In a message dated 12/12/03 4:00:58 AM Eastern Standard Time,
owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca writes:
<< From: Kerry Schooley <
gsp.schoo@skylinc.net>
Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Chandler, Hammett &
bravery
At 09:08 PM 10/12/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>So let's appreciate them for what they are and not
burden them with more
>attitudes than they had in real life--and they had
more than a
>sufficiency. Let's
>judge them by what is on the page and not what was
in their background that
>may or may not have any significance.
How about I judge them for what's on the page and sift
through their
backgrounds to try to understand influences on what got
put on the page?
>>
If you think I was speaking against such sifting, let me
correct the record.
I think it is interesting and potentially enlightening
to conduct such examinations. Do it all the time myself.
Great fun and sometimes I think it improves my understanding
of a piece of fiction. I don't think it is fair to visit on
the writer attitudes or actions that others may have brought
to the discussion. The "others" applicable to this situation
begin with Black Mask editor Joseph Shaw who angered some
writers as he insisted they all pattern themselves on
Hammett. Gardner especially was annoyed by Shaw and pointed
out (to Chandler among others) that the magazine was
publishing good hardboiled fiction prior to Shaw becoming
editor.
While it doesn't improve or diminish the quality of the story
"Rear Window" to know that Cornell Woolrich spent years of
his life observing life through a hotel window, it is a neat
thing to know and I'm glad that I know it. And yes, Cornell
did have a life prior to retreating to the hotel rooms. I've
got Nevins' doorstop of a book in some box or other and
recall the playing with spent cartridges in Mexico as a child
story. As I recall it, very little is known about Woolrich's
early years beyond a few official records and the true or not
fragments he dropped into letters and conversations. Here is
the way that story was related by William DeAndrea in his
ENCYCLOPEDIA MYSTERIOUSA: "He spent much of his youth in
Mexico with his engineer father, with a Mexican revolution
raging nearby. He made a hobby of picking up spent cartridge
shells outside his window. We think."
The "we think" was a nice touch by DeAndrea who had the grain
of salt ready if needed.
His sad last years are reasonably well documented as he drank
himself to death and snarled at well-wishers. My favorite by
Woolrich is RENDEZVOUS IN BLACK, which reprises the plotline
of THE BRIDE WORE BLACK and improves upon it.
Richard Moore
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