The Smiths? Rendezvous in Black?

Woolrich's book continually makes me listen to The Smiths. I couldn't help but notice weird details relating the band to Rendezvous in Black.

The first being the main character is named Johnny Marr, as is the famous guitarist from the band.. besides that there is the character of Bill Morrissey, and the lead singer of the band is named Morrissey.. I found that to be a huge coincidence and wondered if a band such as The Smiths would have read the book and been influenced by its dark atmosphere. After all, most Smiths songs are dark, depressing, and concern the loss of love in brutal or morose ways. I'm pretty sure Morrissey was a failed writer before hooking up with Marr and forming the band, so it would be conceivable that he would read such a novel, however I have found no proof that the band read or was influenced by the novel at all. If that supposition is true, its hilarious to me that this coincidence exists, as the atmosphere emitted by both the band and the book are certainly kindred spirits. And now, music.

Ending in Rendezvous in Black / Martine's Character

I found the ending of Rendezvous in Black to be extremely dark and noir-ish. The author put so much time into talking about Martine and Allen that I really thought there would be a somewhat happy ending with Martine escaping death. I forgot for a little bit that it was a noir novel- so an unhappy ending should have been expected. I loved Martine's character, and found her to be the complete opposite of Johnny Marr. Johnny was revengeful, whereas Martine had "never been inclined to feel sorry for herself. No matter what they took away, you still had so much left" (174). This was a deep contrast with his character who couldn't face reality and recognize that there was more to life. (I have a different book so the page number might be a little off). I found it hard to finish the book because it was just so suspenseful that I didn't think I could handle reading any more! What did everyone else think of the ending/ the character of Martine?

Freud and Psychoanalytic Things

A bunch of you indicated in the first meeting of the class that you'd read some Freud before. What have you read? And is there anything that you found interesting or useful in psychoanalytic thought? Here's an idea of mine: that scene where I thought, "Hey, Fred MacMurray can act" — where Walter's expression goes through contortions as he listens to Keyes's recorded memo expressing faith in him — could, perhaps benefit from psychoanalytic vocabulary. It would say something about how Walter must have viewed Keyes in order to experience him as a powerful thing to "get over," to rebel against, or what-have-you, using terms like "phantasm" or "imago" to refer to the Keyes in Walter's head. And that moment when he learns that Keyes has warm feelings toward him and is something other than an obstacle would be, like, one of those moments of phantasmatic working-through, when you see your parent not as the super-egoic fantasy figure, but as another frail, fallible human being.

I'm not asking you here to apply psychoanalytic thought to course material, necessarily, though: just to say something about your experience with and interest in it, if any.

Rendezvous in Black-Sympathizing with Johnny

I must say that Woolrich's Rendezvous in Black has been my favorite novel so far.  I really felt for Johnny Marr and I must say, he had a right to want  revenge.  If I had been in his place, I would have wanted to avenge the love of my life's death as well.  However, his actions had a sadistic edge to them, since for his later kills, Sharon Paige and Madeline Drew, he gets close to them and makes them fall in love with him, before he goes on to kill them.  Woolrich did a great job getting the reader to sympathize with all of his characters, I felt bad for the women getting killed and I felt bad for Johnny.  I liked the fact that whatever alias Johnny assumed, he always used his same initials 'JM'.  The ending was heartbreaking for me to read, it showed just how deep Johnny's devotion to Dorothy ran, since he died calling out her name.  It was also a pretty brutal way for Cameron to catch Johnny, by having a police woman dress up as an identical replica to Dorothy.  It was harsh since it hurt Johnny both emotionally as well as psychologically in addition to his demise.  I understand that Johnny did some horrible things, but he was so scarred by Dorothy's death and his loss of love.  People do crazy things for love.  Should the guy really blamed for all his actions?

Other Thoughts on "Postman"

I just had a few more thoughts on The Postman Always Rings Twice that I wanted to touch upon.

First off, what struck me as interesting is how the Postman rather denies the popular structure of novels. More specifically, I'm talking the common story-telling rule of three. Goldilocks had her three bears. The wolf chased after the three pigs. The three blind mice, and so on. This is a common narrative technique that could be found all over the place in creative writing. Cain, on the other hand, stuck with two; two attempts to murder the Greek, two trials, two car accidents, etc. Whether or not Cain had the intention of breaking that rule of three and shifting things to two is unclear, however he did it. Also, this rule breaking could contribute to the theory behind the title of the novel. The Postman doesn't ring three times, he rings twice. Granted, this is a stretch, but it was just another thought that I had while discussing this novel.

Another point I wanted to bring up is the subtle religious aspect to The Postman Always Rings Twice. The story has small religious instances all throughout it.  For example, at certain points in the novel, the characters state that they had the Devil in them. When Cora and Frank are making amends, Cora says, "Well, I'm rid of the devil Frank. I know I'll never call up Sackett, because I had my chance, and I had my reason, and I didn't do it. So the devil has left me. But has he left you?" In addition, there is a scene in the ocean, which I wrote about on another comment, in which Frank sort of goes through at baptism. He dives down into the water and comes up a new man, purged of all his sins. Now, again, whether or not these religious segments are intentional is unknown, but they are still interesting. Part of me believes Cain is using these religious comparisons and metaphors strictly for aesthetics. Meaning, the fact that the cat was "deader than hell" was most likely used because it sounded cool, not because Cain wanted a religious theme.

Language in James M. Cain

I mentioned in a facebook status that I'd been teaching The Postman Always Rings Twice, and a scholar in Taiwan surprised me by saying, "There are some extraordinary sentences in that novel." 'Cause the style doesn't call attention to itself like Woolrich or even like earlier tough-guy writers such as Hammett and Hemingway. And what had made the biggest impression on me in the novel was not Frank's narrative voice but the characterization through dialogue. "Killed it deader'n hell." "He suspicions me, Frank." "Was a all go dark." Even "She picked it up and tucked it around me, then turned away quick" is more notable for what it describes than how it's written, I thought.

So what do you think? Any "extraordinary sentences," either for the imagery or for the punch they pack or for the dialogue they convey? This could be useful to think about for the paper-in-progress.

Open Open Thread

This thread is primarily for those students who have tried unsuccessfully to put up blog posts: if the blog is not allowing you to post a thing, try writing it as, or linking it in, a comment below.