rocky
I,
> Rocky II... Plenty
> of baseball films too. But curiously few
non-US
> sports, which is
> where we come back to rugby. Maybe the yanks
are
> just better at doing
> sports in cinema.
>
> Anyone who really likes soccer should check
out
> Zidane: A 21st
> Century Portrait. Mesmerising (or
spectacularly
> boring, depending on
> your taste) and actually quite noirish, in a
subtle
> way.
>
> Charlie
>
> ----------
> charliewilliams.net
>
>
> --- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Juri Nummelin"
> <juri.nummelin@...> wrote:
> >
> > Would THE LAST BOY SCOUT merit in any
way?
> >
> > Juri
> >
>
>
>
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