I find it odd that readers (on this list especially) get bent
out of shape by Peter Temple's comment about Gardner and Cain
being forgotten but have not taken issue with his statement
that "Hammett's equipment was second-rate. His prose was only
slightly less wooden than that of most pulp-magazine writers,
and there is something naive about his world view." Holy
Moley! If Hammett was second-rate, where does that leave
every other crime novelist except Chandler? Makes one wonder
about Temple's opinion of his own novels, but not for very
long.
On the other subject, even if you don't much care for the
books of Gardner and Cain, to say that they have been
forgotten is an indefensible claim. Temple might have used
Ellery Queen or Rex Stout or Cornell Woolrich and given
himself some leeway, though I imagine they, too, are
remembered by many. But Gardner, like Spillane and Fleming
and Christie, has sold so many books for so long a time that
his name will probably be ringing bells into the next
millennium. And Cain, though currently out of vogue, made a
large enough contribution to the genre (paving the way for
Thompson, Goodis, Willeford, Woodrell, etc.) for him to be
remembered by most mystery readers and, one hopes, every
mystery writer.
On Chandler's influence: forgive me for mentioning last
night's television biography of Judy Garland, but the script
writer borrowed one of Chandler's best punch lines. On the
night of the Academy Awards, Garland is in a hospital about
to give birth. She and friends and family are watching the
show. She's the odds on favorite to get the Oscar. A camera
crew is there to film her acceptance. But it goes to Grace
Kelly. In their disappointment, Garland's pals begin to rag
on Kelly. She can't act. Who'd she have to sleep with to get
the award? Someone says, "I hear she's a nymphomaniac." And
Garland uses the Chandler line (unattributed, of course):
"She would be if they could calm her down a little."
Dick Lochte
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