“…he asked him jokingly why they had to kill Santiago Nasar since there were so many other rich people who deserved dying first.” – Gabriel García Márquez, ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’
Welcome to Noirvember, which feels weird, because Halloween was yesterday. Horror and noir have a fair amount in common—an aesthetics of a dearth of light, for one. The runner-up epigraph this week was “He always considered death an unavoidable professional hazard”—words to live by for horror and noir characters.
The books I’m reading this month are not Bogart-as-Marlowe/Spade-gun-and-dame crime fiction (which noir hasn’t been for a long time), but I think fit the idea of the world being a bleak place where you constantly have to struggle. And, to ease the transition after a month of reading slashers, we’re reading a book where a guy gets VERY knifed to death.
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What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
A book that should get more credit for inventing the True Crime documentary? That’s probably not true, and I’ve never really read Capote beyond a few short stories, but man. The structure of this novel! Let’s be honest—it’s my second favorite writer, I’m gonna find this book magic, and not just because of the magic realism. No, every new chapter, I was struck by how cleverly put together this book is, what a remarkable way this story is told. I’ve started it a few times but somehow never finished it, and it’s somehow better than I could’ve even predicted. I’m talking, of course, about Chronicle Of A Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez.
It’s a short novel, told in five sections. It’s the story of more than simply the principal players, as is to be expected from a guy so influenced by Pedro Páramo. It’s a story where information is doled out carefully and thoughtfully, the way a true crime miniseries or whatever might be like “up front: they killed him, and everyone knew they were going to” and then really elucidating who “they” and “him” and “everyone” is slowly. What I want to say about the way information is revealed in this book, I’m not sure, because cliches like “masterfully” and “at just the right time” keep coming to mind. It’s really, like—idk, Gabo doing a 140-page novel about an honor killing in a small town is sort of like buying a chair, finding it to be incredibly comfortable, and then learning Jesus made it. You’re a first-century Palestinian in this metaphor, btw.
Do we want to talk about honor killings? Not particularly. They are gross, retrograde, and based on a politics that denies women agency and denies that sex is a thing people can do simply because they’re consenting adults and it’s fun. None of this had to happen if you all just read some bell hooks, I shout unhelpfully at the pages. There are shades of Emmett Till—some doubt is cast as to whether Santiago Nasar even slept with Ángela Vicario. There’s a reminder that money cannot buy happiness, with the saga of Bayardo San Román purchasing his house from underneath a widower. Could you write this exact same story and set it in Smyrna, TN? Yeah, probably. It’s almost like a society where money is king and religious prudishness is strictly enforced is bad anywhere. When you describe the events of the book rather than the technique, it becomes harder to say “I love this book!” But I do. It’s bleak, but with that trademark Gabo magic.
LINKS!
Something to listen to while you browse? Did you know there’s a new Halloween special of the Lazy & Entitled podcast? And we interview Adam Hinkle, one of the stars of the new movie Haunt Season?
We’re doing some horror, some noir—got a few links to get up from October and plus November has five Fridays anyway. This is a story from October of last year by Author This Blog Likes Isabel Cañas: “All the Things I Know About Ghosts, By Ofelia, Age 10,” up in The Deadlands.
Really enjoyed this poem, “The Crone Unfound” by Beth Gordon in Moist Poetry Journal. “All that summer we feared the unseen.” the poem begins. Start anything with “that summer” and you have my attention.
ONE MORE HORROR LINK: this piece in The New Republic by Colin Dickey about the USian suburban fears of an Indigenous Burial Ground and who actually owns the land is really good. Land Back, and also—the land has pwoer we don’t understand. Respect it!
Shifting into noir—she posted it on Bluesky recently, which is how I found it, but it’s from 2018 and it rips. Here’s the great Josie Riesman on “the endlessly attractive cynicism of The Dark Knight.” The Nolan Batmans are three of my favorite movies and wowohwow do those movies not align with my politics at all. Speaking of Josie, don’t watch that new Netflix documentary on Vince McMahon. Shamelessly ripping off the cover of her book Ringmaster. Read Josie’s book or listen to the SIX Behind The Bastards on Vince, and don’t support stuff union-busting Bill Simmons is involved in.
What’s more noir than hating cops? This is from a while ago, but feels FOREVER RELEVANT since this stupid country can’t break its police addiction. We don’t need cops, and these small towns prove it. Trisha Ahmed and Jim Salter at PBS have the story on small-town US seeing success disbanding police forces.
A central thesis of noir is that it’s just you vs. a cold, cruel world. Of course, there’s a kernel of truth there, but making that your whole thing? That’s a path for self-destruction, and a society made up of a lot of people who thought that way would be a pretty unhealthy society. Well. We in the US are deeply, deeply sick. Some people help, though. Some important pre-election reading, here’s Kelly Hayes at Truthout interviewing Che Johnson-Long about how we prepare for right wing violence.
What’re you still doing here? Didn’t I mention that there’s a new Halloween special of the Lazy & Entitled podcast?
If you work in the service industry, may you clean up in tips this weekend. Yo, the vibes are rancid rn, with the election coming up. Your customers are probably going to be awful. Remember to support your friends and ask them for help, too. Stay safe out there.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris