Noir Thoughts Part V: Philip Marlowe

            Like Sam Spade, Marlowe is a great hard-boiled detective, but I think the main difference is that he has a deep humanity that Sam has lost. He feels. Sometimes he’s afraid, such as when facing off against Eddie Mars, and sometimes he’s lusty, such as with Vivian Regan. The most Sam managed to convey in terms of feeling was his annoyance at characters like Cairo and Wilmer.

M3 Vampires: Sexuality

            The connection between vampires and sexuality is easy to make primarily because of the physical act of penetration in order to get at a victim’s blood. It’s also not a coincidence that vampires bite on the neck, a well-established erogenous zone. Other common feeding points include the wrist and the inner thigh. Furthermore, it’s not hard to imagine a correlation between a vampire’s fangs and legends of vagina dentata.

F3 Life in the City

            After joining the Society, I was able to find steady work and resume my magical studies. Though I didn’t have Windy to teach me any longer, I was able to make my own way and performed minor enchantments for people, mostly to enhance their senses, which became very popular with those in my Faction.

Noir Thoughts Part IV: Sam's Supporting Cast

            I looked at Sam Spade last time, but now it’s time to turn to the characters he deals with.

Miles Archer

            Miles, though only seen briefly, seems to fulfill Otto Penzler’s definition of a noir protagonist. Immediately he flirts with Brigid O’Shaughnessy (still going by Miss Wonderly at this point), and it is only after his death that readers and audience learn that he was married.

M3 Vampires: Common Traits

Appetite & Feeding

            Vampires must feed. Their appetites are insatiable and unending. No myth goes into details about what would happen to a vampire who refused to feed

F3 Mythological Litigation

            Goldilocks sat outside about to enjoy a bowl of porridge on a beautiful, sunny day. No sooner had she taken her first spoonful did a man in a suit approach her.

            “Goldilocks?” he asked.

            “Yes?”

            “You’ve been served,” the man handed over an envelope.

Noir Thoughts Part III: Sam Spade

            I’m going to look at the guy who got me into PI/Noir in the first place: Sam Spade. I have always loved this character. The tough-talking, no nonsense, epitome of hard-boiled PI set the bar for detective fiction. For me. I never was able to identify as well with Nick Charles or the Continental Op. For me it’s always been Sam Spade.

M3 Vampires: Historical Figures and Location

Prince Vlad Dracula (1431-1476/7)

            Famous for the character of the same name in Bram Stoker’s book, Vlad Dracula was a Romanian prince who repulsed the Ottoman Turks from his country. He earned the moniker Impaler (Tepes in Romanian) for his bloodthirsty practice of impaling his enemies, erecting whole “forests” of impaled—alive—enemies.

F3 Stars in the Sky

            Peter Flynn looked into the sky while stretched out on the hammock he had strung between two trees. It was a rare pleasure to camp out on a Gaean world instead of needing to speed from one system to another on a cargo run.

Noir Thoughts Part II

            According to Otto Penzler, noir stories focus on losers, on the people that will ultimately doom themselves by their own immoral choices. He cites Nef as a perfect example from Double Indemnity. I’m on board with Nef’s story as one of noir, but, conversely, Otto declares the PI story is not noir as it is one filled with hope, focused on a moral character standing up and doing what is right in an immoral world. Even the premise itself is hopeful as other characters seek out the PI to solve their problems.

M3 Vampires: Overview

            Every culture around the world has a creation myth, flood myth, apocalypse myth, and a vampire myth. This makes vampire mythology a worldwide phenomenon that taps into fears and ideas universal to humanity.

F3 Ballroom Blitz

            Karaoke Night at the Blackthorn was something I had never, ever participated in. In fact I had a standing policy never to participate in Karaoke, so how I found myself up at the microphone was something of a mystery, but at least Nikki let me pick the song.

Noir Thoughts Part I

            I’ve always been fascinated by the Noir genre. The film genre speaks to me with its stark black and whites and use of shadows and light. The world, especially, is fascinating. I love watching a good noir gangster movie or Walter Neff get played by Phyllis Deitrichson. And boy do I love me some Sam Spade. That movie put noir on the map for me. Bogey, Greenstreet, and Lorre together conspire over a bird that turns out to be lead. Can it get more noir than that?