It's Always Midnight in Petroleum City

A noir starter kit

​​​​Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I write about what we’ve been reading, watching, playing, and listening to, for paid subscribers. Please enjoy this free preview, and consider upgrading to support two struggling journalists at once! — Talia

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First, a heartfelt plea: it happens to be rent day and I’d really like to make this newsletter profitable — I’d like to indeed earn a living wage off it. David and I put our hearts into what we write here, but there are bills to pay, and frankly the pickings are lean. I know they are for many of you too but if you feel inclined to turn a free subscription into a paid one the button is below. Most of the content is free, but I save some things for the paywall: audio content, chats, these Sunday dispatches, today’s about noir. You can think of it as owning a small piece of me if you like; certainly I’m a bad hustler and welcome your feedback on what you’d like to see for your five or fifty bucks. Be my Medici, won’t you?

The past few weeks I’ve been immersing myself in the canon of American noir — I stopped counting at around thirty books but I kept going.