adventures in noir world

I asked on BlueSky "What should I blog about next?", and the winning response, from someone with a Luther Blissett pfp, is "adventures in noir world." If you'd like to enter, please reply.

2025, as mentioned in the previous post, was the year I was saved: I became a crime fiction reader. I've always read some crime fiction here and there; my mother is a crime fiction reader. We always had Sue Grafton in the house, and, like many American readers, she fell into the Nordic Noir boom embodied by the Millennium Trilogy. At the time, I read a few of the popular Nordic crime books in our house including Stieg Larsson. On top of that, I've generally had some interest in noir due to its role in the popular front era. To reintroduce myself a bit, I am a poet, and I've long been very interested in the history of communist writers in America. Quite a few wrote noir.

Writing this literally the day after another disturbing Epstein files document dump, I am very tempted to simply say 'well. Global noir is FULLY vindicated, as is Tumblr.' From my location in the shallow end of noir, I can report that does not go far enough.

I'd like to begin with some light spoilers from The Little Man from Archangel by Georges Simenon. I briefly mentioned a particularly haunting scene from the novel in my last post, but let me actually do it some justice here: The main character is from a Jewish family that fled the Soviet Union in the early days of the revolution, and settled in a small French village, eventually becoming proprietors of a small business (used books). When the novel begins, the main character is the only surviving member of the family, as its other members attempted to return to the Soviet Union at various points to investigate the fate of their family. Our main character is quite literally all alone in a small postwar French village. The events of the novel lead to his arrest for a crime he did not commit. During his police interrogation, as evidence of previous crime breaking and untrustworthiness, the French equivalent of the town's Sheriff questions why he never had to wear his yellow badge during the Nazi Occupation.

This gets at a compelling noir storyline, for me: when a character is facing some 'crime' that reveals a foundational evil (or contradiction) in Society, some dark absurdity. Simply through the accusation and explanation of 'the crime,' society's evil, corruption, is revealed. (Another 2025 read that qualifies as a case study here was John Franklin Bardin's The Deadly Percheron: a story where a psychiatrist finds his role reversed becoming both the patient and the wanted man.) This angle is one a writer like Manchette fully understands and builds on in his novels: when a group of insurrectionist leftists are cornered at their last redoubt, there is an inevitability to the police captain in charge saying 'make sure you kill them all,' and then picking up a gun himself, as an embodiment of the always lurking genocidal impulse of our current regime, and squeezing off the last round.

These contradictions come to the fore in the Martin Beck series. The chronology of the novels corresponds almost perfectly with the onset of the 'Pivotal Decade,' as Judith Stein termed it, the implementation of neoliberalism. We follow the titular police inspector, Martin Beck, as he is one of the few who moves up in the world during this era of hollowing out, unrest. Both the authors and Martin Beck are aware of this, down to his conspicuously gentrified apartment block in the later series. The authors explore at great lengths, through the chance breaks of various investigations, the changing fabric of Swedish society, sometimes in a more concrete sense as urban renewal prioritizes the car above all else in Stockholm (worth noting Simenon and Maigret sometimes explore this too). By the end of the series, the role of the police in reproducing the very violence they claim to combat is maybe THE central theme. Someone could very easily write an entire book arguing this series is 'about' social reproduction. Maybe they have! I have yet to wade into crime fiction criticism: if you know any, please send it my way!

It may be the moment in this post to return to the Epstein files, but first, we need to talk China. Earlier this year, like many Americans, I authorized the CCP to access all my personal data via rednote. In the preparations for a cross country move during 2025, I stopped checking it as much. Before I fell off, I posted a bit about what I was reading. In the comments of a post about Raymond Chandler, I remember having an exchange with a couple Chinese readers who did not like the cynical world-weary tone of Chandler's novels. To be fair, this is a fairly common criticism I've heard over the years. I heard it a couple times in college, and I'm pretty sure my own mother has said it about (American) noir generally. It's just interesting, though, to see that criticism make the jump across the Pacific, and I can't help but think it's because their country isn't run by genocidal pedophiles. Still, in a way, I understand where they're coming from. At the same time, again, we live in the world of the Epstein files, and if anything Chandler did not go far enough.

Looking back, I don't feel any writer above truly went 'far enough', though Manchette may have the best case. (If you know anyone who does, sound off in the comments like comment subscribe.) Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, in the end, are more interested in the classic interests of Marxists, and do not address in a systematic way the Swedish porn industry and its global reach at the time. And to be clear, this is worth pointing out specifically because of the deep connections Epstein had in Sweden. It might feel unfair to condemn Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö for failing to predict Jeffrey Epstein, but considering the foresight they had on most topics, it's a shortcoming.

I was recently at a used bookstore. That doesn't narrow it down. I found multiple rare-ish Jim Thompson novels at a used bookstore recently, and, while my wife and I were paying, the cashier (even with closing time looming) asked why Jim Thompson was so popular, how I'd heard of him. Looking back on it now, the world of Thompson's Pop 1280 is so far one of the most compelling explorations of the logic of our current moment: Every election cycle, the Republicans and Democrats both run the sheriff from Pop 1280. I have still only read a few Jim Thompson books, though, so watch this space for updates for additional thoughts on Thompson. For now: looking into it.

To me, a marxist, crime fiction is interesting when it explores various social milieus and power structures: good crime fiction investigates The Contradictions. Some of its practitioners are also compelling stylists. As dark as some crime fiction tries to be, though, most that I have read comes up short when compared to the overwhelming horrors of the present moment. There's probably a lesson there. Not a moral lesson, to be clear, but a lesson about the limits of fiction. As a poet though, maybe I'm not the best to consult on 'the limits of fiction' - I'm biased at the end of the day.