Technology & Crime...

[Fabrizio Fulio - Bragoni]

Hello everybody, this is my first entry, and instead of opening with greetings, a presentation, and all that kind of old (and still useful...) crap, i decided to open this page with a poll; I'd like to know what you, readers and writers of crime fiction, think about "technology in the fiction"; I tend to leave technology out of what i write as much as i can, and look at old novels with a sort of nostalgia (writers didn't need to be reticent back then...), but on the other hand i understand the big role that objects like pcs, handelds, cell phones etc., can play in the developement / closure of the plot.
please tell me what you think...

bye for now,
fabrizio


P.S. I hope the question is clear, and i hope as well i haven't made too many mistakes (my english must be in quite a bad shape, because it's been a while since i stopped practicing...)...

[Mark Haile]

It may be an intellectual difference, but what seems to separate "noir" from the garden variety "mystery" or "crime fiction" is the very lack of technology. I heard an author once describe noir as being defined by the darkness, like chiaroscuro...

[Daniel Hatadi]

I think if technology is to be used in a story it should either be like furniture or clothing, where it isn't very noticeable. Or it should be part of the central idea of a story, but that's more for sci-fi than crime.

No rules, though. Whatever works, works.

[carole gill]

but isn't technology all relative to the time the work is set in? I mean if plot uses a pc for a character to get an email in which they learn about someone dying--where is that different than a telephone conveying the news in 1920? I think though, I know where you're going on this--you mean something else. a plot device that embraces the use of a particular object. that's interesting. I hope you get more intelligent posts than mine!