Richard Moore wrote:
You favor MacDonald on the basis of his better skill handling
"antagonists, protagonists, and minor Characters" and say
that Chandler's characterizations
"aside from Marlowe" were flat and two-dimensional.
For the sake of argument, granting every point in the
above paragraph about MacDonald's better antagonists,
protagonists, etc., I am intrigued that your praise does not
include the character Lew Archer. For myself, I've always
found Lew Archer a bit, well, two- dimensional, certainly
hazy in comparison to the various fully-drawn protagonists
and antagonists.
************ My earlier comments were only about the relative
influence of Macdonald, Chandler, and Hammett upon the genre,
not who is the better writer.
I've only read Macdonald's THE DARK TUNNEL and THE
ZEBRA-STRIPED HEARSE, but in neither of those did I see any
major paradigm shift away from Chandler. I saw no big
difference in the significance or quality of the characters,
either.
The biggest change I see in Macdonald's work is a shift in
the spotlight away from the detective narrator, possibly
related to Richard's description of Lew Archer as hazy and
two-dimensional, and I see that as more of a questionable
experiment than a major influence on the genre.
>From what little I've read of Robert Parker, I see
no
big gap between Marlowe and Spenser that can only be bridged
by Lew Archer.
Although I am poorly read in the genre (compared to everybody
else in rara-avis), my personal experience tells me that Ross
Macdonald's influence on the genre is vastly overrated. I am
not saying Macdonald is a poor writer, and I'm not saying he
had no influence, but I am saying that his influence is in no
way close to that of Hammett and Chandler.
miker
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 30 Nov 2004 EST