Total Fraud

Okay, so now that I've been reading REAL noir like Eric Beetner and Megan Abbott, feel like I'm writing something entirely different.

I have an idea that noir is this: a protagonist trapped by an overwhelming desire that is not accepted by his society, but is *perfectly understandable* to the audience. Anybody who works in a cube farm can understand why the insurance salesman reached out for the tough little housewife in Double Indemnity.

So, for traditional noir, this core dilemma usually plays out in overt violence (these days). But when it's a woman with a socially unacceptable but perfectly understandable desire, will the dilemma play out in a different way? Will our (statistically speaking!) superior consensus building and relationship skills mean a more covert type of struggle takes place?

My favorite noir films are early in the cycle, and full of PTSD. My favorite noir short stories are by Woolrich, who shows us simple setups, impossible choices, and sometimes a somewhat redemptive ending -- but there's no saints in his world. Nor in mine.

Sorry, this isn't very articulate. I'm wrassling with this as I try to wrap up the end of the first draft of what's meant to be a mystery novel in the noir tradition. But it's just not. Sigh.

Well, enough of this whining. I'll finish the book and then fix it in post :)

Mysti

Max Noel and Ted Kaczinski

Hi folks! This is my first blog! I'll use it to share info about all things noirish.

Today, the Mystery Writers Association, Northern California branch meeting hosted Max Noel, one of the FBI agents who arrested Ted Kaczynski. He taught all of us fiction and other crime writers about each bomb that Ted sent, a quick review of the investigation, and a lot of information in between that would round out any writer's education about how the FBI has worked. My favorite tidbits:

- They had a Sun SPARC to help them mine data!
- Max showed us a picture of Ted's mailbox with his name on it up in Montana, and said "This is what we in the FBI call....a clue!"
- Max was not like Clint Eastwood or any other lantern-jawed, humorless FBI agent you've seen on t.v. (though that does describe Kaczynski very well). He was warm, lively, smart, and very focused on the human prices everyone had to pay during Kaczynski's attacks.
- The only people who got good arrest photographs were the four Univ. of Montana journalism students who followed Max's car. All the national media went to the wrong place, because they thought they knew what was going to happen next.

The funny, smart, and interesting members of the Mystery Writers of America NorCal asked interesting questions, and John's Grill was kind enough to let the meeting run fabulously late. I love Noir City.