Jim wrote
"I've read all of Hammett, but none twice. I've read tons of
Macdonald, Parker, Stout, Timothy Harris, McBain, but none of
their works twice. Whereas I've read everything of Chandler's
at least three times, with full intention of doing it again
if I live long enough. And trust me, it's not because I can't
remember the plots! Chandler simply transports me to a world
of painful, poetic, melancholy idealism that I find nowhere
else, and I would rather be there than just about anywhere.
And if that's not excellent writing, I might just prefer it
to excellent writing."
Jim, this is a great description of how I feel about
Chandler's writing. And you're right, it's not the plots,
it's the characters and world he creates. Though I have
reread Hammett and Macdonald, not nearly as often as I have
Chandler.
Mark
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 20 Apr 2001 EDT