In a message dated 11/19/2002 11:39:02 AM Eastern Standard
Time,
kvnsmith@thrillingdetective.com writes:
> Chandler juvenile? Compared with Thompson and
Ellroy? Evidently
> gratuitous crudeness and offensiveness are signs
of
> maturity.
I stopped midway through my 1930's reading list to re-read
Chandler's THE LADY IN THE LAKE. Even though Chandler later
is supposed to have said that this one was his only novel
that he could never re-read, I still find it poetic and
moving. Chandler paints his characters as real people even
when they're the bad guys or the "good" guys, or somewhere
in-between. To me they're interesting, even when they're
minor. Perhaps this is because Marlowe is so observant and
Chandler's descriptions so detailed, I'm not sure.
Why would Chandler be "juvenile"? Because Marlowe is
basically a good guy, cynical, jaded, but not as flawed or
corrupt as an Ellroy character? I would hardly think that
makes him juvenile.
Steven Harbin
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 19 Nov 2002 EST