this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2025
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Any noir fans here? (lemmy.world)
submitted 7 months ago by Maerman@lemmy.world to c/books@lemmy.world
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So I'm really into noir, and I would really love to have a discussion about it. Specifically, I don't mean detective stories. I prefer stuff that is told from the perspective of the criminal. Bad people getting worse, essentially. Authors that come to mind are Jim Thompson, James M. Cain, Jake Hinkson, Will Christopher Baer, Craig Clevenger and Patricia Highsmith. If you are at all into this stuff, let me know. Let's chat.

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[–] benignintervention@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Saving your post as a reading list since I've only read some Raymond Chandler

[–] Infynis@midwest.social 2 points 7 months ago

Same here. I love me some suffering

[–] Maerman@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Chandler's prose is fantastic. His books are very enjoyable for me. However, I would classify him as a hardboiled author, rather than noir (I know the distinction is contested, but I need some shorthand to describe my preferences). From Wikipedia:

Author and academic Megan Abbott described the two thus:

Hardboiled is distinct from noir, though they're often used interchangeably. The common argument is that hardboiled novels are an extension of the wild west and pioneer narratives of the 19th century. The wilderness becomes the city, and the hero is usually a somewhat fallen character, a detective or a cop. At the end, everything is a mess, people have died, but the hero has done the right thing or close to it, and order has, to a certain extent, been restored.

Noir is different. In noir, everyone is fallen, and right and wrong are not clearly defined and maybe not even attainable.