What they said at Noircon
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| Your humble blogkeeper talking about noir songs at the Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art during Noircon. Photo courtesy of Cullen Gallagher. |
More wise, entertaining, and interesting things that people said at Noircon 2012:"It's like modern folklore, really."© Peter Rozovsky 2012
— Alison Gaylin, on true crime
"It's increasingly impossible to tell an American noir story."
— Kent Harrington, on the globalization of crime
"Noir is "the beating heart of yearning. It's not about `problems.'"
Fellow Noircon attendee: "Are you a dog person or a cat person?"
Me: "Neither. I'm a vegetarian."
— Exchange at hotel bar Saturday night
Labels: Alison Gaylin, conventions, Cullen Gallagher, Kent Harrington, miscellaneous, Noircon 2012, Robert Olen Butler
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 7:37 PM
4 Comments:
True crime is absolutely modern folklore. Look at Jack the Ripper --the most-repeated things about JtR aren't even true. (There wasn't any fog in London during the times of the murders, he probably wasn't a gentleman in a top hat and definitely not a member of the royal family, and most crime historians agree that he didn't have any medical knowledge.) Those stories persist simply because they make good stories, and they get embellished along the way.
(I may not have made it to NoirCon, but I've made it to a few JtR conferences --and hosted one myself.)
Here's a list of favorite true-crime books as chosen by members of the panel:
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (Alison Gaylin)
Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger (Alison Gaylin)
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (Megan Abbott)
Murder Machine by Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci (Wallace Stroby)
My Dark Places by James Ellroy (Megan Abbott)
People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman by Richard Lloyd Parry (Megan Abbott)
The Poet and the Murderer by Simon Worrall (Dennis Tafoya)
True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa by Michael Finkel (Dennis Tafoya)
Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi (Wallace Stroby)
You should keep in touch with Noircon's organizer, Lou Boxer. Maybe he'll invite you to the next Noircon, in 2014.
The cat v. dog v. vegetarian quip is superb! I hope that I someday have an opportunity to steal it and use it.
Thanks! The quip was mine, and you can't steal it. I'd be proud to have you borrow it, though.
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