Noir Classics

[Robin Landseadel]

On Jul 9, 2009, at 12:50 PM, David Morris wrote:

> Oh, so instead of "strictures" (what I call critical judgement) you  
> just take it on faith that AtD characters  "have their specific,  
> reasonable, worthwhile functions."
>
> I tend to think that "memorable" is a basic requirement of decent  
> fiction.  How naive I've been.
> Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> First:
> I've long thought it's pointless to apply such strictures of "good  
> storytelling" or whatever here, [...]  I tend to think all tehse  
> characters/elements/events/what have you DO have tehir specific,  
> reasonable, worthwhile fuctions, they're just not the ones we're  
> generally told to expect, is all.
> Then:
> ... at any rate, tehy're yr strictures, David, "memorable,"
functional, what have you ...

George Plimpton pointed out the good/bad ages ago in his NYT review of  
"V.":

	For the author, the form of the picaresque is convenient: he can
	string together the short stories he has at hand (publishers are
	reluctant to publish short-story collections, which would suggest
	the genre is perhaps a type of compensation). Moreover -- the
	well-made, the realistic not being his concern -- the author can
	afford to take chances, to be excessive, even prolix, knowing
	that in a work of great length stretches of doubtful value can be
	excused. The author can tell his favorite jokes, throw in a song,
	indulge in a fantasy or so, include his own verse, display an
	intimate knowledge of such disparate subjects as physics,
	astronomy, art, jazz, how a nose-job is done, the wildlife in the
	New York sewage system. These indeed are some of the topics
	which constitute a recent and remarkable example of the genre:
	a brilliant and turbulent first novel published this month by a
	young Cornell graduate, Thomas Pynchon. He calls his book
	"V."

http://www.thomaspynchon.com/v/reviews.html

All of Pynchon's books somehow find a way to pull in a trainload of  
digressions, misdirections and strung together short stories. Some  
folks get driven batty by the procedure, others just go along for the  
ride. Guess it all depends on whether your a passenger or a driver.