Alan,
Re your comments below:
> It's not easy to write naturally. In the
development
> of a naturalistic
> American prose style Hammett anticipated and in
my
> view surpassed Hemingway (who
> took it too far and made it,
paradoxically,
> artificial). The care that Hammett
> took in perfecting this so-called natural style
can
> be seen in his extensive
> stylistic revisions to the original version of
Red
> Harvest, mentioned on this
> list just recently.
True, but it was a natural voice with Hammett, not one that
had to be developed in spite of the English public school
education that Chandler had, and, to some degree, had to
overcome.
And please understand, I'm not saying Chandler's BETTER than
Hammett. I'm saying he's more influential.
> While Chandler's more ornamental
> (some call it baroque) style
> is charming, it's a smaller achievement and
one
> which led to self-parody in
> his own work and cliche in those that imitated
him.
> And, of course, Hammett
> didn't need to make glossaries of slang terms,
he
> knew them first-hand.
That's sort of my point. Chandler had to work harder to
achieve an authentic American voice than Hammett did. And he
certainly had to work harder to make the details of detective
work convincing because he didn't have the background and
experience Hammett did.
> Hammett's influence may be less visible because
it's
> more pervasive, extending far
> beyond detective fiction.
Since Chandler was most influenced by Hammett, and tried to
emulate Hammett, you may have a point. But Chandler's
influence is the most obvious.
> As far as the private detective convention goes:
The
> Maltese Falcon was
> published in 1930. Chandler started publishing
in
> 1933. Does anyone know whether
> anyone preceded Hammett in this?
In terms of the private eye stories at novel length, Hammett
himself preceded THE MALTESE FALCON in RED HARVEST and THE
DAIN CURSE (and, arguably BLOOD MONEY). Carroll John Daly's
THE SNARL OF THE BEAST predates all of them.
As far as the pardigm I referred to earlier, Chandler was not
the first one to come up with ANY of those traits. As far as
I can determine, he IS the first to put them all together in
a single character, but even if he isn't, the point is that
everyone who came after Chandler followed that model because
Chandler did.
Sam Spade in THE MALTESE FALCON does not fit the paradigm in
a number of respects. He's not (at least at the beginning of
the novel) operating a one-man agency. He's not an ex-cop.
And, most importantly in terms of reader expectations, he's
not a first-person narrator.
Again, let me reiterate, I'm not saying Chandler's better.
I'm saying that, for better or for worse, he's the more
influential. Or at least, the more OBVIOUSLY
influential.
JIM DOHERTY
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