Tim Slee's Blog: How's the Serenity? - Posts Tagged "hero"
Old noir new noir same noir?
You ever tried alternating books in the same genre that were written about ninety years apart?
Yeah why, right? I just happened to start Dash Hammett's Red Harvest and then Altered Carbon appeared on Netflix and I watched an episode of that and realised I was sooooo late to the party and had to read the books before seeing the series and so right now I am trying to finish Red Harvest and start Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan.
What a headspin. What's interesting is the style similarities that define noir hold true nearly ninety years apart (Red Harvest was written in 1929!) Both have:
Messed up protagonist with sketchy history- check!
Almost impossible to follow plots with sub-plots that wind through wormholes to nowhere before deciding where they are going and leave you asking, 'wait, what happened there?'- check
View of women characters (sigh) either as victims or as sex objects - check
This last one is pretty disappointing considering that Red Harvest was written 90 years ago and the sexism is almost to be expected given the period in which it was written whereas a novel like Altered Carbon, written in 2002 should show that the equality needle has moved a notch or two in the intervening years but ... nah. Altered carbon does have a female protagonist who is a cop, which wasn't the case in 1929, but she basically just bumbles along behind the hard boiled hero, one step behind the whole way except of course when she inevitably falls for/under him.
Why read noir (especially two at once!) if it hurts so bad?
Because I love the snappy pulp dialogue and writing so much:
“Be still while I get up or I'll make an opening in your head for brains to leak in.” - Red Harvest
“I lay still for a while, picking up the scattered garments of my mind and trying to assemble some kind of reasonable outfit from them.” - Altered Carbon
Both books are full of such gems, coming close to, but not quite reaching the heights of the master, Raymond Chandler:
“I lit a cigarette and dragged a smoking stand beside the chair. The minutes went by on tiptoe, with their fingers to their lips.”
“I went back along the silent hallway. The self-operating lift was carpeted in red plush. It had an elderly perfume in it, like three widows drinking tea.”
“I'm an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard.”
No list of noir quotes is complete without a little Elmore Leonard too:
“I spent most of my dough on booze, broads and boats and the rest I wasted.”
"Wonderful things can happen", Vincent said, "When you plant seeds of distrust in a garden of assholes."
“You thinkin bout the time I shot you and you rose from the dead? It only happens once in your life."
“You know what people who go to nude beaches look like?"
"Tell me."
"People who shouldn't go to nude beaches."
And of course, my favorite piece of author advice, from Chandler...
“In writing a novel, when in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns.”
For melodic writing like this, I can cringe and bear the off-notes!
Yeah why, right? I just happened to start Dash Hammett's Red Harvest and then Altered Carbon appeared on Netflix and I watched an episode of that and realised I was sooooo late to the party and had to read the books before seeing the series and so right now I am trying to finish Red Harvest and start Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan.
What a headspin. What's interesting is the style similarities that define noir hold true nearly ninety years apart (Red Harvest was written in 1929!) Both have:
Messed up protagonist with sketchy history- check!
Almost impossible to follow plots with sub-plots that wind through wormholes to nowhere before deciding where they are going and leave you asking, 'wait, what happened there?'- check
View of women characters (sigh) either as victims or as sex objects - check
This last one is pretty disappointing considering that Red Harvest was written 90 years ago and the sexism is almost to be expected given the period in which it was written whereas a novel like Altered Carbon, written in 2002 should show that the equality needle has moved a notch or two in the intervening years but ... nah. Altered carbon does have a female protagonist who is a cop, which wasn't the case in 1929, but she basically just bumbles along behind the hard boiled hero, one step behind the whole way except of course when she inevitably falls for/under him.
Why read noir (especially two at once!) if it hurts so bad?
Because I love the snappy pulp dialogue and writing so much:
“Be still while I get up or I'll make an opening in your head for brains to leak in.” - Red Harvest
“I lay still for a while, picking up the scattered garments of my mind and trying to assemble some kind of reasonable outfit from them.” - Altered Carbon
Both books are full of such gems, coming close to, but not quite reaching the heights of the master, Raymond Chandler:
“I lit a cigarette and dragged a smoking stand beside the chair. The minutes went by on tiptoe, with their fingers to their lips.”
“I went back along the silent hallway. The self-operating lift was carpeted in red plush. It had an elderly perfume in it, like three widows drinking tea.”
“I'm an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard.”
No list of noir quotes is complete without a little Elmore Leonard too:
“I spent most of my dough on booze, broads and boats and the rest I wasted.”
"Wonderful things can happen", Vincent said, "When you plant seeds of distrust in a garden of assholes."
“You thinkin bout the time I shot you and you rose from the dead? It only happens once in your life."
“You know what people who go to nude beaches look like?"
"Tell me."
"People who shouldn't go to nude beaches."
And of course, my favorite piece of author advice, from Chandler...
“In writing a novel, when in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns.”
For melodic writing like this, I can cringe and bear the off-notes!
How's the Serenity?
A blog about the fun of balancing life, work, family, friends, writing and karma... mostly writing and karma.
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