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FFM day 16.

Today's challenge was noir with a non-human protagonist. And let me tell you, I worked like a dog on this! First (judges) I researched the genre. Apparently anyone who thinks that noir is just another name for the usual hardboiled detective stuff is ignorant. Yeah! So here's what I found out: noir literature generally follows the villain rather than the hero; he or she is lacking a moral centre and is on a path to self destruction. Dude, I thought. This perfectly describes a male tiger!

Tigers are my favourite animals, even though they're jerks. I know a bit about them, and their relationships with other animals. This story is zoologically accurate. Basically it's a natural history lesson translated into the language of noir. I hope! I wrote it once, making it as noir as I could. Then I went through it and translated words that weren't particularly street, such as 'kids' and 'stealing' and 'gun'. Then I did it again. Worked like a dog, I tell you! And I had to do some research on Asian wildlife too, because I don't know everything.

Following on from that, a couple of references you may find confusing:
1. The Indian star tortoise has a pattern not unlike stars on its shell. (It's a metaphor, see?)
2. Apparently there is or was a superstition that owning a rhinoceros horn makes you more fertile (but it doesn't... probably).

I couldn't quite fit in any elephant imagery, but never mind. After all that, I really hope this actually is noir.

Word count: 997
Mature
© 2015 - 2024 ThornyEnglishRose
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UsamaSaeed's avatar
The words you translated into street lingo added a lot of atmosphere to this. It was a lovely read all-round.