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Wunder​/​Noir

by Dean Kyte

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about

In his second novel “Clandestine” (1982), Angeleno crime writer James Ellroy appropriates the flâneurial concept of ‘the wonder’ to explore an ambitious patrolman’s secret relationship to L.A.

In this essay, Melbourne writer Dean Kyte uses vintage stock footage of L.A. to reflect on the intersection of flânerie and the film noir æsthetic in Ellroy’s novel.

Watch the video on Vimeo:
vimeo.com/894361312

lyrics

On page 1 of “Clandestine”, James Ellroy writes: ‘The fifties weren’t a more innocent time. The dark salients that govern life today were there then, only they were harder to find. That was why I was a cop....’

Ellroy writes of ‘the wonder’ of L.A. ‘The wonder’, for Ellroy, is both chance and madness; and the insane human contest—la comédie humaine, la danse macabre—to conquer them both. It’s the hidden mystery in back of an arrested life—the ‘inside knowledge’, property of the cop, of how the proseprosodic poker machine of Los Angeles works.

More than the licence of the Marlovian P.I., the flick’s shield, his ‘Badge of Honor’, is his droit de cité, an allareas access pass to the backstage psychogeographic wonder of the noir.

credits

released December 14, 2023
eaglechopper: “Transportation » Tram stop ambience - Traffic”
freesound.org/people/eaglechopper/sounds/237997/
(CC 0)

Internet Archive: “IA 35000032 004”
archive.org/details/ia35000032004
(CC BY 2.0, changes made)

Internet Archive: “IA 35000034 002”
archive.org/details/ia35000034002
(CC BY 2.0, changes made)

mmplisskin: “Los Angeles morning Ambience.WAV”
freesound.org/people/mmplisskin/sounds/254229/
(CC 0)

stomachache: “Los Angeles (South Bay) Police and Fire Scanner”
freesound.org/people/stomachache/sounds/273161/
(CC 0)

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all rights reserved

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about

Dean Kyte Melbourne, Australia

Dean Kyte is a writer, filmmaker and flâneur.

His CD of prose poetry and literary crime fiction, “The Spleen of Melbourne”, is available on BC.

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