Quote by Lynkeus
Above all, I would have wished that one or the other of our authors would have taken a look at the text before hastily submitting their story to the Noir Erotique competition... 😉
Just a small sample:
"Film noir is not a genre (...) It is not defined, as are the western and gangster genres, by conventions of setting and conflict, but rather by the more subtle qualities of tone and mood."
"There is a love of romantic narration. (...) the narration creates a mood of temps perdu: an irretrievable past, a predetermined fate and an all-enveloping hopelessness. (...) one can only take pleasure in reliving a doomed past."
This is in some ways the most interesting competition we have had in while, as means one has to form a view on what Erotic Noir is, which I found more challenging than say Summer Seduction or winter pictures or Timetravel or Horrorween.
For me I was guided by Jen's competition announcement: "We’re looking for sublimely erotic stories that fit into this genre, but don’t be afraid to mix it up and away from the ‘traditional’ hero/damsel in distress tropes, so long as the underlying elements remain." I enjoyed the quotes and wasn't off put by them being from movies as they, as written, were well written.
And also by my internet research summarised as follows:
The outsider: the noir protagonist is an outcast. Traditionally male, but a noir such as Mullholland Drive puts women firmly in the centre. A sense of alienation pervades their story. No Heroes: they may be central to the story, but the noir protagonist is no hero. However, we do empathise with our anti-hero and we want her to win, even though it won’t get her anywhere. Give your protagonist a glimmer of hope that they will succeed, this is what keeps them going and keeps the reader hoping along with them, only to have it torn away at the end.
Fatalism and Nihilism: hope has forsaken the world of noir. The world-weary noir protagonist is on a fatal path, due to a doom of their own making.
The Femme or Homme Fatale: the fatale brings sex and lust into the equation. The attractive stranger appears to be vulnerable or there to help the protagonist, but it turns out he’s just there to seduce and wrong-foot our anti-hero.
Creatures of the Night: noir fiction gets its name from a style of cinema created by European directors fleeing from WWII. They brought German expressionism to Hollywood – namely, extreme camera angles and high-contrast lighting, which cast angular shadows – to great cinematic effect. Hence, film noir is associated with the night, but Chinatown and Brick are both noir that bathe their characters in California sunshine.
First-person: we’re all familiar with the hardboiled narration of the noir detective – ‘If looks could kill, I’d have been laid out in the city morgue, right then. She was the kind of woman….’ That’s pretty terrible, but you get the idea. The first-person puts the reader right in the protagonist’s head, which adds to the claustrophobia you need to create for noir. It also allows you to play with the unreliable narrator technique.
The Mystery: as I’ve already said, you don’t need to have a private eye or a world-weary police officer investigating a murder, but these staples still work as an easy way to insert a mystery. Fargo subverts film noir by using a rural setting and making the detective a pregnant woman.
City Streets: some may argue that noir has to be in an urban setting, but the Cohen brothers (masters of neo-noir) prefer wide-angle shots of a rural setting for their characters, adding its own sense of alienation and desperation. And although noir is pure Americana, Scandi-noir authors, such as Stieg Larsson’s ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ proves that you can take the genre to any setting and it will work.
Broken Noses: violence is an essential part of the noir tradition. It’s the symbolic darkness of the world made real. That’s just the way it is because life is shitty and noir is telling us how it really is.
No happy ending: did I mention the part about leaving hope at the door? Noir is the boulevard of broken dreams, so whatever happens, make sure the protagonist is no further ahead by the end. No sunsets, no kisses and definitely no wedding – this is noir, not Jane Austen.
Pared Back Prose: when it comes to noir fiction, keep your prose simple, direct and hard. Just get to the point and make it snappy.
The thrill of noir is the rush of moral forfeit and the abandonment to titillation. The social importance of noir is its grounding in the big themes of race, class, gender, and systemic corruption. The overarching and lasting appeal of noir is that it makes doom fun.
That and my contrarian nature meant I was quite comfortable setting mine in Australia and my anti-heroine being a butch lesbian ... also there is nothing like a play on words and butch/femme was something I couldn't resist: I'm particularly pleased by getting butch-fatale into my story.
This sentence was key for me: The social importance of noir is its grounding in the big themes of race, class, gender, and systemic corruption. And as a woman, and in a country where the deputy Queensland Police Commissioner resigned earlier in the year for using the term Vagina Whisperer, where issues of climate change and immigration are part of life, you can see what went through my mind.
How Noir is it and how good is it: well I'll leave that to the judges.
But I will say this, every story I've read (and I've read all but the last two submitted) I've enjoyed and so was consequently generous in my comments. They're different, but fascinating to see how others have approached this. Erotic noir isn't paint by numbers, its good to see how others approach a theme. Most importantly the 1950's had a whole different view about sexual explicitness in films and novels. Sexually on a site like this, you have to write way more explicitly than the update to The Postman Always Rings Twice (which in itself is 40 years old.)
Quote by WannabeWordsmith
I pray you don't stumble upon my attempt at a neo-noir entry then. Not sure my fragile ego could cope with your expert analysis of my failings as an amateur author.
I am sure you will be fine, I loved your story (as always.) The dissection of the feelings when you kill someone was, for me, just excellent.
I do hope to see more entries and yes I have you in mind, Susie, Jake and Rachel ❤️
And then I'll go back to publishing what I want. 🤣🤣
:worship:
