Talk:Film Noir Monologue

Noir Monologue Overview
Given Abulafia’s collaborative environment, this is open to some degree of interpretation, but … presumably this generator aims to spew all the best clichés from the genre of hardboiled pulp-fiction crime tales that (regardless of when written) tend to be set in urban, mostly blue-collar America c. 1930–1955.

Its narrator can be seen as a mashup of Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade, Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe and (perhaps especially) Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer (character notes below). Whether our narrator is a cop, ex-cop, detective, G-man, or private investigator is unclear … but hey, this is about atmosphere, not accuracy.

A special challenge with this particular generator is that for ideal tone and flavor, its clichés be outdated by several generations; probably at least one full lifetime by now (hence the Roosevelt refs etc.). It ought not to sound current (2015).

(Much of the following was adapted from wikipedia)

Hammett’s Sam Spade

 * not an erudite riddle-solver a la Sherlock Holmes
 * “dream PI”—what most real private detectives would like to have been
 * hard, shifty, cocky—able to handle any situation
 * able to get the best of whoever he meets—client, criminal, or even bystander.

Chandler’s Philip Marlowe

 * Wisecracking, hard-drinking, tough private eye exterior.
 * Underneath, quietly contemplative and philosophical; enjoys chess and poetry.
 * Morally upright; not fooled by the genre’s usual femmes fatales.
 * Unafraid to risk physical harm, but does not dish out violence merely to settle scores.

Spillane’s Mike Hammer

 * no-holds-barred, archetypically “hard” private eye: hardboiled, misanthropic, cynical loner
 * WWII army vet; battled “Jap bastards … in the stinking slime of the jungle”.
 * his anti-crime rage fuels many violent, brutal encounters (victims often left vomiting after a blow to the stomach or groin).
 * patriotic, anti-communist, ultra-right-wing … would be homophobic (were he aware of the existence of such people)
 * always armed
 * rarely less than half-drunk
 * no friends (criminals keep killing his friends)
 * views the legal system largely as an impediment to justice (the one virtue he holds dear). Like Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry, contemptuous of “the system”’s ‘tedious process’; prefers law enforcement on his own terms.
 * mostly sympathizes with police, realizing they have a difficult job and their hands are often tied (by the law) when trying to stop criminals.