This Ross Macdonald discussion comes around every once in a
while on this list, it seems. I've said it before and I'll
say it again (or maybe I've only said it to myself, in my
head, where I do my best work): find me the BEST paragraph in
the BEST Ross Macdonald novel, and I will top it by opening
*any* of FIVE Chandler novels and plunking my finger down at
random. [though one could argue that a work must be evaluated
as a whole, not on the basis of the best paragraph, I
suppose]
Having studied Ross Macdonald, having read his letters and
papers at the archives at UC Irvine, having published an
article on him, I have developed enormous respect for him as
a man, but have come to believe without a doubt that he is
not and never was in the same league as Chandler. Those who
deny the pre-eminence of Chandler and want to give props to
RM *instead* of (rather than *in addition to*) Chandler are
simply doing what RM did his Entire Career: trying
desperately and ineffectually to get out from under the
towering, majesterial, undeniable shadow of Chandler, an
shadow which I'm sure is annoying in its length and breadth.
Not that Chandler doesn't have his faults. Even his best work
has a clunky passage or two. But no one evoked such a
compelling mood, wrote such compelling dialogue, and
generally constructed such memorable scenes as did Chandler.
In the crime fiction genre, at any rate.
HOWEVER: RM is by FAR the more "influential" writer when it
comes to contemporary P.I. novelists. As you can guess, I
don't think this is a good thing. When it comes to many if
not most contemporary P.I. novelists, allow me to generalize
Drastically: their characters are flat, their dialogue is
borrowed, their plots are twice- baked, and their P.I.'s are
far far too decent. I don't want a sympathetic narrator who
goes out of his way to play paternal role model to wayward
children whose parents neglected them and/or burdened them
with a sordid family history (the plot of every other damned
RM novel, it seems). I want a narrator with the capacity to
excite and entertain, who is somewhat unpredictable and
occasionally patently unlikable.
Most of all, I want a writer who is Not afraid to be a
Stylish writer, a stylist, even if that means writing the
occasional miserable sentence, paragraph, chapter, or entire
novel. A few of these daring writers exist. Ellroy is one of
them. I understand the various criticisms of RC and think
many of them have validity; but that doesn't change the fact
(in my opinion...) that RC is the greatest crime fiction
writer of the 20th century (with only Hammett as a viable
challenger).
Sorry if that came off like a rant. I actually rather liked
some of the stuff RM wrote under his real name, Kenneth
Millar, most notably Trouble Follows Me and The Dark
Tunnel.
Respectfully, Michael Sharp
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 30 Nov 2004 EST