Todd quoted this:
Evan Hunter: I came to Chandler when I was very young and
loved him, of course, but I loved him for the very things I
learned not to like later on. Sentimentality about the city,
sexy women sliding toward you [wonder if he meant to say
sidling, or perhaps did and was mistranscribed].--all this
stuff would appeal to an adolescent. Late on when I began to
reread him to see what had so captivated me, I really found a
great many flaws in the writing.
Elmore Leonard: I agree with Evan. I didn't learn anything at
all from Chandler, or from Dashiell Hammett.
************* Interesting comments, Todd. I wonder what
Hunter thought about Hemingway? I haven't read a lot of the
transition detective stuff between Hammett's RED HARVEST and
MALTESE FALCON and Chandler's THE BIG SLEEP, but from one to
the other I see a big shift in the hardboiled nature of the
detectives. The Con Op and Sam Spade are hard as nails all
the time. Marlowe more closely resembles Heming- way's heroes
(Jake Barnes comes to mind), tough in public but tor- tured
in private by inner demons. Those thoughtful moments alone
must be what Hunter is calling sentimentality.
I liked his comment about Chandler's stuff appealing to an
adolescent. Joyce Carol Oates used the same technique in her
critique of James Cain in Madden's TOUGH GUY WRITERS OF THE
THIRTIES. Don't just take shots at the writer. Demean the
writer's fans too. ;-) Gotta love it.
miker
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