Since I’m opting
out of the article for this class, I’m going to be discussing what I’ve been
currently working on for my Research Methods class. Here’s the “watered down”
version of my topic: Interactive texts in neo-noir fiction, and how noir mirrors
the manipulation of media in our lives.
My primary focus is on the fictional
novel, Night Film by Marisha Pessl,
and the interactive texts blended with the pages help narrate the surrounding mystery that our
main protagonist, Scott McGrath, has to solve. Our mystery surrounds the
elusive cultist horror director, Stanislas Cordova, whose grotesque films are
known to push the envelope. So controversial that his films were removed from
the public eye and sent underground, where his loyal followers can continuously
celebrate the brilliancy of his work. However, surrounding this controversy is
the speculation that something disturbing occurs behind the production of his
films. To achieve complete rawness to his stories, Cordova has to push his
actors to the extreme.
Scott McGrath, investigative
journalist, made it his job to know what exactly Cordova does in the making of
his own films, but his attempts were cut short. Whatever piece of evidence that
McGrath had found that could confirm Cordova’s corruption, was deemed unfit.
The inside source that McGrath had was claimed to be “fictional,” which
debunked his entire career. And years after this scandal, McGrath is encouraged
to examine the director once more after it was announced that Stanislas
Cordova’s prodigy daughter had committed suicide. Now McGrath is curious to
know if Ashley Cordova really did commit suicide or if she actually murdered.
Noir has a
tendency to play with the idea of truth. The main protagonist, whether he be a
detective, loser, or ordinary citizen, is set to find the truth about
him/herself or about a crisis that surrounds their life. Though the
protagonist is set on this quest for the truth, they won’t ever obtain it.
The interactive texts in Night Film that start to
play a paradox. All sources of information but none of that information surrounds
the protagonist and the reader with enough evidence to get the protagonist and
the reader to the truth. American media and journalism has a tendency to do the same thing. Journalism generally shows the negative of a story, and depending on the case, they like to twist the words or the chain of events in order to increase the ratings.
And for emphasis, I'll be exploring the manipulation of media through the film, Gone Girl. Wife, Amy Dunne, goes missing and husband, Nick Dunne, gets accused for her disappearance. As the case progresses, Nick gets picked apart through the media, constantly twisting any source of information that continuous point towards him for his own wife's murder.
The question that gets posed to readers of neo-noir is why read a genre that has a tendency to keep the truth elusive?
Interesting take. Looks like a fabulous topic. Is truth related to suspense? Certainly if a writer/director can make something suspenseful, viewers will be engaged more. Engagement is half the battle.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds awesome! Sort of (but still!) on topic, have you checked out Jessica Jones on Netflix? It's labelled itself as Neo-Noir, and has adopted a lot of twists on neo-noir conventions (the music and voice overs in particular). I've noticed that neo-noir and superheroes tend to have a lot of overlap for some reason (almost every major comic book as some sort of "noir" spin-off).
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