5/13/2023 0 Comments Black top wasteland![]() ![]() Still, Blacktop Wasteland subverts fewer tropes than it fulfills, and some of these fulfilled tropes become thematic linchpins. Lou Ellen, in turn, subverts the trope wherein the femme fatale’s “victim” is a man. Additionally, the femme fatale-Jenny-uses sexual charm to hoodwink not the protagonist but a relatively peripheral character, Lou Ellen. The novel’s trope subversions include the rural setting, as most noir is urban. Blacktop Wasteland, Cosby’s first novel with a major publisher, continues to perfect his highly original voice and perspective, dramatizing the complexities and contradictions of rural. There is a sense of inescapable fatedness and a grim view of society and capitalism. Likewise, many quandaries remain unanswered, symbolizing the ambiguity (or unsolvability) of the human condition. The novel’s setting is also typical of noir insofar as it’s a corrupt and violent world that, even after the protagonist triumphs (or at least survives), remains corrupt and violent. As with much noir literature, Cosby’s novel pits a disenchanted underdog against long odds. While noir resists a tidy definition, it usually presents a loose constellation of distinctive traits. ![]()
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