Noir Redux

I want to thank Sarah again for this great opportunity to step forward from lurker status and guest blog. I’d sure love to do it again, if you’ll have me back.

Also, thinking on and off today (while at the ole day job) about Sarah’s opening query re: the future of noir fiction and women noir writers. I think one of the reasons it’s hard to prognosticate is that so much of (classic) noir is, in many ways, deeply nostalgic, filled with yearning for a Time Before (before world wars, before perceived urban decay, before … well, a lot of social progress). You could argue that, when one tries to “do” noir today, one either has to 1) embrace the nostalgia fully (by simulating classic noir, deadpan) or 2) take a kitschy, ironic perspective. Or , I guess, both (maybe like Sin City?).

On the other hand, I myself would like to take the view that noir isn’t just nostalgic (even if some of its more famous characters are), but is also essentially anarchic, e.g., an attack on status quo, or an outsider romance (and the outsider need not be the traditional tough guy; in my book, the outsiders are women of various stripes—a schoolteacher, her wily sister-in-law, a hard-living b-girl). That anarchic quality is then why writers as far back as Dorothy B. Hughes (big thanks to Sarah for pointing me to her), the brilliant Chester Himes (who takes on Chandler, Hammett, et al), filmmakers like David Lynch and onward have been able to manipulate noir and stretch it to suit new voices, new times, new perspectives——while still remaining within noir’s dark dreamscape.

Okay–I’ve given myself a headache. I need to think more about this. Would love to hear what others think. And thanks again!