Another time I asked the Dog about his first bood, "Brown's
Requiem." "Too
Chander-esque" was his reply. And he's right -- it is. As a
matter of fact,
almost ANY first person private eye book is Chander-esque!
His influence is
so powerful, invariably, one starts writing like him -- with
the same kind
of ironic detached description, the retorts, etc.. Not only
that, most
fictional PI's end up BEING MARLOWE themselves -- few writers
have been able
to escape that characterization. Elvis Cole, etc, so many of
the
contemporary guys are just Marlowe in disguise.
They're also essentially sentimental and false, to my mind,
all these PI's.
There's no real relation to reality, in terms of technique,
or even the
crimes. It's amazing that Chandler's even viewed as
hardboiled, because in
real life he was so namby-pamby. He knew next to nothing
about cops and
crime. Let's face it -- if you've read "Long Goodbye," even
the story is
mediocre -- and sentimental, to boot. What's good, of course
is the writing.
And that was enough, at least for Chander. He often talked
about the
difference between "writers" and "hacks," or whatever. Okay,
the story in
"The Big Sleep" was good -- but Chander had to combine early
short stories
just to get there. He re-used everything, because he had
trouble coming up
with a decent story. Although, his language, tone and style
are so
intoxicating -- he continues to inspire generations of crime
writers -- even
the ones who haven't read him.
So, back to Ellroy. I think he made a conscious decision to
break out of the
Chandler mode, in all ways -- so he created a psychotic cop
named Lloyd
Hopkins, who was more insane and out of control than any
criminal. This is
the key to Ellroy, his anti-heroes. Hopkins, of "Blood On The
Moon" etc, is
Ellroy's version of the serial character readers always want
-- of course,
he was much more than they bargained for. And as Ellroy wrote
more, he wrote
larger books, and his voice evolved to such an extent that
there's little of
Chander left in him. (which is more than can be said for 90
percent of the
"hardboiled" writers out there.) Except, of course, those
annoying elements
of sentimentality, of which even Ellroy is not exempt.
But the real key to Ellroy's "dissing" Chander? His ambition.
Ellroy wants
to be the greatest crime writer who ever lived. And if he's
going to achieve
that, he must vanquish all the titans, Chandler first and
foremost. Ellroy's
inflammatory statements are all part of his insatiable
self-promotion. Don't
take them to heart. They must be taken with a grain of salt.
Because even
Ellroy, though he's loathe to admit it, was once very much
under Chandler's
spell, just like everybody else.
Sorry for rambling, but it's been fun ...
Dave
Jay Gertzman wrote:
> In an interview with Amazon.Com, the excellent
virtual bookstore, James
> Ellroy states "I don't think Chandler knew much about
people. . . . I
> think that we wrote the man he wanted to be . . . .
[his] noble loner
> character was bull----. Solipsistic and
self-pitying." It seems to be
> that Marlowe is slipsistic, all right, and he does
seem very ready to
> defend himself against charges that he is a mercenary
in any way, but
> Marlowe also seems to be able to face clearly his
limitations and he
> does seem to take a lot of physical and psychological
grief to make a
> statement about corruption. I wonder if anyone who
knows more about
> Ellroy than I do can explain what Ellroy might have
meant--or why in
> grneral he does not respect Chandler's work. It seems
to me that
> Marowe's conservative morality, especially when it
comes to vices such
> as pornography, gambling or prostitution, are much
closer to what might
> be called bedrock American values than those of many
"noire" or "hard
> boiled" characters.
> --
>
>
*********************************************************
> Jay A. Gertzman Professor of English, Mansfield
U.
> 68 Brooklyn St. 717-662-4587
> Mansfield, PA 16933 FAX 717-662-4126
> jgertzma@epix.net
>
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