Where to Begin

"...[I]t was only when I sweated my way into it that I realized one of the most fundamental rules of comics storytelling: start the story as late as possible."
~ Mark Waid at Kung Fu Monkey

On The Edge

"Thematically, film noir examines the role of the individual within a diseased modern society. The issues of noir films are alienation, entrapment within a powerful industrial system, paranoia, fatalism and inevitable doom of mankind. In a sense, one can argue that film noir is a psychological examination of modern man’s existence. And along the way it thrills the audience. Film noir forces the viewer to think and grapple with its themes. Viewing a film noir is not a passive experience, rather, it is active and sometimes quite disturbing. The characters of noir live on the edge and take the audience along with them."
~ Tony Kashani, "Film Noir Form and Content," from Chapter 12 of Deconstructing the Mystique

Only States of Being

"I despise stories, as they mislead people into believing that something has happened. In fact, nothing really happens as we flee from one condition to another. Because today there are only states of being -- all stories have become obsolete and clichéd, and have resolved themselves. All that remains is time. This is probably the only thing that's still genuine -- time itself: the years, days, hours, minutes and seconds."
~ Béla Tarr
[via Spurious]

__________

About Béla Tarr:
"Hope Deep Within - Béla Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies," by Gabe Klinger
"The Melancholy of Resistance: The Films of Béla Tarr," by Peter Hames

Fate

"This is probably what we mean by the term 'fate'; were it not inevitable, we would not employ that term; we would, instead, speak of bad luck. We would talk about accidents. With fate there is no accident; there is intent. And there is relentless intent, closing in from all directions at once, as if the person's very universe is shrinking. Finally, it holds nothing but him and his sinister destiny. He is programmed against his will to succumb, and, in his efforts to thrash himself free, he succumbs even faster, from fatigue and despair. Fate wins, then, no matter what."
~ Philip K. Dick, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982)

See also:
PKD Official Site

Sifting

"In the traditional detective genre, the protagonist must sift through competing narratives to uncover the truth. In these ontoteleological films, the protagonist must sift through the multitude of subjective states to realize the self. Chris Nolan's Memento, Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, and John Woo's Paycheck all feature protagonists who must discover their identities through the course of the narrative (although each director approaches this in different ways and with different levels of cinematic success)."
~ Davin Heckman, "Unraveling Identity: Watching the Posthuman Bildungsroman"

Corrupt Heart

"The detective story aims to represent, within the pride of bourgeois progress, the corrupt heart of the city. This corruption is both hidden and pervasive, but it exists everywhere that modernity exists."
~ Davin Heckman, "Unraveling Identity: Watching the Posthuman Bildungsroman"