Thanks to whoever mentioned the connection between Chandler
and the importance of "hope" in truly effective hard-boiled
fiction. Chandler knew what he was talking about. However
much we like to think of the stuff we read as bleak, dark,
unforgiving, uncomprimising, etc., the best works would not
be nearly as powerful as they are if they did not hold out
some measure of hope (or even the possibility of redemption).
Possessing the quality of hope does not mean having a happy
ending, by any means. But if there is no hope, no OUTSIDE of
the bleakness (or at least a fantasy of an outside), then the
story has nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing driving it.
This is why Chandler is for me the paradigmatic hard-boiled
writer
(though some think him soft) -- he better than anyone gives
voice to the harsh, grinding sound of ideals set against
"reality." Though he has a sense of humor and even,
occasionally, a lightness that other "hard-boiled" writer
don't (or can't), his writing always comes across to me as
deadly serious, far more serious than most, because he's
trying to say something deeply existential rather than trying
to impress you w/ superficial shows of violence and
profanity. I like both these things, but nowadays (I'm
starting to sound old for a 30-yr-old man), among putatively
"hard-boiled" writers, violence and profanity are largely
ornamental and often obfuscate rather than illuminate the
condition of the people in the story. Chandler may have
written the same book seven times, but it was damned near
perfect.
MDS
P.S. That bit about "ordinary people in extraordinary
circumstances" is most often (in my mind anyway) associated
with Cornell Woolrich, who is many things, but "hard-boiled"
is not one of them. "Noir" maybe. But who wants to revive
that tired "noir" v. "hard-boiled" thread? Not me.
Michael D. Sharp Assistant Professor Department of English
State University of New York Binghamton, NY 13902-6000 Office
Phone: (607) 777-2418 Fax: (607) 777-2408
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