That's a pretty good breakdown of the noir and gothic genres, and an interesting discussion of how the book used the trappings of one for the purpose of another. Genre-savviness, conscious or not, is a good quality in an author.
The title of your post is a parody of anti-gun-control rhetoric, no? It's a more interesting statement than at first glance when I think about it. It has been true of some goods (alcohol and drugs), but gun control has been successfully implemented in many countries (Australia, Korea etc.) Regulation is far too context-dependent to say gun control always works or that prohibition never does, but some of that context appears to be the nature of the good, political will and government effectiveness. So the effectiveness of magic control would depend on the way that people use magic in this world and the nature of the government, among other factors.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2014-01-19 01:30 pm (UTC)The title of your post is a parody of anti-gun-control rhetoric, no? It's a more interesting statement than at first glance when I think about it. It has been true of some goods (alcohol and drugs), but gun control has been successfully implemented in many countries (Australia, Korea etc.) Regulation is far too context-dependent to say gun control always works or that prohibition never does, but some of that context appears to be the nature of the good, political will and government effectiveness. So the effectiveness of magic control would depend on the way that people use magic in this world and the nature of the government, among other factors.