I First Assignment:

Both writers in "The Kidnapper Bell" and "City of Commerce" use the Los Angeles landscape in their stories to give a real sense of space to their readers.  In his story "The Kidnapper Bell," Jim Pascoe surrounds his story at the Los Angeles river. Similarly in "City of Commerce," Neal Pollack steers us through the city streets of Los Angeles referencing the 110, the 5, and the 101; he also references Chinatown, Echo Park and familiar Los Angeles streets such as Riverside Drive. Pollack also has a lot of detail that brings a sense of space, that if you weren't familiar with LA you might not catch, including Nick's Dodgers baseball cap, and the variety of people sitting at the poker "Korean ladies, old dudes who bore the perfume and hairstyle of late-era William S. Burroughs, a couple of Persian frat boys from UCLA and a pockmarked cholo..." perfectly engulfing the melting pot LA is known as. Though the "The Kidnapper Bell" does focus on a prime LA location, I feel "City of Commerce" is more detailed and really allows the reader to distinguish exactly where the story is taking place.  I think both writers do a good job on allowing the audience to picture LA.


Second Assignment:

In "The Gold Coast" section, I feel the story that would best classify as noir would be "The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones" by Scott Phillips.  Tate would be the protagonist lusting after our Femme Fatale Cherie.  Cherie is the classic Femme Fatale, beautiful, seductive, all the guys want her, "we get guys all the time with crushes on her." (289)  She lures Tate in with sex and then reveals to him her dirty little secret and makes him do the clean-up. Good thing he is smart enough not to completely fall into her trap.  The story that I found most challenging to classify as noir would be "What You See" by Diana Wagman.  I felt Gabe was very odd and creepy in the way he kept fantasizing and talking to himself about Terrell.  I didn't really feel like this story would classify as noir at all except in the fact it had a guy and girl main character which sort of fits with noir fashion, however Terrell would not classify as the Femme Fatale type and Gabe, although he is smitten with Terrell, is no way seduced by her to commit a crime.  He actually sort of persuades her to their demise, though he is oblivious to the danger at first.