COMPLETE Creative Writer, Creative Literary Noir

Creative Writer, Creative Literary Noir

By Jacob Malewitz

Just what do I mean by literary noir? It’s not quite crime noir, but it has elements of it. It’s more of the modern way of literary writing, the kind that brings out interest in it. This sort of literary noir—which is my own thought—seems to be growing in the literary world, where phrases like metafiction are the new wave. It can be fun, it can be boring. This article makes it fun.

Creatively, some writers go to far. For one, the novel is a purely creative act. The problem is you can be far too creative with stories. I once interviewed a novelist, who noted that comic books, which can be literary noir too, are often more about high art than entertaining loyal fans. Loyal fans should be entertained. The likes of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Frank Miller can make all the literary noir they can; they’re good at it. Other writers see art as a vessel of some kind, a vessel for winning awards and … well may that is a rant. Let’s get back to literary noir.

I see some of my favorite writers as people who understand literary noir. I have read some John Udpike, too much Paul Auster, and far too much horror noir. I see these as lessons, lessons on what the creative mind can do. If anyone created literary noir, this thinking game where characters are obtuse and odd and mysterious, I might point toward the writer of “Frankenstein” or the author of “Don Coyote,” two classics which, with all their facets, are vastly cerebral works of prose.

It can all be boring. The point is rather simple, as far away as it seems. A creative writer, all creative writers, will toy with literary noir on some level. It’s not quite high art. In short, it’s entertaining readers while also showing them that the words on the page can dance too, that the words will dance with you on the odd days … and there are many odd days.