NOIR READINGS- GET OUT OF THE HEMINGWAY!

Dear god were this week’s readings painful.

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE: I hated everyone. I hated the disjointed writing style, the lack of imagery, the choppy dialogue, but most of all I hated the story itself. Cora is an ungrateful, unlikeable character who is matched perfectly with “trampy” Frank. In reality, they’re both asshats who are terrible to each other. However, major noir themes are present here. Cora could be loosely described as a femme fatale, though that’s pushing it. There is clear misogyny “I’m just your dumb baby”, xenophobia “I don’t want no greasy babies”, murder, drinking, detectives, blackmail, good cop/bad cop, doublecrossing, and a slew of poorly described situations.

THE SHADOW: Okay this one was really fun. I was able to find the original radio play online, and the addition of sound effects and voice actors really brought the story to life. The embedded advertisements actually made me want to buy Blue Coal- The Shadow’s sponsor. This dialogue was far more natural, with likeable characters, such as Dr. Evans and The Shadow himself. This steal deals with murder and betrayal, but it seems more lighthearted as a whole, like a family would gather around the radio and listen to The Shadow’s adventures.

THE KILLERS: Let me preface by saying that  have always hated Hemingway. I think that he is a pretentious writer whose works have no meaning- like modern art that people pretend to understand to seem cultured. It’s a black square on a white canvas, there’s nothing deep about it. The Killers takes place almost entirely in a diner (see a trend?) where two ~scary looking men~ are waiting to kill a mark. The man ends up not appearing, and the men leave. The previously captured man goes to the target in order to warn him, but there is nothing that either of them can do. That’s all. This heavily uses irony and hopelessness, because I felt hopeless trying to get through this drivel. 1/10.