From the “The Gold Coast Section,” I have chosen the story number one as an example of noir, the title of the story is “The Girl who Kissed Barnaby Jones.” We can relate this story to one of the best seller film noir novel, Double Indemnity. In this novel the main character is seduced to commit a passionate crime by the femme fatale Mrs. Nirdlinger. The male protagonist Tate seems like a loner and loser, he pretty much looks like he has no life or that he does not have anything to do, once this beautiful woman Cherie calls him he is ready to go, and he actually makes it more clear that will do anything for her” If she asked me to shovel shit I’d asked her she needed shoveled” (287). In this passage it is noticeable how easy he let Cherie controls him to do what ever she wants. Also he allow her to control him for his own convenience, just to get what he wants that in this case is sex” I have a great big boner with Cherie’s name on it”(287). After they sleep together (sex) Cherie as the femme fatale shows Tate the corpse of her husband, she puts an act to excuse the fact that she kills him. But Tate doesn’t really believes her, and this is what make this story different from the character of film noir it has this little twist, Tate decides no to help and instead he fights against her, he ran away from the house and in a desperate he calls the cop.”” He did what Walter from double indemnity was not able to do, he did not trapped as rat in maze in Cherie’s seductive devices, and instead he decided to stay in the good side. Besides this entire plot I did not like the end he gets kill and evil won. Still we get this image of darkness and seduction from film Noir but we get this little twist from Neo Noir that send the message that Now a days crime does pay.
The story that does not classify as film Noir is "Kinship, " in most of the story he author is just narrating the life of the main character. this character is half Filipino man that struggle during his teenage years, he becomes in a gang member and goes back to the Philippines where he finds out about his family roots. at the end of thsi story they just stabbed a man. i was not able to see much of Noir elements in this story.
I agree with you in both stories the first story does give a strong connection to double indemnity but the only thing is that Tate does not become her accomplice after she asked him to help her get rid of the body. Even though at the end were Tate hears the sirens of the cops all he can think of how pretty she still looks. The second story I didn't really like it it didn't give any quotation it was just some long paragraphs and it was not that interesting to read pretty much all they wanted to get is revenge from the bully and the flashbacks of his rough time during his teen years in gangs.
ReplyDeleteI actually liked Kinship. I thought it was a real shocker at the end when he says that he was actually the father of the little boy who had got bullied. Barnaby Jones seems to be a favorite among a lot of people, because I felt that way too. It was a lot like Double Indemnity. I really liked that one!
ReplyDeleteSeems to be pretty unanimous that The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones was a top pick for being most noir like. I agree with your comments made in your blog, this story had the ideas and themes that make a novel/story noir. Your comparison to Double Indemnity was accurate and gave something to compare it with. As far as the least noir like that you choose, Kinship, i also agree. It was a lot of flashbacks about his old life and although flashbacks are part of noir, his life story made the story hard to get through without wanting to put the book down. Good job on your blog and interesting views on the stories.
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