--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Kevin Burton Smith
<kvnsmith@t...> wrote:
> I wrote:
>
> >"I'm not sure if anyone else has added much more
really new to the
P.I.
> >genre since, though, with the arguable exception
of Robert B.
Parker.
> >Oh, there have been some great P.I. writers, but
to be considered
> >influential, you also have to sell beyond a
small cult audience,
and
> >capture the imagination of the general
public."
>
> And Mark wrote:
>
> >If the general public is the criterion, maybe
the arena has
shifted to
> >TV -- Rockford? Magnum?
>
> Well, certainly Rockford, created by Stephen J.
Cannell and Roy
> Huggins, influenced a boatload of P.I. writers (just
as Huston,,
> Dmytryk, Lang and other filmmakers did in their
era). But Cannell
and
> Huggins' Rockford appeared approximately the same
time as Parker's
> Spenser, so it's hard to say who really knocked the
lone wolf P.I.
> thing off its solemn pedestal, and upped the
wisecracks.
>
> Magnum was just Lance White without the wit, the
charm or the great
writing.
>
> But my point was that for a writer to be really
considered
> influential, he has to have really influenced other
writers, not
just
> been enjoyed by them. so, while I think someone like
Crumley, for
> example, is a damn good writer, I'm not sure he's
really influenced
> many other writers. Inspired them, maybe, but not
necessarily
> influenced them.
>
> --
>
> Kevin
Well, I am not a uncritical fan of either Ross Macdonald or
James Crumley. But regardless of nits I might pick about this
novel or that novel, the influence of Ross Macdonald on so
many mystery/crime writers of the last 40 some odd years
seems over-whelmingly apparent to me. At his best, Ross
Macdonald was a damn fine writer (and he pegged the needle at
his best often)and regardless of whether I might rank him
first, second, third or sixth in GOAT rankings (Greatest Of
All Time), I have to rank him third on influence after
Chandler and Hammett.
Who would (IMHO) be his closest rival for third? Spillane,
perhaps. Again, this is a ranking of most influential, not
favorite or highest consistant quality. Influence.
I mentioned Crumley as a major modern influence as a
top-of-my head counter suggestion to that of James Sallis. I
first read Sallis in the SF digests of the early 1970s, and
then I read his book on guitar players, and I have since read
his bio of Chester Himes and his DIFFICULT LIVES about Jim
Thompson, David Goodis, and Himes, and yes, I've read his
mysteries. I am a Jim Sallis junkie. But friends, I hate to
say this but that is not a super-large group of folks. We are
select, we are elite, we are proud...but we are small in
number.
And I suspect, alas, that a majority of (to pick a group at
random) the Mystery Writers of America have never read our
main man Sallis. It is their loss.
It may even be that a majority of MWA members may not have
read James Crumley...but that is harder to imagine. Crumley
is mentioned repeatedly by other writers as an influence. A
few days ago I quoted Laura Lipman saying that when mystery
writers gather, Crumley is on everyone's short list for the
Hall of Fame. I quoted her because she was stating something
that was also my experience. I could have quoted Pelacanos or
any number of other writers who have publically stated their
admiration.
I've heard it enough that I believe them. Maybe 75% of it is
THE LAST GOOD KISS but all we are measuring is
influence...the overall body of work and the average quality
level, and etc. is not the measure here. There was one novel
for certain and two or three afterwards to a lesser degree
that blew the socks off the readers. And the impact was such
that it was (I think) hard for a writer coming afterwards to
not be influenced by Crumley.
This is said despite the fact that I would not place Crumley
in my personal top five mystery writers and he would be
unlikely to make my top ten (if I ever draw up such a
list).
Richard Moore
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