Customer Reviews

America Noir: Underground Writers and Filmmakers of the Postwar Era

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As a tail-end "baby boomer" I have long been fascinated with the changes taking place in popular culture throughout my adolescent years and into adulthood. A long-time fan of MAD magazine, I never really understood the counter culture statements being made in the magazine or how they reflect society as a whole.

David Cochran's treatise, "America Noir: Underground Writers and Filmmakers of the Postwar Era" describes the propagation of a subculture which was not afraid to assert that all was not as rosy as the dominant culture would purport.

Reading the book was very much NOT like reading a novel or one of Rod Serling's short stories. To a certain extent, the book reads like a history text.

America Noir conists of five parts: The Killer Inside Me-Roman Noir Authors; Progress and Its Discontents-Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors; Outside Looking In-Minority Authors; Little Shop of Horrors-Independent Filmmakers; and Cracks in the Consensus-Liberal Artists. These five parts "connects the dots" to form a cohesive picture of the events, attitudes, and expressions which have marked the changing of American society from the period immediately following World War II to the current time.

I have a better grasp of the causes underlying the changes in society from the time I was a kid myself to now when I have adolescent kids of my own. I'm sure I will soon go out to experience some of the books and movies described in "America Noir." It is an excellent addition to my library.

As a photographer who enjoys images more than text these days. This book is so well written that one "sees" images while David Cochran unfurls text in a manner that mimics the tendencies of the writes discussed within the book itself. Cochran knows his politics, his "POST WAR ERA" history and his subjects so well that while reading I had to keep looking at the cover to remind myself why I got the book. It goes beyond the call of duty.

Because of this book, I will be able to ascertain how the current bevy of movies being made on Marvel Comics and dark subject matters stack up to the tone of the era in which they were drawn. Also, I know better why American people are in the shape they are in. With more unresloved issues and more neurosis its a wonder how we have survived this long. Thank God for the Underground Writer and Filmmakers of the Postwar Era, there are valves to let some steam off.