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Re: RARA-AVIS: Ability to condense - Gault 

On Thu, 13 Feb 1997, M. Taboada wrote:

: [_The Day of the Ram_], in all of its 122 pages, sticks to the
: murder investigation without ever going into extraneous material,
: romantic or otherwise, and keeps the ball rolling in exemplary
: fashion. I am wondering if what we call "hardboiled" isn't simply
: good writing without superfluous interpolations.

I think it is.  Hammett's work is like this - and for him, extraneous
material usually includes adjectives.  Macdonald, MacDonald and
Chandler offer up comments about society and the times in general, and
McGee listens to Meyer expounding about economics, but they still
stick pretty close to the core story.  Usually social lives are kept
out of it.  I think I noted a while back that in the Paul Pine story I
was reading, at one point Pine gets some messages and says two of them
related to his social life.  That's all he says, then we're back to
the mystery.  I much prefer this to people going to talk with their
landlords or making fancy dinners for their girlfriends.

Non-detective stories, like a Jim Thompson, are different.  But even
there, everything propels the story along.  There's not much padding.

Then again, I don't remember a lot of extra material tossed in to
Agatha Christie stories, and she is certainly not hardboiled.  She
didn't write very tersely, though.  Ellery Queen I remember quoting
the classics a fair bit, as well as generally blathering on.
Economies of story and language both contribute to the style.  Look at
Orwell - his style can fit in with the hardboiled school, and he wrote
very cleanly and with little ornamentation.

: When reading Gault, I am distinctly reminded of Haydn's music in its
: economical perfection.

Do other writers remind you of other musicians or composers?  I found
Mike Hammer and Charlie Mingus went together well.  For Chandler fans
who like jazz, the Charlie Haden Quartet West CDs (there are about
five now) are must-haves.  Get _Haunted Heart_ or _Always Say Goodbye_.


Bill
-- 
William Denton : Toronto, Canada : buff@vex.net : Caveat lector.
http://www.vex.net/~buff/        <-- Anything on io.org is toast.

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