On Wed, 31 Oct 2001, Mark Sullivan wrote:
> Speaking of plot, Juri, I agree that Long Goodbye is
clearer than much
> Chandler, but I figured out the gimmick
fairly
> early on and I seldom even try to figure out
whodunnit.
Neither do I. It's impossible to figure it out in some books
("The Big Sleep") and in some books it's uninteresting (I
can't think of an example, but surely there must be - maybe a
Stuar Kaminsky, whom you read for puns and Hollywood
characters).
I was thinking about the whole issue: Aside from being a
Leonardist, I'm also a Mametist: "Enter the stage late, exit
it too early." What you don't know is more interesting than
what you already know. The tensions between characters are
more tense if you don't know at the beginning what's the
catch. Robert Crais tells me too much about Carol
Starkey
(and I should add that I'm beginning to think "Demolition
Angel" is bloated). I don't get interested in her, since I
know too much.
A counter-example, not a very hardboiled one: Melville's
"Moby Dick". What makes Ahab tick? The metaphor for his
craziness is a powerful one: a missing leg. Melville needs
nothing more to get us interested in Ahab. Another example:
Hank Quinlan in "Touch of Evil". Just one passing tall-tale
about a murdered wife and that's it: the world-weary
craziness, all-embracing cynicism, recluteness. And we love
Quinlan and are worried about him and feel sorry for him in
the end.
Juri
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