Blog Entry #8

Assignment One

Option Two:

            The authors of the short stories Kidnapper Bell and City of Commerce both utilize familiar settings that are representative to the landscape of Los Angeles. 

Jim Pascoe, the author of Kidnapper Bell, uses the backdrop of the Los Angeles River as the main focal setting for his story, illustrating it as a concrete channel laden with graffiti, “In the dim light of the riverbed, he has trouble seeing the graffiti on the drain covers… The large painted faces hang perpendicular to the ground.  During heavy rains they will swing up, releasing torrents of run-off into the violent river come to life.  Now they are silent, each recessed into an individual hollow in the channel’s cement wall” (220).  The author’s depiction of the Los Angeles River wields the reader to a sense of familiarity that distinguishes it as an iconic landmark in Los Angeles.  People who are familiar with this landmark recognize it from its distinctive features of concrete walls that are ravaged with litter and vandalized with countless graffiti.  For those people who are not familiar with it but have seen or heard of it, be it through numerous Hollywood films or the news, they are able to identify it as a unique landmark that separates it as being solely Los Angeles. 

In City of Commerce, the author Neal Pollack distinguishes the Los Angeles area by centering his story mainly on the City of Commerce and by utilizing various locations throughout Los Angeles area, mentioning multiple known freeways.  “I prepared for my meeting, in my mind, as I whipped the Acura down the 110, and then onto I-5 as I moved through Downtown” (231).  He goes onto describing Commerce as “This town, to me isn’t most notable for its candlelit, leather-bound nightclubs or fancy Valley gallerias.  Like anywhere else, it’s the outlet malls and truck-stop Arby’s, pathetic little trees dwarfed by ten-foot freeway sound wall” (231-232).  The author’s use of various locations and freeways represents the vastness of the Los Angeles area and his illustration of the city portrays a simple visualization for people who are familiar with the region.

Assignment Two

            Out of the four short stories in “The Gold Coast” section, the story that I felt to exemplify the best example of noir would be The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones while on the other hand, the story that I found to be the most difficult to classify as noir is Kinship.

            In The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones by Scott Phillips, we are introduced to a male protagonist named Tate, who is influenced with lustful feelings towards the story’s femme fatale, Cherie.  She is portrayed as an attractive middle-aged unsuccessful actress who is working as a waitress, “We get guys all the time with crushes on her, some of them very young;” (289).  Tate is driven by his sexual desire towards Cherie and states that he will do anything she asked from him, “like half the guys who walk into Burberry’s, though, I have a great big boner with Cherie’s name on it, and if she asked me to shovel shit I’d ask her how fast she needed it shoveled” (287).  Cherie uses her seductiveness to lure in Tate and once she has him in her hook, she then exposes the truth to him, in which he does not consent to, wanting nothing to do with her scheme.  This story, overall, encompasses the basic elements of noir, in which we have the protagonist who is seduced by the femme fatale and though ironically he does not fall for her felonious plot, she in the end is responsible for his downfall.

            In Kinship by Brian Ascalon Roley, we are introduced to the main character named Tomas, who throughout the story was, as if he was in a mission to uncover the truth to why his nephew, Emerson was being bullied.  Though, in my opinion, his character can be portrayed as almost a detective-like persona, his character was not detailed enough to a point where I can clearly view him as a noir type detective.  This short story, in a way, is difficult to classify it as noir as it does not have merely enough noir elements.   The story overall, in my opinion had a decent theme that was based mostly on vengeance, in which Tomas was seeking retribution for the hurt that was placed upon his family.