Excellent and thanks for the reference to Musil which prompts readings long
delayed...and it also prompted me to research Zamyatin and synesthesia...
Thanks
Montois
On 7/25/09 12:00 PM, "jacquesdebierue" <jacquesdebierue@yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com <mailto:rara-avis-l%40yahoogroups.com> ,
> Steve Novak <Cinefrog@...> wrote:
>> >
>> > Are you being ironic...?
>> >
>> > The reality is that whatever shades of noir still exist ...and they are
>> > multiple and shifting all the time...noir is doing a fantastic businees
>> > around the world, both in books and in movies, including Tv shows...and of
>> > course fashion, music and art...In other words noir aesthetics are a
>> > prevalent trend and the recuperation by the media at large (including book
>> > publications of course) of those aesthetics has been a dominant force in
>> > branding and advertising...This has created abominations in the eyes of
>> > purists, and wonderful and innovative productions alike...
>> > Iım appaled at times by the power of the regurgitating media machine and >>
Iım
>
> I was talking with someone the other day about how the era of Franz Kafka is
> so NOW... this was in the context of the world in the decade and a half before
> World War I and the similarities with the current situation. Kafka had an
> uncanny sense of smell as well as the ability to project the big picture -- to
> those who were attuned. That big picture was and is the essence of noir. You
> might say that Kafka didn't invent it but instead discovered it as an
> essentially modern phenomenon.
>
> Because of the power of that vision, we don't really think that a guy in a
> noir novel is going to shoot his way out of anything. There is no possible
> escape.
>
> Noirists would do well to marry their vision to the spiritual leadership of
> Franz Kafka. Not only is this strictly appropriate, but it also marries them
> to the greatest writer of the previous century. One could add Robert Musil to
> the mix. Seemingly prosperous societies, at the peak you might say, rotten to
> the core and some people smelling something far away... smelling the NOW.
>
> One could also add the great Zamyatin. The smell was felt in various places,
> all around the same time...
>
> Noir is not about criminals, even, it's certainly not about psychopaths,
> though it can have harbor them and justify them easily... it's about the
> nightmare that Kafka discovered for us.
>
> mrt
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