dallas noir (a brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

Even as a kid, I was the one who was more interested in the B movie than the double feature headliner at our local drive-in theater. That's because the B movie was often the one with the "noir."

Noir is a story style that usually involves at least one dead person, murdered by someone wanting something that dead person owned, controlled, or had access to. Think: The Maltese Falcon. There is almost always a tough-talking protagonist seeking the truth, along with some complicated chemistry ("sparkage") between the protagonist and a suspect. Think: Mike Hammer.

I like noir.

Seems like I was always having to stay up late to see the B movie or catch the late, late show. But that's when I could see the hard-boiled detective (private or police) wade through the miasma of half-truths and red herrings on the way to ferreting out the perpetrator. This may be why I am a night owl.

I like noir so much, I recently made a pilgrimage to the Half-Price Books mother ship in north Dallas to attend the pre-release event for a new anthology called "dallas noir." This is the 60-th release from Akashic Books in a series with titles like boston noir, mumbai noir, and wall street noir (lower case all intentional). Future editions include such destinations as Baghdad, Stockholm, and Jerusalem.

The evening did not disappoint. Not only could I purchase the book in advance of public release, the editor and ten of the authors were on hand! I stood, transfixed, as author after author discussed his/her story, the what and why of it, and how they chose that particular Dallas neighborhood in which to set it. A little bit of heaven for a noir lover.

As the term implies, these are dark stories. I've spent more than a little time trying to sort out just what it is that draws me to them. A few years ago, after considering and dismissing one reason after another, I decided it was this: almost every story has at its center a knight-in-tarnished-armor who struggles against that darkness, perhaps personally, perhaps professionally, and not always succeeding . . . but never giving up.

Now, in this week's Lectionary selections, I find another reason. With all its darkness (commandments are broken, deadly sins are everywhere), each noir story serves up a dramatic illustration of what can happen when we forget something important: The idea that we control the flow of wealth is an illusion, and attempts to take it from others always leads to a dark place. When this life is measured in decades that can usually be counted on the fingers of two hands, the very concept of "possession" must be called into question.

True, while we're here, we are to be good stewards of what has been entrusted to us. And while stewarding these trusts, we are to do so in recognition of this truth:

‘The silver and gold are mine,’ says the Lord who rules over all. (Haggai 2:8)


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http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu

READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 27 (32) (November 10, 2013)

Haggai 1:15b-2:9
Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21 or Psalm 98
Job 19:23-27a
Psalm 17:1-9
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
Luke 20:27-38

Can you be with us Friday morning? We're still meeting at 8:00 at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. The food is tasty and the coffee is hot.

Oh, and their dark roast is superb :-)

Enjoy the week!
Steve

Passing Away

Passing Away (a brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

I have never been very good at endings.

I remember reading a comment one author made about his craftwork where he indicated he thought he wrote good beginnings and great middles, but that he had trouble with endings. Man! Do I get that! When I am in the flow of it; when my characters are doing interesting things, going interesting places, speaking interesting dialog ... it is SO hard to shut the door on that.

But it is not just in the realm of writing that I have this challenge. I hate to come to the end of the books I'm reading. Orson Scott Card, opining on the craft of writing, claimed the sad ending is not the opposite of the happy ending. He reserved that dishonor for the unsatisfying ending. And I agree.

I am coming to an ending of something that has given me great joy for several years, and I am very reluctant to be done. Some years ago I decided to read all of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels, in order. Just so you have the picture: he wrote almost 60 of these, starting in 1956 and continuing until just a few years ago (I think he published his last in 2008). This was a tall order.

Since I wanted to read them in order, I needed to start with books first published in the mid-1950's. So, part of the fun was the hunt! My family can testify that I have haunted every used book store in my path, be it in Seattle or San Diego, Boston or Kennebunk, Sitka or Quebec, Texas or DC. And, yes, I even made a point of going to 84 Charing Cross Road when I was in London. You never know where you will find that next book. And, little by little, I did find them.

Over the years, I have been with these fictional people through good times and bad. I have watched them become parents and struggled along with them as they attempted to raise their kids they best way they knew how. I was there when some of them met harm in service to the greater good, and was saddened when some of them didn't recover. [Little plug here: If you ever enjoyed an episode of Hill Street Blues, Law & Order, or NYPD Blue, you may want to take a look at these. All of those trace their roots right back to the 87th Precinct.]

But now, after all these years, I have come to the very last book. I had to skip this one, initially. I found and read the two on either side of it, but I could never locate this particular one (it came out in 1976). Oh, I could have ordered a hardcopy from one of those websites, but that was not part of the game at the time. Now, because ALL of them have become available on Kindle, I am going to read it electronically.

And I am reluctant to start. But I am going to start. And I am going to read it. Partly because I just can't stand to not know what happened. But it is also partly due to the fact that I have learned something important about endings: they aren't really endings.

They are transition points.

True; this particular thing is ending, but it leads to something else. That is the reality. What we have to do is stop looking at endings like they are stopping points, find a way to see where they lead. Because there is always a "next." There's a reason graduation is called "Commencement." It says in 1st Corinthians: "the present form of this world is passing away." And that is true. But it is only part of the truth.

There is something else coming to replace it.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Third Sunday after the Epiphany (January 22, 2012)
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Psalm 62:5-12
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20