Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 16:31:10 -0400
From: Ted White <tedwhite at compusnet.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Culture hi, culture lo
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

"Strong, Lee" wrote:

>         Ted, Thank you for your explanation of "noir."  Previously, I had
> understood that the term referred to any "dark" literature, not a specific
> school.  Yah learn something new everyday.
>         Next questions, what perceived realities do "grit" and "punk" reveal
> or express?

They are not entirely analogous.  "Punk" has very specific meanings in several
social subsets. ("Punk" entered the vocabulary in the 20th century as a prison
term for a boy used for sex; "gunsel" meant the same thing before mystery
writers mistakenly used it to mean a gunman.)  The term was first applied to a
rock group called The Flaming Groovies in 1969, and then meant a "garage band"
playing stripped-down, back to basics, rock & roll.   But the term was next
associated with the MC5 and Iggy Pop & The Stooges, who gave it more of a sense
of Attitude (defiant).  Subsequently "punk" was revived for a 1976 British
movement centered on The Sex Pistols, and became a movement.  After it became a
movement (largely in rock and in fashion), the term began to be used and applied
more widely in our culture, eventually including movies.  Its use in movies is
still relatively small and has only a limited "cult status."

"Grit" is far more broadly used and has been in our vocabulary for hundreds of
years.  Think of "true grit."    It's a technical term used to grade the
fineness of sandpaper.  "Grit" has real meanings and uses and has for a long
time.   When we describe a book or movie as "gritty," we mean it has within it
the "grit" that is the sand trapped in our clothing, and analogous to sand in
gears:  annoyances and imperfections such as we experience in real life.   I
just watched the 30th Anniversary Reunion of M*A*S*H on Channel 5 last week.
M*A*S*H had lots of "grit," in both the "gritty" and the "true grit" senses --
but I wouldn't call it "noir" at all.  Would you?

--Ted White