Mat wrote in response to my post about slang:
>True, of course, but i think the thrust of the fred
was that some hb writers
>overuse (and perhaps create) slang to such an extent
that it isn't/wasn't
>smooth reading even on the day it was published - I
can't know, of
>course, but I
>suspect this is the case with some passages in
Harvest, where it seems very
>close to parody or perhaps self-parody. Or just a guy
with a deadline.
But in that same post I had already stated that "Of course,
like anything a writer uses in forging his own style
(violence, sex, pop culture references, political opinions,
brand names, technical data, whatever), slang can be
over-used, but in the right hands any of these can add
considerable weight and texture to a book."
It's been a while since I've re-read RED HARVEST, and maybe
Hammett does overdo it, but I stand by my original contention
that a narrator in hard-boiled fiction should, as Chandler
put it, "talk as the man of his age talks."
Like, fred?
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