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Alex
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1 year ago
in Berlin Noir on newcritics
"I don’t remember that Gunther was trained as a lawyer. Is that mentioned in the first three books and I missed it?"
Yes, I believe it's in the first book where Gunther mentions that he has a law degree. Law degrees were (and are) very common in Germany and continental Europe as preparations for many careers - Proust and Kafka both had them, for example.
Yes, I believe it's in the first book where Gunther mentions that he has a law degree. Law degrees were (and are) very common in Germany and continental Europe as preparations for many careers - Proust and Kafka both had them, for example.
1 year ago
in Berlin Noir on newcritics
I've owned the trilogy for many years, and I have to say that the three books (and the most recent fourth one) have tended to descend in my estimation over time.
1. I just don't buy Gunther as a character. He just doesn't hold together: he's a university-trained attorney from a well-placed family, who was initially a member of a very prestigious government department (if I remember, the Foreign Service?). It's very unlikely he would interpret his Weimar descent into becoming a police officer positively (he claims this in the books, but it doesn't really make sense), and becoming a private investigator would just about drive him crazy. He's not an American with our loose sense of class, he's a (previously) high-status German born and educated under the Wilhemine Reich (i.e. Gunther is precisely in the class of people who most supported the Nazi party).
2. Pretty clearly, the other characters don't understand Gunther precisely because he's so anomalous - his career just doesn't make sense. Unless he was a Communist (essentially an unbelievable thing for a high-ranking police officer to be), which he clearly isn't. He's not fond of the Weimar regime, either and, later in the series, is extremely skeptical of the post-war regime. Which makes it totally unclear why he does what he does - he's not proceeding on trying to survive, yet, he becomes a highly placed SS officer when he could have escaped at multiple previous points in his life. He seems to have no coherent or clear politics (remember, he has a doctorate in law, worked in the government, lived in a politics soaked time and seems to be extremely intelligent - he's not the lug from the lower classes that most American hard-boiled PIs are) yet he behaves as if he's heroic.
3. Noir in it's core is a Left critique of capitalist societies. I.E. they end badly (or at least not very positively) partially because capitalism is wrong. Kerr's four books generally show Gunther prospering though the course of the four books, even though Gunther is a relatively honest and just character living in literally the worst regime ever in noir's eyes (he continually gets promoted, he survives the war and becomes a hotel operator by the fourth book).
1. I just don't buy Gunther as a character. He just doesn't hold together: he's a university-trained attorney from a well-placed family, who was initially a member of a very prestigious government department (if I remember, the Foreign Service?). It's very unlikely he would interpret his Weimar descent into becoming a police officer positively (he claims this in the books, but it doesn't really make sense), and becoming a private investigator would just about drive him crazy. He's not an American with our loose sense of class, he's a (previously) high-status German born and educated under the Wilhemine Reich (i.e. Gunther is precisely in the class of people who most supported the Nazi party).
2. Pretty clearly, the other characters don't understand Gunther precisely because he's so anomalous - his career just doesn't make sense. Unless he was a Communist (essentially an unbelievable thing for a high-ranking police officer to be), which he clearly isn't. He's not fond of the Weimar regime, either and, later in the series, is extremely skeptical of the post-war regime. Which makes it totally unclear why he does what he does - he's not proceeding on trying to survive, yet, he becomes a highly placed SS officer when he could have escaped at multiple previous points in his life. He seems to have no coherent or clear politics (remember, he has a doctorate in law, worked in the government, lived in a politics soaked time and seems to be extremely intelligent - he's not the lug from the lower classes that most American hard-boiled PIs are) yet he behaves as if he's heroic.
3. Noir in it's core is a Left critique of capitalist societies. I.E. they end badly (or at least not very positively) partially because capitalism is wrong. Kerr's four books generally show Gunther prospering though the course of the four books, even though Gunther is a relatively honest and just character living in literally the worst regime ever in noir's eyes (he continually gets promoted, he survives the war and becomes a hotel operator by the fourth book).
1 year ago
in The Shamus’ Back To College Edition! on newcritics
Most Screwed Up College Professor:
Dr. Mittelfinger (Makavejev's Sweet Movie, 1974).
Docteur Genessier in Franju's Eyes Without a Face (1960).
Faust in Murnau's Faust (1926).
Dr. Nagel in Strange Behavior (1981).
Funniest College Movie:
I Flunked, But.....(Ozu, 1930)
Most Bullshit in a College Bull Session: La Chinoise (Godard, 1967).
Dr. Mittelfinger (Makavejev's Sweet Movie, 1974).
Docteur Genessier in Franju's Eyes Without a Face (1960).
Faust in Murnau's Faust (1926).
Dr. Nagel in Strange Behavior (1981).
Funniest College Movie:
I Flunked, But.....(Ozu, 1930)
Most Bullshit in a College Bull Session: La Chinoise (Godard, 1967).
1 year ago
in The Shamus’ Back To College Edition! on newcritics
Most Likely to Be Expelled from Part-Time Language School: Odile, Franz and Arthur in Band a part (Godard, 1964).
Most Surprisingly Disappointing Post-Graduate Career: Harold Diddlebock in The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (Preston Sturges, 1947).
Worst College: Gueron University in The Crimson Rivers (Kassovitz, 2000)
close runner-up: Unnamed Germany university in Frank Borzage's The Mortal Storm (1940)
Student who most wants to drop out:
Kiyoshi in Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth (1960)
Most Surprisingly Disappointing Post-Graduate Career: Harold Diddlebock in The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (Preston Sturges, 1947).
Worst College: Gueron University in The Crimson Rivers (Kassovitz, 2000)
close runner-up: Unnamed Germany university in Frank Borzage's The Mortal Storm (1940)
Student who most wants to drop out:
Kiyoshi in Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth (1960)
