30.3.21

A Concise Definition of Crime Noir

Crime Noir is about the corruption of codes. The hero has his own code and damn the rest because all other codes are corrupt. All true moral impulses are individual, internal. External moral impulses are always corrupt – that is induced by fear. The fear can be physical, metaphysical or social (jail, hell, ostracism). The hero rejects any imposition of outside moral values because he will not be cowed by fear. Not fear of death, not of loneliness, not by loss of freedom, or punishment in the hereafter. 

This sets the hero apart. He is a loner. A law unto himself. Only the strength of his own moral resolve separates him from the criminals he hunts.