As we transition from October Horror to Noirvember, it\u2019s maybe worth saying they\u2019re kinda cousins. Both are about darkness, both are about inescapable evil, and both make for good David Fincher material. Honestly? Both are kinda literature for moralists. For as much as the fans of these genres love to sit in the atmosphere of hopelessness, despair, and terror\u2014I don\u2019t think you read these genres without having a little hope. <\/p>
Or maybe I\u2019m naive. Who\u2019s that behind me? It\u2019s either a vampire, or Eddie Mars. <\/p>
What I\u2019ve Been Reading Lately:<\/strong><\/p> Quick CWs:<\/em> to read 1930s-1940s noir is to come across casual bigotry that you almost miss because it\u2019s so<\/em> old-timey and so<\/em> not part of the way anyone reading this blog is trying to live in the 21st century. Fortunately, in this book, it\u2019s not \u201chuh, didn\u2019t know that slur for Danish people even existed\u201d or \u201che said Hondurans eat what<\/em>?\u201d There are a couple of gay men who are treated not very well by cops (being cops), there\u2019s some casual misogyny, there\u2019s the old slap-a-dame-who\u2019s-drugged-see-if-it\u2019ll-wake-her-up. I think there\u2019s a real heart and attempt to be good at the center of this novel, but it is<\/em> pretty hopelessly 1930s.<\/p> That all said, the language in this book (positive)! The descriptions! The swagger, not from a made-for-Bogart protagonist, but from seeing your environment in a wholly unique way. The Romantic approach to living in a rotten world. It\u2019s a novel written for writers by a writer\u2019s writer (who, admittedly, was writing a potboiler to make money). It\u2019s often imitated, but only ever surpassed by the Coen Bros. I\u2019m talking, of course, about The Big Sleep<\/em> by Raymond Chandler. <\/p> The most unrealistic thing about this novel is that it rains in Los Angeles twice in the course of a week. Everything else is basically \u201clet\u2019s dramatize how awful capitalism is.\u201d To me, that\u2019s the heart of noir: not necessarily rolling around in the muck with shady characters for the sake of slumming it, but to get a working class look up at the sins of rich people or the impossibility of becoming a rich person if you weren\u2019t born one. Of the Big Three (Hammet, Chandler, Cain), it\u2019s kind of a no-contest who\u2019s the best\u2014no one makes a page sing like Raymond Chandler. Even if I appreciate Cain for varying up his protagonists more and considering, at least for a passing moment, that a woman might pick up one of his books one day. <\/p> Let\u2019s dispel some clich\u00e9s: I don\u2019t think the word \u201cdame\u201d is used once in this novel, and if it is, it sailed right past me. It\u2019s not all grim and gray. All of the action takes place during the day in Los Angeles<\/em>, one of the most beautiful cities we have. It\u2019s not actually that complex of a plot, even though it has that reputation\u2014I think Faulkner maybe just drank his way through the screenplay, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s confusing. They spell everything out two or three times in the last 10 pages or so. It\u2019s also very, very funny. A few choice quotes: <\/p> \u201cHair like steel wool grew far back on his head and gave him a domed brown forehead that might at careless glance seemed a dwelling place for brains.\u201d<\/p> \u201cIt seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.\u201d<\/p> \u201cI don’t mind your showing me your legs. They’re very swell legs and it’s a pleasure to make their acquaintace. I don’t mind if you don’t like my manners. They’re pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter nights.\u201d<\/p> \u201c\u2018Tall, aren’t you?\u2019 she said. Of course, it\u2019s not as funny as The Big Lebowski<\/em>. If you don\u2019t feel like Chandler, just go watch Lebowski, man. <\/p>![\"book:](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/78d65235-419b-4751-9b47-1792ad0fa419_3024x4032.jpeg\")
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