Chandler is unsurpassed in the brilliance of his metaphors
and similes and I rarely if ever find them creating
caricature. He's one of the few people who could make a
metaphor or simile truly surprising, and make it resonate
beyond a simple clever surface meaning. Chandler was faulted
in reviews for his the met/sim thing, but if you compare his
with his imitators (on my mind now is Kenneth Millar), the
latter seem sad and anemic. It's interesting, Bill, that you
say Moose "started out" seeming a caricature
... but he stayed that way in my head for only about a page
or so. You're right that "shortcutting" is often necessary,
and that it can be accomplished through comparisons of the
met/sim type ... but it's weird bec Chandler doesn't come to
mind when I think of "shortcutting," mainly because I wonder,
what would he be taking a short cut to? The plot? Chandler
didn't give two cents for the plot (for the most part), so
it's hard to think of him "shortcutting" to move it
along.
Michael
Michael D. Sharp Assistant Professor Binghamton University
(SUNY) Department of English Binghamton, NY 13902-6000
(607) 777-2418
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