RARA-AVIS: Ambivalent about Ross MacDonald, no question mark
michael david sharp (msharp@umich.edu)
Tue, 9 Mar 1999 08:11:53 -0500 (EST)
Re: the (IMO ridiculous) comparison of Chandler to MacDonald:
MacDonald
isn't susceptible to parody precisely because he is NOT
influential in the
genre in any serious, long-term way. I say this even though
I've enjoyed
many a MacDonald book. No one parodies a figure labo(u)ring in
obscurity,
which, if MacDonald wasn't then, he is now. People parody the
big guns, of
which Chandler is one, and MacDonald is not. I say this even
though
MacDonald and I are both Michigan English Ph.D.s, and as I say,
I have a
fondness for his work.
So there.
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