Well, it depends on what you mean. By definition a story has
to be told, by a teller -- by definition it has some
relationship with human experience, it has to, or it's not a
'story', it's a private daydream.
But if you go to Southern California looking for Chandler's
lonely knights or Ross MacDonald's confused generations
killing each other I think, again, you're missing the point.
These are private worlds. What makes FAREWELL, MY LOVELY such
a great book is that coheres so beautifully within itself, it
is complete, or as near as dammit, anyway.
(This is one main reason why I've always liked Spillane. For
all of his real flaws, his vision is absolutely distinctive.
To paraphrase something Kingsley Amis, of all people, once
said of Spillane, just because you wouldn't want to actually
live in that world doesn't mean it hasn't been superbly
brought to life.)
Didn't this whole discussion start from Altman's version of
LONG GOODBYE. I don't like Altman and have never seen the
movie, but I understand it to be a revisionist take on the
Chandler character, no? Revisionism is a lazy man's crutch
for insight: pointing out that Marlowe, or characters like
him, are romantic idealized figures that could never exist in
a
"heroic way", anyway, in reality seems to me, again, to miss
the point.
doug
--- Michael Robison <
miker_zspider@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Doug Bassett wrote:
>
> Art is experiential, it only has meaning
within
> itself, and if this or that artwork fails --
and
> most
> do -- they fail within themselves, they
present
> incoherent experiences.
>
> **********
> Only meaningful within itself? I couldn't
disagree
> more. I believe just the opposite. Art only
has
> meaning in its reflection and relationship to
the
> world outside its pages, the world of
human
> experience.
>
> miker
>
>
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo!
Mail
> beta.
> http://new.mail.yahoo.com
>
Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
____________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by "Green
Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 23 Feb 2007 EST