Because of my friend George's marvelous HBO series I once again subscribe to HBO.  Which means that I can watch movies while I'm cooking or cleaning up the kitchen.  The other day WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT was on.  I've always liked the movie, but now I have a far greater appreciation of how closely to the noir formula the writers hewed, and what a wonderful job they did.

I'd never read Chandler or Hammett, I'm embarrassed to admit.  Oh, I'd seen Bogie in The Maltese Falcon, but I hadn't actually read any of the seminal works.  The closest I'd come was Ross McDonald who I think is a brilliant writer, but he wasn't the originator of the form.

While I was traveling in Australia last year I needed paper books while airplanes took off and landed.  The IPad was great once we were in the air, but I have a restless nature, and I can't just sit even for takeoffs and landings.  So my traveling companion loaned me several of his noir mysteries.

What became rapidly apparent is that a formula was born, and like all good formulas it serves it's purpose -- it's familiar without being trite, exciting because the reader/viewer can anticipate what is coming next, and comforting because you know right will triumph.

So, here I am watching Roger Rabbit, and by god it's all there.  There's the burnt out detective with a tragedy in his past.  There's the dangerous femme fatale who you suspect is behind the murder, at a critical point in the story the detective stumbles across a dead body, but doesn't go to the authorities, the detective is always at odds with the authorities, a critical witness is shot.  In Roger Rabbit there is a dame/twist/chick/frail with a heart-of-gold who has stuck by the burnt out detective.

I was just charmed and delighted, and I ended up enjoying the movie even more now that I had a small background in noir mysteries.  It just shows that a deeper understanding of the antecedents of anything can deepen the appreciation whether it's noir mysteries, dressage, opera, dance, etc.

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I'm linking to several articles in this post because I never thought it would again be acceptable to present such blatantly racist views.  Oh, these people don't use the N word, but it's breathtaking how offensive they are, and apparently they don't think there will be consequeces.  First there is the Speaker of the House in Missouri who said he would rather see Cairo Illinois -- impoverished with a population that is 2/3rds African-American -- underwater than flood Missouri farmland. Quoting from the article:

Missouri's Republican House Speaker Steve Tilley was asked by reporters about the dilemma. "Would you rather have Missouri farmland flooded or Cairo underwater?" Tilley is asked.

Without hesitation, he replies, "Cairo. I’ve been there. Trust me. Cairo.”

As another reporter prepares to ask another question, Tilley goes on. “Have you been to Cairo? OK, then you know what I’m saying then.”

You can read the article here. 

Then there's Oklahoma State Rep Sally Kern who said ...Minorities earn less than white people because they don’t work as hard and have less initiative.

“We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school? I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”

Check out the article.

Then there's the newest racist meme now that the Birther nonsense has been shown to be nonsense which any of us who were paying attention knew almost three years ago when the initial document was released by Hawaii.  This little poisonous frog croaks about how Barack Obama could not have written his first book and in fact it was written by Bill Ayers.  Now, this is nonsense on it's face, but I heard a historian last night describing how when Fredcrick Douglass published his books back in the 1840's and 50's they publishers included a letter from a white historian stating that Mr. Douglass was, in fact, literate and had, in fact, written the books.  This is no different in substance and that was nearly 200 years ago.  Have we learned nothing?

Finally there is Trump who is fanning the flames of white resentment by implying that the President got into Harvard because of affirmative action.  Maybe he did.  I don't know, but if he did it proves that affirmative action works.  They found a promising student who would never have gotten into an Ivy League college under the old network, and he excelled and became president of the Harvard Law Review.  Let me tell you having been through law school -- even at far less elite schools being the president of your school's law review is a _Big Deal!_  Add Harvard onto that, and this is again just an attack because of the man's race.

People can disagree with the president's policies but these kinds of attacks are harking back to America's great sin, and nothing good can come of this.

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