by Regina Jeffers, Riana Everly, Jeanette Watts, Michael Rands, Linne Elizabeth, Emma Dalgety, and Elizabeth Gilliland
I am delighted to welcome Michael Rands
to Escape With Dollycas today!
What is Noir?
by Michael Rands
But really what is noir?
It is one of the easiest and most difficult genres to define. Easy, because, well, you know when you’re watching film noir. Difficult, because you would have a hard time explaining why you know this.
Comedy, you laugh.
Romance, you swoon as two people fall in love.
Horror is… horrifying.
Noir? There’s a guy in a coat and a hat, a seductive woman with evil intentions, and a crime.
It’s a rather bizarre definition, but it’s a start.
Noir arose quite suddenly, with many of the most famous American noir films shot within a few years, and almost all shot within a decade. Several of the classics were shot during or just after the Second World War: The Maltese Falcon (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).
A real darkness permeates these films. Shot in black and white, the images are shadowy, nightmarish. The characters inhabit a dark world. The most famous stock character associated with this genre is the femme fatale—a deadly woman who uses her sexuality to lure men into sin and destruction. The villainous men, it should be noted, seldom require much persuasion.
Spade, like most characters in the “noir-verse” began in the pages of a short novel. Dashiel Hammet (Spade’s creator), along with James Cain and Raymond Chandler, pioneered the genre of Hardboiled Detective Fiction a decade or so before the boom in noir films. Their stories and characters provided the blueprints for most of the classic films, with Chandler additionally writing many famous screenplays. All this is to say that noir, one of the most visually distinctive film genres, has its roots in fiction, in the written word.
The city of Los Angeles plays an important role in the Noirosphere. Of course, the early films were shot in the city, but many of the most influential writers including the three mentioned above, spent some time in L.A. Contemporary Neo-noir writers like Walter Mosley have set their stories there too, perhaps in homage to these early pioneers.
Despite the short duration of the original crop of noir, the genre has had an outsized influence on film and literature. Every hard drinking detective, femme fatale, and nihilistic double-crosser, owes at least some noirish debt. Writers as un-obviously noirish as Cormac MacCarthy have dipped their toes in noir-blood, and celebrated directors like Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers are openly influenced by the genre.
I’m sure it’s obvious to see how Jane Austen fits into all of this. Born and raised in Los Angeles, the daughter of a private detective and a failed insurance salesman…
Thank you!
Thank you, Michael, for visiting today with a great topic!
Keep reading to learn more about Michael and Crime & Culpability.
About Crime & Culpability
Crime & Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology
Cozy Mystery Anthology
Settings – (Regency England, modern-day America)
Publisher : Bayou Wolf Press (September 10, 2024)
Print length : 176 pages
Digital ASIN : B0D6JQN6JL
“No one can withstand the charm of such a mystery.” – Jane Austen, Persuasion
Jane Austen mysteries have become a popular subgenre of Austen variations, but this is more than just a trend. Austen was a masterful storyteller who embedded clues within her stories for her readers to follow, inviting readers to read between the lines and “gather the evidence” to follow her intricate plotlines.
In this anthology, various authors who are also fans and admirers of Austen’s work have taken the challenge to add some mystery to Austen’s stories and characters. From Regency sequels to film noir retellings to cozy art heists, Crime and
Culpability: A Jane Austen Mystery Anthology explores the many faces of Austen and all of her
enigmas.Featuring stories by Regina Jeffers, Riana Everly, Jeanette Watts, Michael Rands, Linne Elizabeth, Emma Dalgety, and Elizabeth Gilliland, with a foreword by Regina Jeffers and an introduction by Elizabeth Gilliland Rands.
About the Authors
Elizabeth Gilliland: Elizabeth Gilliland is the author of the Austen University Mysteries series, including What Happened on Box Hill, The Portraits of Pemberley, and two prequel novellas, Dear Prudent Elinor and Sly Jane Fairfax. (Look out for book three sometime next year!) She has written and presented at various academic confer‐ ences on Jane Austen and wrote her dissertation on Jane Austen adaptations, dedicating herself to watch the lake dive scene as many times as necessary for scholarly pursuit. She also writes Gothic horror as E. Gilliland and romance as Lissa Sharpe, and she is the co-founder of Bayou Wolf Press.
Author Links
Website Twitter (X) Facebook Goodreads Blog Newsletter Amazon
Author Links:
Every Woman Dreams (Blog) Always Austen (Group Blog) Facebook Twitter Amazon Author Page Pinterest BookBub Instagram Regina Jeffers Website
Author Links:
Newsletter Website Facebook Instagram Amazon
Author Links
Instagram Facebook Twitter Linked In Website 1 Website 2 Goodreads Jeanette_Watts Amazon Author Page
Michael Rands: Michael Rands is the author of the novels The Chapel St. Perilous and Praise Routine Number Four, co-author of the economic satire The Yamaguchi Manuscripts, and Kamikaze Economics (a story of modern Japan). He’s co-author of the humorous dictionary Stay Away from Mthatha. He co-created the audio drama The Crystal Set and co- hosted the podcast Detours Ahead. In South Africa he worked in television as a writer, director and producer. He taught English in Japan. He holds an MFA from Louisiana State University, and currently teaches English and Creative Writing at the college level. He is the co-founder of Bayou Wolf Press. He lives with his wife, son, and labrador, in Alabama. His new novel, When the Witch Calls, comes out in November 2024.
Author Links
Facebook Twitter Instagram Blog
Author Links
Website Instagram: @Library4One LinkedIn Facebook Blog
Emma Dalgety: Emma Dalgety grew up in Mobile, Alabama. She received a BA in Music and English from the University of Mobile in 2023. As a musi‐ cian and a writer, she has performed violin across the Southeast and internationally, finding creative inspiration and filling notebooks with story fragments throughout her travels. When she isn’t writing, she is researching interdisciplinary connections in literature as she works towards an MA in English, or teaching music lessons in her private studio.
Purchase Link
Amazon
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September 29 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
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