Episode 14 Part 1

[Geoff]

So episode 14 is up loads of great stuff about TGWTDT, and all the usual stuff. I'm listening right now. I'll post more when I've listened to it in full. What did you guys think?

[Geoff]

Okay so I hadn't quite realised the extent of Larrson's activism, and I guess you guys are right about the social justice slant to Nordic Noir.
I'm currently reading the first Martin Beck novel too, and there's a great line in that that:

"A murderer is a regular human being, only more unfortunate and maladjusted."

[Geoff]

Don't forget that Justin gave some advanced notice that John D Macdonald is the next featured book - A Flash of Green.

[Jay]

Excellent definition. Sometimes, and esp in general-audience films where the ending cannot be as horrific as the book it was based on (see Double Indemnity), there is an alleviation of the despair, or a questioning of whether the protagonist can recover. I guess the Bogart-Bacall The Big Sleep and Dark Passage are still noir, although the ending is changed because, well, Bogart-Bacall are too good a pair to be kaput.

[Geoff]

I agree but I do think there's something about the gloom of TGWTDT and the ennui / enervated hero of Roseanna that makes it feel noir somehow, at least to me.